Bass Jonathan Lemalu, a New Zealand-born Samoan, is one of the leading representatives of the younger generation of singers. He was a joint winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award and a recipient of the 2002 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Young Artist of the Year.
His roles include Mozart’s Papageno, Figaro, Leporello, Osmin and Neptune, Handel’s Saul, Rodomonte in Haydn’s Orlando paladino, Rocco (Fidelio), Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Colline (La bohème), Nourabad (Les Pêcheurs de perles), the title role in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Porgy (Porgy and Bess) and Queequeg in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick. His engagements have taken him to such prestigious venues as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Opéra de Lyon, Opera Australia, the Cincinnati Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Seattle Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera and the Munich and Hamburg State Operas. He has also appeared at the Glyndebourne, Edinburgh and Baden-Baden Festivals and the Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam.
As a concert artist and recitalist he has performed a repertoire that encompasses Classical and contemporary works, which he has sung with the Berlin, New York, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Strasbourg and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras and the New Zealand, London, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Paris and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras. Among the conductors with whom he has worked are Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Roger Norrington, Antonio Pappano, Simon Rattle and Patrick Summers.
Jonathan Lemalu received a Gramophone Award as Debut Artist of the Year for his first recital disc in 2002. Later recordings have included an album of arias with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and a song recital with Malcolm Martineau that also featured the Belcea Quartet. His most recent engagements have included Salome and Die Zauberflöte for the English National Opera, Tosca at Covent Garden and King Arthur at the Theater an der Wien. Following his Salzburg Festival debut in Idomeneo he will be returning to the Theater an der Wien and to the Liceu in Barcelona.
