Peter Mattei

The Swedish baritone Peter Mattei will this winter sing his first Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The coming spring Peter Mattei performs Schubert’s Winterreise, together with the pianist Lars David Nilsson, at Carnegie Hall and at Oper Frankfurt. The same constellation was last season on a highly acclaimed Nordic concert tour with Winterreise, performances that led to a record recording (BIS) as well as a tv version for the Swedish Television. The spring also include concerts of Bach’s Mattäus-Passion with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon. The previous season Peter appeared as Don Giovanni both at the Metropolitan Opera and at Wiener Staatsoper

Peter Mattei has established himself as one of the most sought after singers of his generation and has worked with conductors such as Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, James Levine, Antonio Pappano, Zubin Mehta, Herbert Blomstedt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Gustavo Dudamel, Jeffrey Tate, Sir Andrew Davis, Daniel Harding and others.

With one of his favorite roles, Don Giovanni, Peter Mattei has had the pleasure to work with directors such as Peter Brook and Michael Haneke. He has delighted audiences at the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Swedish Opera and the Norwegian Opera as well as the prestigious festivals of Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Lucerne and Tanglewood.

Peter Mattei has been a freaquest guest at the Metropolitan Opera, where he has been seen in roles such as Amfortas in Parsifal, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, the title role of Eugen Onegin, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the Count in in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of James Levine, Marcello in La Bohème and Yeletsky in Pique Dame. He has sung Shishkov in From the House of the Dead, directed by Patrice Chéreau, at the Metropolitan Opera, at Teatro alla Scala and at the opera in Paris. He has sung Don Fernando in Fidelio at la Scala with Barenboim, Amfortas in Paris and Stockholm, Wolfram in Tannhäuser at Staatsoper Berlin, Posa in Don Carlo at Opernhaus Zürich and the opera houses in Oslo and Stockholm. He has appeared in the title role of Billy Budd at the Frankfurt Opera and the Göteborg Opera. At Wiener Staatsoper, Peter Mattei has performed the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, and the title roles of Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin. As Eugene Onegin, he has also been a guest at Opéra National de Paris as well as at Opernhaus Zürich.

Mattei’s concert repertoire includes Mendelssohn’s Elias, Ein deutsches Requiem, Kullervo, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Bach’s passions, Messiah, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie and Britten’s War Requiem. His recent performance of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at the Carnegie Hall with the Met Orchestra under the baton of James Levine was nothing but a sensation.

His discography includes DVDs of Don Giovanni (Aix-en Provence), Le nozze di Figaro (Opéra National de Paris), Eugene Onegin (Salzburg) and Parsifal (Metropolitan) and CDs of Mahler’s 8:th Symphony under the baton of Chailly, Berlioz’ Les Troyens with Sir Colin Davis (winner of two Grammy Awards), Fidelio with Abbado as well solo CDs, most recenty the recording of Schubert’s Winterreise.

Peter Mattei studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the University College of Opera in Stockholm. He made his debut in 1990 as Nardo in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera at the Drottningholm Court Theatre and made a sensational Royal Swedish Opera debut as Pentheus in Daniel Börtz’ The Bacchae (directed by Ingmar Bergman) in 1991.

 » … and the baritone Peter Mattei as Amfortas, in terrific voice, dares to bring out the rashness and inner desires of this stricken leader. » (New York Times, February 17, 2013)