MatthewRose

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  • Bass

About Matthew

British bass Matthew Rose studied at the Curtis Institute of Music before becoming a member of the Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Matthew's international career has seen him enjoy a close relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, for whom he gave his 100th performance in 2022. His roles there include Filippo II and Monk (Don Carlos), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Claudio (Agrippina), Masetto and Leporello (Don Giovanni), Oroveso (Norma), Ashby (La Fanciulla del West), Talbot (Maria Stuarda), Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Night Watchman (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Frère Laurent (Roméo et Juliette) and Colline (La bohème).

The 2024/25 season includes returning to the role of Fasolt in Das Rheingold for the Bayerische Staatsoper, and performances of Rocco in Fidelio with the Opéra National de Bordeaux.

On the concert platform, Matthew sings Bruckner's Mass No. 3 with the SWR Symphonieorchester, Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and returns to Winterreise in performances across the United Kingdom.

Passionate about music and vocal education, Matthew runs Folkestone on Song, an organisation that brings song and singing to Folkestone and East Kent via an international song festival, a bursary award for emerging artists, and a singing academy. He is also the co-director of the Spoleto Vocal Arts Workshop, in association with Mahler & LeWitt Studios and Vocal Masterclass Stockholm.

Matthew is based in London

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Contact

Nicholas Moloney

Nicholas Moloney

Senior Artist Manager
Megan Steller

Megan Steller

Associate Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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Season Highlights

Oct 2023
Philharmonie, Berlin
Dvořak Stabat Mater Jakub Hrůša (conductor) Berliner Philharmoniker
Dec 2023
Grand Théȃtre de Genève
R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (Baron Ochs) Jonathan Nott (conductor) Christoph Waltz (director)
Jan 2024
Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Paris
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 Mikko Franck (conductor) Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Mar 2024
Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin
Wagner Das Rheingold (Fasolt) Philippe Jordan (conductor) Dmitri Tcherniakov (director)
Mar 2024
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
J. S. Bach St John Passion (Christus) Trevor Pinnock (conductor) Concertgebouworkest
Jun 2024
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia
W.A. Mozart Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro) James Gaffigan (conductor) Simon McBurney (director)
Jul 2024 - Aug 2024
Santa Fe Opera
R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (Baron Ochs) Karina Canellakis (conductor) Bruno Ravella (director)

Audio

  • Schubert - Einsamkeit from Winterreise
    Credit: Stone Records
  • Schubert - Die Nebensonnen from Winterreise
    Credit: Stone Records
  • Schubert - Grenzen der Menschheit
    Credit: Wigmore Hall

Photos

Download high resolution images

Selected Repertoire

Adams

Doctor Atomic (Edward Teller)

Barber

Vanessa (The Old Doctor)

Bartók

Bluebeard's Castle (Title Role)

Beethoven

Fidelio (Rocco, Don Fernando)

Bellini

Norma (Oroveso)

Berlioz

Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent)

Britten

Albert Herring (Budd)   •   Billy Budd (Claggart)   •   Curlew River (Abbott)   •   A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom)   •   Noye’s Fludde (title role)   •   Peter Grimes (Swallow)   •   The Rape of Lucretia (Collatinus)

Donizetti

Anna Bolena (Henry VIII)   •   Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo)   •   Maria Stuarda (Talbot)   •   Poliuto (Caliestene)

Dvořák

Rusalka (Vodnik)

Gounod

Romeo et Juliette (Frère Laurent)

Handel

Acis and Galatea (Polyphemus)   •   Agrippina (Claudio)   •   Athalia (Abner)   •   Hercules (title role)   •   Semele (Somnus, Cadmus)   •   Theodora (Valens)

Janáček

The Cunning Little Vixen (Harasta)

Menotti

The Consul (Police Inspector)

Monteverdi

L’incoronazione di Poppea (Seneca)

Mozart

La clemenza di Tito (Publio)   •   Don Giovanni (Leporello)   •   Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Osmin)   •   Le nozze di Figaro (title role)   •   Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro, Sprecher)

Mussorgsky

Boris Godanov (Pimen)

Puccini

La bohème (Colline)   •   La fanciulla del West (Ashby)   •   Gianni Schicchi (Title Role)   •   Tosca (Angelotti)   •   Turandot (Timur)

Ravel

L’Enfant et les sortileges (Le Fauteuil / Un Arbre)

Rossini

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Don Basilio)   •   Guillaume Tell (Walter)   •   Il Viaggio a Reims (Lord Sidney)

Strauss

Ariadne auf Naxos (Truffaldino)   •   Der Rosenkavalier (Baron Ochs)   •   Die Schweigsame Frau (Vanuzzi, Sir Morosus)

Stravinsky

Oedipus Rex (Tiresias)   •   The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow)

Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin (Gremin)

Ullmann

Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Der Tod)

Verdi

Un ballo in maschera (Tom)   •   Don Carlo (Philip. Monk, Inquisitor)   •   Macbeth (Banco)   •   Otello (Lodovico)   •   Rigoletto (Sparafucile)

Wagner

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Pogner, Nightwatchman)   •   Das Rheingold (Fasolt)   •   Tristan und Isolde (King Marke)   •   Die Walküre (Wotan, Hunding)

News

Press

  • Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier

    Santa Fe Opera
    Jul 2024

    • Matthew Rose - clad in clashing plaids - commanded and shaped every moment of Ochs's text with artistry, his bass booming out in fine fettle. Ochs may have outstayed his welcome with the Marschallin, but the audience remained with Rose's character: a rare achievement in my experience.

      • David Shengold, Opera News
      • 01 November 2024

    • Rose’s voice has a resonant deep tone, and, along with his comic timing, stole the show on many occasions.

    • Matthew Rose was a commanding Baron Ochs, vocally and physically. Rose was especially impressive in the opera’s second act, much of which he drives after Sophie and Octavian meet and fall in love. Ochs has an enormous amount of text, almost every word of which was understandable in his performance. Rose is very tall, which gave his confrontations with the petite Sophie some additional comic zing. His Ochs revels in his (moderate) aristocracy and the immoderate wealth he anticipates from his wedding to Sophie. He also conducts lots of manspreading in Act II, giving his loutishness some 21st century resonance.

    • Matthew Rose embraced fully the irredeemably uncouth manner of the Baron, presenting him with a deft mixture of pompous self-importance and clownish swagger. But if the character’s garish costumes and bright-red side-whiskers suggested little more than a stock buffoon, Mr Rose’s intelligent, conversational delivery of the fast-paced dialogue in his initial meeting with the Marschallin gave unexpected depth to a figure who can often appear one-dimensional. Certainly Mr Rose approached the Baron’s least savoury moments with gusto -his little waltz in the second act was suitably crass- but his measured delivery, and his refusal to play the role solely for laughs, provided a solid centre amidst the chaos of the third act.

  • Dvořák's Stabat Mater with Berlin Philharmonic and Jakub Hrůša

    Berlin Philharmonie
    Oct 2023

  • Wanger's Tristan und Isolde

    Grange Park Opera
    Jun 2023

    • there was no lack of passion of the non-erotic kind in Matthew Rose’s King Marke, Christine Rice’s Brangane and David Stout’s Kurwenal. These were the best voices on the stage. Rose’s portrayal of the king was an object lesson in nobility, every line infused with pathos – he got a huge ovation, and rightly so.

    • Matthew Rose, who has few peers among operatic basses, was simply magnificent as King Marke, noble and sorrowing in his Act 2 lament. Like Tristan we could only hang our heads at such a bewildered, wronged man.

    • There is a magnificently sonorous and forceful King Marke from Matthew Rose, stoical and wronged...

    • ...Matthew Rose a deeply considered, resonant King Marke.

    • ...Matthew Rose makes much of King Marke’s painful monologue.

    • Christine Rice and Matthew Rose also give standout performances as Brangäne and King Marke respectively, Rice smoothly warm in tone and Rose devastating on discovering he has been betrayed by Tristan.

  • Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

    The Metropolitan Opera
    Apr 2022

  • Verdi's Don Carlos

    Metropolitan Opera
    Feb 2022

    • The silky, articulate bass Matthew Rose is luxury casting as the monk who — stick with me — might actually be Charles V, Philippe’s father, who is (at least presumably) recently dead. Why isn’t Rose singing Philippe?

  • Wagner's The Valkyrie

    English National Opera
    Nov 2021

    • Matthew Rose is the first bass Wotan to appear in London for some time, and made a remarkable debut. He marshals his vocal resources well, lyric and flexible in the role’s fearsome upper reaches, and eking out a host of colours and shades in the middle and lower down – it is particularly gratifying, in an era where Wotan tends to bend towards the baritone, to hear such richness and focus in the darkest regions of Act two’s monologue. Indeed, the latter was a sensational sequence in terms of its storytelling – crisp, deft, and delivered with poise and focus. The psychological shading of his performance was remarkably engaging: he was by turns a lackadaisical narcissist, wounded and deflated by Fricka’s invective; a depressive; a man whose frustrations boil over into raging and ranting. And, last of all, someone in whom a flicker of kindness still burns.

    • The true spark came from Matthew Rose’s Wotan…Debuting in a role he seems born to sing, Rose matched forceful presence with a voice that ranged from molten lava to towering granite-edged peaks.

    • In Matthew Rose, ENO has a Wotan who promises to be the highlight of its Ring...this deep-toned, lyric bass sings with such nobility and beauty that he is surely a world-class Wagnerian in the making.

    • Matthew Rose, costumed like a trainspotter, sang a gripping Act 2 narration, wrapping his warm bass around the text keenly.

    • Climbing on all fours over a daybed, the eloquent, lyrical bass Matthew Rose conveys in an instant the essential childishness of Wotan, the king of the gods.

    • Matthew Rose seemed to be channelling John Tomlinson’s later Wotans... as a commanding Wotan he delivered with aplomb...[and] gave John Deathridge’s direct and effective new translation life: one could get behind these words well.

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

    Chicago Lyric Opera
    Nov 2019

    • Matthew Rose as Leporello proved a superlative foil for Meachem’s Don. The two men showed a symbiotic rapport, throwing their dialogue back and forth with such rapid-fire ease one could almost believe they had been master and valet for years. Rose delivered a graceful Catalogue Aria and showed surprising agility in Leporello’s tongue-twisting patter in Act II. But mostly he was genuinely funny, a rarity in a role often played with clownish overkill; Rose’s goofy dance moves in the ensemble scenes were a hoot, cracking up Susan Graham, in the audience on a night off from Dead Man Walking.

    • He is ideally balanced by bass Matthew Rose, who wonderfully animates Leporello, Giovanni’s valet — an opera-buffa type who supplies much of the production’s humor and serves as a kind of court jester, revealing uncomfortable truths about his boss. Rose revels in all the physical, even slapstick comedy that this important role demands while handling its considerable vocal demands — including patter song and intricate ornamentations — with commendable agility and seeming ease.

    • Matthew Rose was a devoted Leporello, who brought genuine freshness to the iconic ‘Catalogue’ aria.

    • Matthew Rose plays a particularly sleazy and pimpish Leporello, and his physical comedy is beautifully timed and executed. In this production, he is clearly Don Giovanni’s enabler in all his wretched excesses.

    • There also is the master-servant relationship between Giovanni...and Leporello (British bass Matthew Rose, whose antic physicality is most winning, and who deftly suggests his character’s awareness of his own moral weaknesses).

  • Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov

    Royal Opera House
    Jun 2019

    • Matthew Rose’s sonorously sung Pimen, the chronicler-monk whose account of a miracle at the tomb of the murdered tsarevich tips Boris inexorably towards madness and death, is the vocal star, surely destined to sing the title role in the near future.

    • I suspect that bass-baritone Matthew Rose, who sings the role of the monk Pimen, would actually make a better Boris. When the two men share the stage in the final scene, it’s Rose’s voice I prefer to listen to. Terfel’s sound has become dry and hard; Rose’s sound is bigger, warmer, and much more beautiful, and he too is a fine actor.

    • No one at all is really the answer in Jones’s production, in which history rolls along, conspiracies are done and undone, and the mess can only be chronicled by the powerless, here most sympathetically represented by Matthew Rose’s nobly sung, fiercely sympathetic old monk, Pimen.

    • Matthew Rose is in noble voice as the monk Pimen

Discography