Matthew Best's career combines a fast-growing international reputation as an exponent of the great Wagner and Strauss Heldenbariton roles with a distinctive conducting career featuring a distinguished contribution to the recorded repertory.
Matthew studied at Kings College, Cambridge, and at the National Opera Studio, and in 1982 won the Decca-Kathleen Ferrier Prize. At the outset of his career, he sang as a principal bass with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and as a guest with many other companies, and in recent years he has moved into the bass-baritone and Heldenbariton repertory. This process reached a significant landmark when he sang the role of Wotan/The Wanderer in Scottish Opera’s new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, first seen at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Other opera highlights include Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde with La Monnaie, Don Pizarro Leonore under Gardiner at the Proms, Salzburg Festival, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Lincoln Center Festival, New York; Swallow Peter Grimes for ROH; Siegfried and Die Walküre and Orest Elektra in Stuttgart; Wotan Siegfried Opéra de Lyon; the title role in The Flying Dutchman, Opera de Rouen; Vairochana in the world premiere production of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream in Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Paris; Peneios Daphne for his debut with Santa Fe Opera, followed by Tsargo Adrianna Mater in 2008; Scarpia Tosca, Amfortas Parsifal, Kurwenal, Don Pizarro Fidelio for Scottish Opera; Count Walter Luisa Miller and Scarpia for Opera North; Wotan The Rhinegold, Ramfis Aida, Swallow Peter Grimes, King Marke Tristan und Isolde, Jochanaan Salome for English National Opera; Cadmus The Bassarids at the Châtelet, Paris and in Cologne; Jochanaan and Mr. Flint Billy Budd with LSO/Richard Hickox; and Pizarro Fidelio (concert performances) with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Gergiev, the CBSO and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. On concert platform he has sung The Dream of Gerontius, Beethoven 9, Shostakovich 14, Elijah, the Verdi Requiem, Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ, and Mahler 8 with orchestras in the UK and Europe.
His various recordings include Beethoven’s Leonore, Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ, Britten’s Billy Budd and Peter Grimes, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Falla’s El Retablo di Maese Pedro, Menotti’s Martin’s Lie and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Matthew also gained a high reputation in conducting, of which include his long-standing association with The Corydon Orchestra and Singers, of which he is founder and artistic director. His many notable recordings with them include highly acclaimed performances of Bruckner’s Masses and Te Deum, Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ and Vaughan Williams’ opera Hugh the Drover. His guest conducting includes appearances with the English Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, The Manchester Camerata and The Hanover Band (where he was Principal Conductor for the 1998/99 season).
Recent engagements include Peneios Daphne for Oper Frankfurt, La Roche Capriccio for Grange Park Opera. In the 2010-11 season, he sings Mahler 8 with the CBSO and Andris Nelsons and returns to the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Matthew Best is represented by Intermusica.
July 2010 / 504 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
La Roche in Strauss Capriccio
Grange Park Opera / cond. Stephen Barlow / dir. Stephen Medcalf
“Matthew Best as the theatre director La Roche delivers his great aria, Strauss's thinly disguised attack on modernism, with wonderful panache.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, June 2010
“Matthew Best, sonorously authoritative as the director La Roche.”
Geoff Brown, The Times, June 2010
“Matthew Best was utterly winning as the bombastic La Roche, delivering his great reposte to the upstarts that are Olivier and Flamand, with sizzling patter and comedic timing. Standing within his mini-theatre he relished every minute of his chance to shine. “
Antony Lias, Opera Britannia, June 2010
“La Roche, is finely taken by Matthew Best – a suitably raffish figure but majestic to excess, as required, in his big solo about the birth of Athene and the fall of Carthage, musically the most original pages in the score.”
Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk, June 2010
“Performance of the night was from bass Matthew Best as theatre director La Roche. His delivery of the long defence of the art of theatre was masterly.”
Christopher Gray, Oxford Times, June 2010
Peneios in Stauss Daphne
Oper Frankfurt / cond. Sebastian Weigle / dir. Claus Guth
"...the commanding bass of Matthew Best”
Darmstadt im Netz, March 2010
“The reputable Matthew Best sang the role of Peneios magnificently”
Eckhard Britsch, Mannheimer Morgen, March 2010
Tsargo in Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater
Sante Fe Opera / cond. Ernest Martinez Izquierdo / dir. Peter Sellars
“Matthew Best’s compelling singing reveals a sympathetic side to Tsargo”
George Loomis, Financial Times, August 2008
“Tsargo a blunt villain (powerfully sung by Matthew Best)”
Anne Midgette, Washington Post, August 2008
“Matthew Best brings a dense, inky bass to the role of Tsargo, evolving from a louche nonentity to a young man drunk on war to a tragic remnant.”
Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News, August 2008
Peneios in Strauss Daphne
Santa Fe Opera / cond. Kenneth Montgomery / dir. Mark Lamos
"Matthew Best lends superb Wotan-like pronouncement to Peneios, Daphne's father, making us wish this role were longer."
D.S. Crafts, Albuqerque Journal , July 2007
"As Peneios, Daphne's father, Matthew Best supplies a richly oiled bass reminiscent of that eminent Wagnerian James Morris."
Scott Cantrell, Dallas News , July 2007
"Matthew Best's towering bass made Daphne's father, Peneios, both authoritative and sympathetic."
Craig Smith, The New Mexican , July 2007
"Matthew Best's strong voice provided character to the role of Daphne's father, Peneios."
Michael Lodico, Ionarts, Washington , July 2007
Commendatore in Mozart Don Giovanni
Scottish Opera / cond. Richard Armstrong / dir. Tim Albery
"The evening's real stars are Maria Costanza Nocentini's Donna Anna and Matthew Best's Commendatore, both as vocally rich and subtle as sure of their stage presence."
Anthony Holden, The Observer, May 2006
"Matthew Best is an imposing Commendatore."
Andrew Clark, The Financial Times, May 2006
"The quality of singing was overall a cut above what we might have been used to in previous productions, from Matthew Best's Commendatore to James Rutherford's Leporello."
Sarah Jones, The Scotsman, May 2006
Wagner arias from Tannhäuser, Der Fliegender Holländer and Die Walküre
CBSO / Kazushi Ono
“Matthew Best stayed the course magnificently as Wotan. He leant into the long echoing vowels which evoked his paternal love for Brünnhilde, powerfully sculpted his final farewell, and searched out Loge’s flames for that last great lullaby of fire.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, October 2005
Priest / Angel of the Agony in Elgar The Dream of Gerontius
Hallé Orchestra / cond. Mark Elder / (BBC Proms)
“Matthew Best was the Priest and the Angel of the Agony, huge-voiced and authoritative.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, July 2005
“Matthew Best’s intensity brooked no argument.”
Nick Kimberley, Evening Standard, July 2005
Cadmus in Henze The Bassarids
Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris / cond. Kazushi Ono / dir. Yannis Kokkos
“Matthew Best gave one of the best performances of his career as Cadmus, singing with resonant tone and well-projected text.”
Stephen Mudge, Opera News, July 2005
Scarpia in Puccini Tosca
Scottish Opera / cond. Giudo Ajmone-Marsan / dir. Anthony Besch
“There are still three perfectly valid reasons to see this ageing staging – Elena Zelenskaya’s Tosca, John Hudson’s Cavaradossi and Matthew Best’s Scarpia prove Scottish Opera is still capable of fielding an international quality lineup. Best’s black-shirted Baron stands rooted in frighteningly shiny thigh boots and has a voice to match: dark, supple and almost indecently suggestive.”
Alfred Hickling, The Guardian, November 2004
“Matthew Best’s predictably cold and unflinching Scarpia was rock-like in its implacably self-serving qualities.”
Michael Tumelty, The Herald, November 2004
“Just to look at Matthew Best, dressed in the black uniform of the fascisti, is chilling enough, never mind the obvious associations Scottish audiences will have with his previous Scottish Opera role as Wotan in the Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Best sends out a subtle ambiguity in his depiction of Scarpia, toying ruthlessly with Tosca’s fragility. His is not a full-throated performance. There is a hidden darkness in his voice, which adds mystery to the menace.”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman, November 2004
Kurwenal in Wagner Tristan and Isolde
Opéra de Nancy et de Lorraine / cond. Sebastian Lang-Lessing / dir. Andreas Baesler
“Matthew Best is an impassioned Kurwenal.”
Francis Carlin, Financial Times, April 2004
Judas in Elgar The Apostles
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / cond. Sakari Oramo
“The collision of Peter and Judas’s betrayals was particularly compelling with this cast of pungently flavoured bass and baritone voices. Matthew Best as a smouldering Judas gave voice to his darkest despair in his remarkable central monologue.“
Hilary Finch, The Times, October 2003
Wotan in Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen
Scottish Opera / cond. Richard Armstrong / dir. Tim Albery (Edinburgh Festival)
“Matthew Best’s Wotan will be in demand around the world.”
Jeremy Isaacs, The Herald, September 2003
“Striding majestically through this production, growing in stature and command to the point where he is sorely missed in its final episode, is Matthew Best’s monumental Wotan, as resonant of voice as of stage presence, his languor as the Wanderer reflecting his self-loathing at his own shortcomings.”
Anthony Holden, The Observer, August 2003
“Matthew Best’s Wotan and Peter Sidhom’s Alberich are resonant, nuanced assumptions, the strongest of the singers.”
Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, August 2003
“The performances are tremendous, including Matthew Best’s Wotan, moving from insecurity to tragic dignity.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, August 2003
“Matthew Best as Wotan was so centered, so earnest, so utterly beyond trivial swagger.”
Raymond Monelle, The Independent, August 2003
“Matthew Best’s performance is a wonder of control, vocal power and dignity, with a profoundly interiorised sense of warring loves.“
Robert Thicknesse, The Times, August 2003
“Matthew Best as Wotan-Wanderer grew in conviction – uptight, broken, remote.”
Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard, August 2003
“The evening belonged to Matthew Best as Wotan, vocally glowing, dignified in his agony, horrified at his weakness.”
Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard, August 2003
“Matthew Best’s Wotan comes into his own here, exuding restrained, tragic dignity, his voice poised and beautiful.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, August 2003
“Crowning it all, Matthew Best’s Wotan is more colossal than ever. (Das Rhinegold)”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman, August 2003
“Matthew Best’s performance as Wotan remains monumental. Against his cheated wife Fricka he withers magnificently. With the adoring Brünnhilde he plays mercilessly on her love. (Die Walküre)”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman, August 2003
King Marke in Wagner Tristan and Isolde
English National Opera / cond. Dietfried Bernet / dir. David Alden
“Matthew Best makes a sonorous King Marke; this is some of ENO's strongest casting in a long time. The audience, judging by its roars, knows it.”
John Allison, The Times, May 2003
Wotan in Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen
Scottish Opera / cond. Richard Armstrong / dir. Tim Albery
“Siegfried’s noble antagonist was Matthew Best, the Wanderer of one’s dreams. He produces floods of sonority in Wagner’s most self-consciously grand role, and has a presence to match, and superb diction.”
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, September 2002
“Matthew Best’s Wanderer was magnificently sung.”
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, September 2002
“Matthew Best’s subtle Wotan is a grimly pragmatic, messed-up patriarch who sees his powerbase ineluctably eroding.”
Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday, September 2002
“Then on strides Matthew Best’s magisterial Wotan, shades and a greatcoat amply disguising him as the Wanderer, to lend a reassuringly authentic Wagnerian presence. As he lopes in and out of Siegfried’s adventures, pure Godfather to the mere mobster of Peter Sidhom’s Alberich, Best’s stage authority and vocal command sustain moments which might otherwise teeter towards strip-cartoon banality.“
Anthony Holden, September 2002
“Matthew Best’s Wanderer has the most authentic Wagnerian profile, exuding authority through his dignified timbre and stage deportment.”
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, August 2002
“Matthew Best, his warm, heavy baritone more authoritative than ever, is a down-at-heel Wanderer in shades.”
Raymond Monelle, The Independent, August 2002
“The encounter of Wotan with Alberich, wonderfully directed and superbly delivered by Matthew Best and Peter Sidhom, is like the meeting of two gangsters in a turf war. All of the roles are finely honed. Best’s singing just gets more commanding.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, August 2002
“Matthew Best’s Wotan was commanding from the outset.”
Brian Hunt, Evening Standard, August 2002
“Matthew Best’s Wotan, as scheming and bullying as ever, was his best performance yet.”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman, 27 August 2002
“There is a magnificently august Wanderer from Matthew Best.”
John Allison, The Times, August 2002
Wotan in Wagner Die Walküre
Scottish Opera / cond. Richard Armstrong / dir. Tim Albery
“In Matthew Best, Britain has a vocally impressive, psychologically probing new Wotan. He plays the ruler of the gods as a speculative intellectual, plunged into depression when reason fails him. The muted fury of his enormous monologue made Act 2 even more compelling than the opening act.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, August 2001
“Matthew Best presents Wotan as a god who knows he has failed, a vulnerable figure deserving compassion, and his singing attained real nobility.”
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, August 2001
“Matthew Best’s voice had those unfathomed, cavernous depths that bespeak infinite wisdom.”
Raymond Monelle, The Independent, August 2001
“Matthew Best’s Wotan is immense, and wracked with considerable self-doubt and frustration. There are few around who could better this performance, either in heroic stature and stamina or its startling consistency.”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman, August 2001
Ford in Vaughan Williams Sir John in Love
Northern Sinfonia / cond. Richard Hickox / CHAN 9928
“The rest of the cast is a roll-call of some of the best British singers of today: Matthew Best is a splendid Ford, his “Pardon me wife” more touching than anything Verdi gives him.”
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, July 2001
Scarpia in Puccini Tosca
Florida Grand Opera / cond. Stewart Robertson / dir. Renata Scotto
“Matthew Best, the Scarpia, was outstanding, acting with eerie restraint, an economy of gesture highly effective in conveying the profound cruelty that seethes beneath the placid surface of this man who was the terror of Rome. He has the dark baritone to cut through the orchestra in the ‘Te Deum’, which was chilling, but also the coldly aristocratic poise to lord it over Spoletta.”
James Roos, The Miami Herald, March 2001
“The great discovery of the evening was debut artist Matthew Best as Baron Scarpia. This English bass-baritone has a lovely lyric quality in his upper range and a distinctive cutting edge in the middle and lower registers. He held the audience spellbound with one crescendo after another. His voice has a special sound; tender in romantic passages yet commanding when it has to be. He has the class of the late Morley Meredith on stage and the resonance of James Morris. But it is his own special warm, rich sound that is so attractive; an emerald surrounded by diamonds. It is a talent we must encourage to these shores before the opera houses of Europe claim more of his time.”
Rex Alan Hearn, Coral Gables Gazette, March 2001
Wotan in Wagner Das Rheingold
English National Opera / cond. Paul Daniel / dir. Michael Walling
“Matthew Best looks set to become the leading British Wotan, and he has a presence and an interpretative intelligence which arouse the highest hopes. He also has a sonorous and noble vocal instrument. He has the all-important quality of instilling dignity in any character he portrays, and after decades of collapsed and seedy Wotans that is the biggest blessing a Ring production can have.”
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, February 2001
“Matthew Best’s Wotan is tall, grey, austere – from a distance not unlike a stern Fischer-Dieskau figure. His voice carves out word and line most expressively, in monumental granite.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, January 2001
“Pride of place goes to Matthew Best’s Wotan, a figure of brooding stature who could dominate any stage.”
Andrew Clark, The Financial Times, January 2001
“Matthew Best’s Wotan is triumphant, incredibly powerful and focused.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Evening Standard, January 2001
Wotan in Wagner Das Rheingold, Scottish Opera / cond. Richard Armstrong / dir. Tim Albery
“Matthew Best, who extraordinarily also manages a parallel career as a conductor, cut an imperious figure of stoat-like arrogance as the flawed god, handling the vocal range with skill.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, August 2000
“Matthew Best sounds impressively rich and centered as Wotan.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Evening Standard, August 2000
Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / cond. Richard Hickox
“Matthew Best’s rich bass was both tragic in the role of Herod and warmly sympathetic as the Ishmaelite father.”
Wilma Paterson, The Scotsman, April 2000
“Bass baritone Matthew Best completing the solo quartet was outstanding, whether in the intensely dramatic role of Herod, or as the mellifluous leader of the Ishmaelites who bring succour to the holy family.”
Dundee Courier, April 2000
“Matthew Best used his deep, powerful sound to great effect, first in reflecting the inner fear and anxiety and the overt, terrible anger of Herod, and then as the warm and generous Ishmaelite father.”
Sigurd Scott, Perthshire Advertiser, April 2000
Amfortas in Wagner Parsifal
Scottish Opera / cond. Richard Armstrong / dir. Silviu Purcarete
“Outstanding among the principals was the Amfortas of Matthew Best, whose pithy diction and richly coloured tone made the plight of the wounded guardian of the Grail human and immediate.”
George Hall, Opera News, July 2000
“The need for healing is located, in this account, with hideous precision and intensity in the portrayal of Amfortas, acted and sung unnervingly by Matthew Best, all told the most striking interpreter – or incarnation – of the role I have ever witnessed.”
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, March 2000
“Matthew Best wrings every drop of anguish from Amfortas’ music.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, March 2000
“I mean no disrespect when I say that I was unprepared for the English baritone Matthew Best’s unforgettable Amfortas. He sang with intense sensitivity to the meaning of the text, conveying pain and anguish with startling verisimilitude.”
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, March 2000
“In a reading based very much on coming to terms with the past, Amfortas’ guilt and agony were more than ever central, and Matthew Best portrayed both with uncomfortable directness.”
Rodney Milnes, The Times, March 2000
“The only member of the cast to transcend these surroundings is Matthew Best, whose proudly declaimed Amfortas becomes a study in self-doubt.”
Andrew Clark, The Financial Times, March 2000
“The basses were first class: Matthew Best is an enthralling Amfortas whose agony becomes the opera’s emotional crux.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, March 2000
Gurnemanz in Wagner Parsifal
Three Choirs Festival / cond. Richard Hickox
“Matthew Best, for all his youth, has the gravity, wisdom and weight of tone for a magnificent Gurnemanz.”
Barry Millington, The Times, August 1998
Title role in Wagner The Flying Dutchman
English National Opera / cond. Alex Ingram / dir. Stein Winge
“In a highly auspicious house debut, Matthew Best has taken over the title role from Willard White. Best colours his baritone with a sheen as dark as his oilskins. Once on stage, Best takes command. It is a fair bet that Best will be back when Dutchman is next revived.”
John Higgins, The Times, October 1997