Gordon Bintner
Shirley Thomson
Alice Jones
Bass-baritone Gordon Bintner built a broad and impressive operatic repertoire across six seasons as a member of the Oper Frankfurt ensemble and last season made highly-acclaimed debuts at Opéra National de Paris in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place (Junior) under Kent Nagano and at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in Così fan tutte (Guglielmo) conducted by Julia Jones.
In the current season, Bintner makes his debut at San Francisco Opera as Eugene Onegin with conductor Vassilis Christopoulos and in Robert Carsen’s production, returns to Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Albert (Werther) under the baton of Antonio Pappano and joins Canadian Opera Company as Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) under Harry Bicket.
Binter’s roles on the Oper Frankfurt stage have included Count Almaviva and Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Argante (Rinaldo), Gorjančikov (From the House of the Dead), Chorèbe (Les Troyens), Graf (Capriccio), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Count (Schreker’s Der ferne Klang), Plumkett (Flotow’s Martha), Vladislav (Smetana’s Dalibor), Escamillo (Carmen) and Don Polidoro (Cimarosa’s L’italiana in Londra).
As a former member of the Opera Studio of Canadian Opera Company, Gordon Bintner has returned regularly to that stage as a guest artist including for his role debut as both Eugene Onegin and Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore and, most recently, as Papageno. As a graduate of its prestigious Young Singers Project, Gordon has also performed at the Salzburg Festival as Astolfo in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, conducted by Marco Armiliato, as Phorbas in Enescu’s Oedipe under Ingo Metzmacher and, at the Salzburg Easter Festival, as the Herald in Verdi’s Otello under Christian Thielemann.
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Performances elsewhere include Papageno at Festival d’opéra de Québec and Michigan Opera Theatre, Mozart’s Figaro at Manitoba Opera, Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon at Opéra de Montréal, Nardo in La Finta Giardiniera as part of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and he has appeared at both Opéra de Montréal and Festival de Beaune as Don Giovanni. In concert, he portrayed both Guglielmo and Count Almaviva in a da Ponte trilogy presented by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro with NAC Ottawa under Music Director Alexander Shelley, and Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano.
An accomplished concert singer, his repertoire includes Bach’s Matthäus Passion (Christus), Christmas Oratorio and Cantatas BWV 147, 75 and 164, Beethoven, Symphony No.9, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem and Mahler Symphony No. 8. In the current season, he sings Messiah with the OAE and Mogens Dahl in Copenhagen.
The Grand Prize Winner of the OSM Standard Life Competition (2011) and First Prize and People’s Choice Award recipient of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Competition (2012), Gordon Bintner’s discography includes Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano (Decca Classics, 2018) and the Count in Schreker’s Der ferne Klang (OehmsClassics, 2021).
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“Gordon Bintner (Don Polidoro), a virile baritone and a great comedian..”
“Gordon Bintner, recent grand prize winner of the OSM competition, is the star of the show. Tall, blond, seductive, he has everything a Don Giovanni needs, and better yet, he acts well and he sings well. This man will certainly have a big career.”
“By far the most finished was the baritone of Gordon Bintner, first-prize winner in this season’s OSM Competition. Warmly coloured from top to bottom, his singing boasted the twin virtues of natural phrasing and dead centre pitch.”
“This is a major singer and is clearly the best in this competition. He is tall, slim, handsome, moves well on stage, musicality and charisma to burn, has a glorious baritone that is sturdy yet expressive. In other words, this guy has the complete package. His Figaro aria was acted with flair and sung with firm, manly tone – bravo. His Rinaldo aria – a role he sang at McGill – was fabulous with excellent agility for such a big voice. It is clear Mr. Bintner is enormously talented.”
“The riveting and imperious Argante of bass-baritone Gordon Bintner dominated the largely uniform cast. Physically alluring, his acting was both organic and expressive, his characterization compelling and layered and his command of musical idiom, phrasing and Italian diction exemplary. He also produced a vocal performance of awe-inspiring beauty (as in ‘Vieni o cara’) and effortless power and accuracy (as in ‘Sibillar gli angui d’Aletto’).”
“Physically alluring, his acting was both organic and expressive, his characterization compelling and layered and his command of musical idiom, phrasing and Italian diction exemplary. He also produced a vocal performance of awe-inspiring beauty…and effortless power and accuracy.”
