BIO

With commanding stage presence, a versatile voice, and strong acting skills, Dutch baritone Peter Bording is equally in demand across opera, operetta, musical theatre, and contemporary music.

​

He has performed the title roles in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Pelléas et Mélisande at venues including the Wiener Festwochen, the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Staatsoper Hannover, the Dutch National Touring Opera, the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, the Oper Graz, and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

His portrayal of Pelléas earned him a nomination for “Singer of the Year” by Opernwelt.

 

His repertoire ranges from Mozart's Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) to roles including Scarpia (Tosca), Tonio (Pagliacci), and Rigoletto.​​
He excels in rarely performed works, notably as Peer Gynt in Werner Egk’s opera, in the title role in Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod, and as John Proctor in Robert Ward’s The Crucible.
At the Bregenzer Festspiele, he appeared in Kurt Weill’s Der Protagonist as Der junge Herr and in Royal Palace as Der Geliebte von gestern, and at the Richard Strauss Festival as Da-Ud in Die ägyptische Helena.

In contemporary music, he has created leading roles in world premieres of Eötvös’ Lady Sarashina, Jarrell’s Galilée, and Bagwathi’s Ramanujan in Paris, Lyon, Geneva, and at the Munich Biennale.

 

He is widely recognised as an outstanding interpreter of Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) and Danilo (Die lustige Witwe) - roles he has performed in over 25 productions worldwide. He stars in Barrie Kosky’s productions of Orpheus in the Underworld as Jupiter, Die Perlen der Cleopatra as Florian Silvius, Kiss Me, Kate as Fred Graham/Petruchio, La Cage aux Folles as Georges, and Marinka as Joseph Bratfisch in the European premiere of Kálmán’s Broadway musical.

He originated the role of Antonio in the Kanyar/Fassbaender-musical Shylock, and appeared in the Austrian premieres of Korngold’s Die stumme Serenade with the MusikTheater an der Wien as Andrea Coclé and of Marinka at Oper Graz, again as Joseph Bratfisch.
In the first Dutch production of The Phantom of the Opera (1993), he played Mr. André,  and appeared  in Cats (1987) at Theater Carré in Amsterdam as both Gus the Theatre Cat and Old Deuteronomy.

 

As a concert singer, his repertoire includes Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He made his U.S. debut in St. Matthew Passion at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
​

He appears at leading festivals and opera houses worldwide, including the Bregenzer Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Budapest Spring Festival, Munich Biennale, MusikTheater an der Wien, Opéra national de Paris, Opéra-Comique Paris, Opéra national de Lyon, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Hungarian State Opera, Polish National Opera, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Staatsoper Hannover, and many others across Europe, Japan, and the United States.

Since his 2014 house debut as Eisenstein, he has been a permanent guest at the Komische Oper Berlin.

He was the principal lyric baritone at Staatstheater Braunschweig (1995–1997), Staatstheater Darmstadt (1997–2000), the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen (2000–2011), and returned to Staatstheater Braunschweig (2015–2017) as a Resident Artist, significantly expanding his repertoire.
 

He has worked with conductors including Marc Albrecht, Philippe Auguin, Peter Eötvös, Adam Fischer, Yakov Kreizberg, Mstislav Rostropovich, Stefan Soltesz, Lothar Zagrosek, and Koen Schoots, and with directors such as Barrie Kosky, Dietrich W. Hilsdorf, Johannes Schaaf, Nicolas Brieger, Guy Joosten, Brigitte Fassbaender, Frank van Laecke, and Ushio Amagatsu.

​

His current and upcoming engagements include two world premieres: he will portray Pyotr Tchaikovsky in Bob Zimmerman's Kolja, based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Japin, at the DeLaMar in Amsterdam, and will create the role of goalkeeper Matilda in Iiro Rantala's Perfect Match, a Finnish Football-Operetta-Musical in Two Halves, at Oper Graz.
Furthermore, he returns to the Komische Oper Berlin as Georges in La Cage aux Folles and continues his run as Pitkin W. Bridgework in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein's new production of Bernstein's On the Town.​​​

​​​​

​​

Peter Bording studied voice with Jan Handerson, received his formal vocal and theatrical training at the Music-Drama Department of the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam, graduating cum laude, and earned his Advanced Certificate in Opera Studies from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.