The foundation of Christopher Ventris’ enduring position as one of today’s leading Heldentenors is his outstanding reputation in two pivotal roles: from an acclaimed Bayreuther Festspiele debut as Parsifal in Stefan Herheim’s new production (Daniele Gatti), he went on to give innumerable appearances in the role including at Wiener Staatsoper (under both Franz Welser-Möst and Semyon Bychkov), Bayerische Staatsoper (Kent Nagano), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Bernard Haitink), Opéra national de Paris (Hartmut Haenchen), San Francisco Opera (Donald Runnicles) and at Opernhaus Zürich (Haitink), a performance which was immortalised on DVD. As Siegmund (Die Walküre), Ventris has appeared at Wiener Staatsoper (Sir Simon Rattle), Bayreuther Festspiele, (Marek Janowski), Semperoper Dresden (Christian Thielemann), Washington National Opera (Philippe Auguin), Dutch National Opera (Marc Albrecht) and he features on a live recording from Wiener Staastoper (Thielemann).
The 2018/19 season brought Ventris’ much anticipated role debut as Tristan in Wagner’s epic Tristan und Isolde, performed in a new production at Théâtre de la Monnaie under Music Director Alain Altinoglu, which was met with great acclaim: “In the love duet, he sang with honeyed warmth, blending handsomely with Isolde and the orchestra below …”. Further semi-staged performances followed last season in Copenhagen, under Lothar Koenigs for Royal Danish Opera. Ventris also joined Philippe Jordan at Salzburger Festspiele in the title role of the lesser-performed Rienzi, made his role debut as Tannhäuser under Sir Mark Elder at Opéra national de Paris, and appeared as Lohengrin at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro Real Madrid and The Dallas Opera.