Adrian Thompson

After studies at the Guildhall School of Music (London), Thompson began his career in 1977 as a chorister at the Kent Opera. His debut as a soloist followed in 1978, at the Aldeburgh Festival, where he sang Flute (A midsummer night's dream) and Lenskij. For the next 40-plus years, he had a busy career; in opera, he appeared throughout the UK (the festivals in Glyndebourne, Buxton, Garsington and Camden, the Glyndebourne Touring Company, the Scottish Opera Glasgow, Welsh Opera Cardiff, English National Opera, Covent Garden), and abroad in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Köln, Frankfurt, Geneva, Toronto, at the Aix-en-Provence festival, and a lot in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Maastricht, and the touring Reisopera). His repertory was a mixed bag of comprimario and main roles: Valzacchi, Monostatos, Pedrillo, both Mimes, Triquet, Laca, Prologue (The turn of the screw), Peter Grimes, Florestan (!), Canio (!), Ferrando, Narraboth, Don Basilio, Tito...

Probably more important than his operatic career, though, was his concert activity: Bach's Passions, Britten's War Requiem, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Das Lied von der Erde, Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, several concert works by Janáček, lieder recitals (many of them at Wigmore Hall in London). He was also a frequent interpreter of contemporary compositions.

He eventually became a professor of vocal studies at "his" Guildhall School. He is a typical exponent of that kind of British tenor singing that is most anywhere else considered an acquired taste.

Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2
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