BIO

BIOGRAPHY

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

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

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 like Scarpia (Tosca), Tonio (Pagliacci), and Rigoletto.​​
He has appeared at the Bregenzer Festspiele 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, and 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.

Dedicated to 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.

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

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 the St. Matthew Passion at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

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

Moreover, since his 2014 house debut as Eisenstein, Peter 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, where he significantly expanded his repertoire.

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

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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 in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein's new production of Bernstein's On the Town.​​​​

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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.