Charles Brett

English countertenor Charles Brett is one of the leading specialists of the Baroque choral and oratorio repertoire. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, making his London debut in 1965 in a performance of Bach's Magnificat. In 1983, he co-founded the Amaryllis Consort, of which he was also the director. He has made numerous recordings, including Purcell's Fairy Queen (under the baton of Benjamin Britten) and birthday odes, Bach's Mass in B minor, and several Handel oratorios. Brett has been less active on the opera stage, but even there he has appeared in some notable productions. His operatic debut was at Graz in 1984, in a revival of Angelica vincitrice di Alcina by J.J. Fux. At the Ludwigsburg Festival, he sang Athamas in a German-language version of Handel's Semele. He toured France with Gluck's La clemenza di Tito with the conductor Jean-Claude Malgoire, and sang Britten's Oberon in 1987 at Aachen.