A series of outstanding debuts have established British baritone Jonathan McGovern as “one of the most beautiful baritone voices around today” (Music OMH). His burnished tone and committed stage presence have delighted audiences and critics alike, and this season he takes up a position at Stadttheater Bern where his roles will include Oreste in Silvia Paoli’s new production of Iphigénie en Tauride, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Robert in Iolanta and roles in L’enfant et les sortilèges in David Bösch’s new production under Nicholas Carter, and Leuthold in Amélie Niermeyer’s new production of Guillaume Tell. 

An established UK talent, recent highlights have included role debuts as Apollo in Handel’s Apollo e Dafne for The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni and Papageno for Garsington Opera, Andrei in David Pountney’s new staging of War and Peace and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro for Welsh National Opera, Pish Tush in The Mikado for English National Opera, and Demetrius in Dominic Hill’s critically acclaimed new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Scottish Opera. On the concert platform he has debuted as the Wigmaker in Ariadne auf Naxos for the Edinburgh International Festival under Lothar Koenigs as well as singing Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas for the Early Opera Company under Christian Curnyn, and Apollo in Apollo e Dafne for The English Concert led by Harry Bicket at the Wigmore Hall where his ​“tender artistry” (The Telegraph) was praised.

Internationally, highlights have included his debut as Papageno in Jette Steckel’s new production of Die Zauberflöte for Staatsoper Hamburg under Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Pelléas in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Pelléas et Mélisande for Komische Oper Berlin under Jordan de Souza, Don Giovanni at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées under Giovanni Antonini, Calixto Bieito’s new production of Johannes Passion and Barbora Horáková’s new production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo both for Teatro Arriaga Bilbao. In concert he has sung Dido and Aeneas at the Concertgebouw under Christian Curnyn, Fauré’s Requiem with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège conducted by Hervé Niquet, Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with Ensemble Modern under Kent Nagano in Berlin, Dortmund and Dresden, Carmina Burana at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde with the Natalia Ensemble in Madrid.