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After graduating from Cambridge, Peter Knapp studied singing in London and Italy. He made his operatic debut with the Glyndebourne Touring Company as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze de Figaro and then worked for a number of seasons for Kent Opera, singing the title roles in Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni and in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (filmed by BBC Television). He also sang Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva and the title role in Szymanowski’s King Roger at English National Opera and created the role of Maxim in Joseph’s opera Rebecca for Opera North. He has also sung with Scottish Opera and Welsh Opera and appearances abroad have included performances in Frankfurt, Zurich, Bulgaria, St Louis, Hong Kong and Venice, where he sang in Handel’s Agrippina and Britten’s Church Operas.
His distinguished career as a concert singer has taken him to Australia and North and South America and he has sung with many leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic. An accomplished recitalist, he won the first B & H Award at Aldeburgh and the Paris Competition for the Interpretation of French Song which led to numerous tours and broadcast recitals on BBC Radio 3. He has recorded Da Falla’s El Retablo di Maeso Pedro for Decca with Simon Rattle.
Peter Knapp has also translated and directed opera and has dedicated himself to the training of young singers. He helped set up British Youth Opera and then established his own company, Travelling Opera, which toured extensively in Britain, giving regular seasons at the Barbican Concert Hall, and also in France and the Far East. One of his productions, La Périchole by Offenbach, was filmed by BBC Television.
He is currently on the professorial staff of Trinity College of Music in Greenwich.
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