Baritone: Oratorio, Concert and Chamber Music
William Robert Allenby studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, winning prestigious scholarships and awards at both establishments. More recently he studied with Michelle Wegwart and with the (recently-deceased) American baritone, Theodor Uppman, in New York.
Early experience was gained in singing with Scottish Opera, Opera North and the D’Oyly Carte Opera before he joined Glyndebourne Opera in 1993, performing roles in La Traviata, Arabella and Eugene Onegin and appearing regularly on Channel 4 TV and at the BBC Proms. Since leaving Glyndebourne in 1997 he has sung in Asia, Australia, Belgium, France, Holland, Iceland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Operatic rôles include; William Robert Allenby has worked regularly at English National Opera since 1999 and has also sung Marcello in La Bohème for the ENO Bayliss Project. He has also made many appearances in contemporary music, including; William has a vast concert repertoire which includes the Fauré Requiem (London Philharmonic Choir), Handel’s Messiah (St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh), Carmina Burana and Belshazzar’s Feast (Ulster Hall, Belfast, as part of the Belfast Festival at Queens), the Duruflé and Brahms Requiems plus the Haydn Seasons. He has also appeared at some of the leading Early Music Festivals (including Belgium, France, Holland and Italy) with the renowned Italian music ensemble Mala Punica, under the direction of Pedro Memelsdorff.
William Robert Allenby has travelled the world, devising and presenting many concerts and performing recitals aboard many leading ocean liners (including the QE2) and was invited to headline for the inaugural season on the new Queen Mary 2. He has appeared also with orchestras at home and abroad, including the BBC Concert Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, RTE Concert Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria and the London Philharmonic.
The Allenby/Jaekel duo was formed in 1998 with pianist Peter Jaekel, since when they have made many concert appearances around the United Kingdom, including Leighton House in London (for the English Song Festival). Additionally, they have performed for Yorkshire Television and the ITV television network. Their recital début in the USA was made in 2002 at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, New York, with support from the Concordia Foundation. William has been a regular soloist and recording artist for BBC Radio since 1989 and is a regular star singer on the BBC’s longest-running light music programme on BBC Radio 2, "Friday Night is Music Night". A personal website is maintained which covers the breadth of William Robert Allenby's professional activities.
"...a baritone voice of fine quality throughout its compass and capable of giving the authentic thrill in the upper range...his diction, true feeling for and moulding of long phrases, and climaxes in proportion to the moods, were excellent."
(Opera via specialist representation)
Germont Père in La Traviata (Buxton Opera House),
Araspe in Handel's Tolomeo (Musiktheater Transparent - Antwerp),
Morales in Carmen (Opera Ireland),
Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana (Saigon Opera House and Vietnamese National TV),
Marullo in Rigoletto (Bermuda Festival) and
Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore plus
Assan in Simon Callow’s highly-acclaimed production of The Consul,
both for Opera Holland Park in London.
Judge Parke in "The Blackened Man" by Will Todd (World Première),
Duke of Cornwall in "Vision of Lear" by Toshio Hosakawa (UK Première)
- both at the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - and
the title rôle in "The Blind Man" for Alexander Goehr at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge.
He also covered Barney Bagnal in "The Silver Tassie" (World Première) for ENO.
Douglas Bowen (DAILY MAIL, Hull).
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