© Marie Fady
Praised by the Times for his ‘immense, dark-hued voice that’s even-toned from top to (very deep) bottom’ and compared by a number of critics to Samuel Ramey, Michael Mofidian is increasingly in demand in opera, concert and recital. In the 2023/24 season he makes his début at the Teatro Real Madrid as Créon in Cherubini’s Médée, returns to Covent Garden as Colline (La Bohème) and Pfleger des Orest (Elektra), makes his German operatic début as Polyphemus (Acis and Galatea) for Potsdam Winteroper, and makes his role début as Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress) at the Grange Festival, before returning to Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival as Fenicio (Ermione) and Lord Sidney (Il Viaggio a Reims) — this latter being his first significant role in the Rossinian repertoire to which his substantial but agile voice is particularly well-suited. In concert, he sings Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the RSNO at the Edinburgh International Festival under Sir Andrew Davis, Haydn’s Creation with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland.
His roles for major companies in upcoming seasons include the title roles in Le nozze di Figaro and Rossini Il Turco in Italia, as well as Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail).
His operatic engagements in previous seasons include returns to Covent Garden as Colline (2022) and Masetto (Don Giovanni, 2021), his Scottish Opera début as Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), his début at the Opéra de Rouen as Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), a return to the Glyndebourne Festival as Masetto while also covering Leporello, and, at the Salzburg Festival, Angelotti (Tosca) and Kuligin (Kat’a Kabanová) under the respective bâtons of Marco Armiliato and Jakub Hruša. In the 2021/22 season Michael Mofidian was engaged by the Grand Théâtre de Genève as a member of their ensemble, appearing as Lord Rochefort (Anna Bolena), Nourabad (Les pêcheurs de perles), Pfleger des Orest (Elektra), Rychtář (Jenůfa), Mandarin (Turandot) and Idas/Phobétor/Songe funeste in a much-acclaimed production of Lully’s Atys, directed by Angelin Prejlocaj in a co-production with the Opéra Royal de Versailles. He also made his debut with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome as the Mandarin in a concert performance and CD recording of Turandot under Sir Antonio Pappano.
From 2018 to 2020 he was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where among other roles he sang Narumov (The Queen of Spades), Alcalde (La forza del destino), Angelotti (Tosca), Zuniga (Carmen), Minotauros in Henze’s Phaedra (an Olivier Award-nominated production in the Linbury Theatre), Johann (Werther), Dr Grenvil (La traviata), Chelsias in Handel’s Susanna (Linbury Theatre) and various roles in Britten’s Death in Venice in a new production by Sir David McVicar; in addition, he covered the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. At the Royal Opera House he worked with conductors such as Pappano, Edward Gardner, Alexander Joel, Julia Jones and Richard Farnes. In 2018 he was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival, where he sang roles including the Doctor in Pelléas et Mélisande and the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly. While still a student he sang the role of Leporello in Don Giovanni for British Youth Opera and for Royal Academy Opera.
His concert repertoire is already extensive and includes the Requiems of Mozart and of Verdi, Bach’s Passions and many cantatas, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder which he performed with the Britten Sinfonia under Sir Mark Elder. In 2023 he returned to the BBC Proms as bass soloist for Beethoven 9 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth, having previously been bass soloist for First Night of the Proms in 2021 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Dalia Stasevska, giving the première of a new work by Sir James Macmillan. Other recent highlights include Stravinsky Pulcinella at the Edinburgh International Festival, also with Stasevska and the BBCSO, Messiah with the Hallé Orchestra and the Dunedin Consort, Jesus in Bach St John Passion with the Britten Sinfonia, and Verdi Requiem with the London Mozart Players. He recently made his début at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in the rarely-performed Cantata in onore del sommo pontifice Pio IX.
A keen recitalist and passionate advocate of art song, Mr Mofidian has performed in recital with pianists Keval Shah, Jâms Coleman, Sholto Kynoch, Julia Lynch, Anna Tilbrook, Julius Drake and Malcolm Martineau at venues including the Wigmore Hall and St John’s Smith Square in London, the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, City Halls Glasgow and at the Oxford Lieder and Leeds Lieder festivals. He has been broadcast numerous times on BBC Radio 3.
In addition to singing he is also a composer who has written orchestral works, chamber music, songs and pieces for vocal ensemble.
He was born in Glasgow and graduated from the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Pavarotti Prize in 2017. In 2018 he won the Singers’ Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition and the Bruce Millar Gulliver Prize.