Opera Scotland

John Mark Ainsley Suggest updates

Born Cheshire, 9 July 1963.

English tenor.

A leading lyric tenor, John Mark Ainsley has concentrated largely on the baroque and modern periods, having equal success in opera and concert work. He studied music at Magdelen College, Oxford, serving as a lay clerk at Christ Church, Oxford 1983-85. He also trained privately with Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Diane Forlano.

He made his concert debut in 1984, and 1988 saw his operatic debut at Innsbrück as Eurillo in Gli equivoci nel sembianti. He appeared with most of the British companies, beginning in 1989 at ENO (Eurimaco in The Return of Ulysses). He sang Tamino with Opera Northern Ireland in 1990, and the following year saw debuts with Scottish Opera (Fenton) and WNO (Idamante). In 1992 he appeared at Glyndebourne as Ferrando.

Roles on the continent include Don Ottavio at Lyons (1991) and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1993. He sang in the premiere of Henze's L'Upupu at Salzburg. Subsequent roles include Captain Vere (Glyndebourne, Amsterdam). He has performed Skuratov in From the House of the Dead at La Scala Milan (under Salonen), Berlin Staatsoper (Rattle) and, under Boulez, at the Amsterdam, Vienna and Aix-en-Provence Festivals. He sang the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo in Vienna (Theater an der Wien) and London (Barbican). Two major Handel roles are Grimoaldo in Rodelinda (ENO) and Bajazet in Tamerlano (Versailles, Theater an der Wien).

His concert appearances include the London, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and the London, Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, under conductors including Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Charles Mackerras, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado.