Jonathan McGovern

Baritone

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“What makes him special? A beautifully focused and warmly virile voice… great musical sensitivity… and an instantly winning and communicative personality.”
(The Telegraph)

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.

Gallery

Handel: Apollo and Daphne © The Royal Opera

Korngold: Die Tote Stadt – Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen

Monteverdi: L’orfeo © Teatro Arriaga

Mozart: Die Zauberflӧte – Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen © Staatsoper Hamburg

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande – the Tower Scene © Mill Media

Britten: Billy Budd – Look, through the port © Mill Media

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde – VI. Der Abschied © Natalia Ensemble

“Don Giovanni’s famous aria, Deh Vieni Alla Finestra, was a real strong point of the character’s overall performance with its tender moments juxtaposing his brutal persona. Being the anti-hero of the opera, his bold, brazen nature was exhibited well throughout the performance by McGovern – and given the few accustomed boos to the villain come the closing bows, it was certainly job well done.”

Press and Journal, June 2022

“Jonathan McGovern was a very civilised Adonis, and both singers brought out the sense of flexibility in the vocal line; the work is written in a sort of continuous arioso and here it was in very expressive hands.”

(Planet Hugill, April 2022)

“Jonathan McGovern [is] a wonderfully confused Demetrius.”

(Bachtrack, February 2022)

“Jonathan McGovern’s Demetrius, Charlie Drummond’s Helena, Lea Shaw’s Hermia and Elgan Llŷr Thomas’s Lysander – all singers to watch – found maximum character in the quartet of lovers.”

(The Guardian, February 2022)

“Not a moment too soon, McGovern dropped his laddishness and recovered some god-like dignity for his final aria of regret, which he sang with tender artistry. From the opening grandeur to this final quiet sublimity was quite a journey, and the most eloquent proof that in the right hands Handel’s clichés can become musical gold.”

(Telegraph, January 2022)

“There’s beautiful playing from the ROH Orchestra under Christian Curnyn in the Handel…opposite McGovern’s funny yet dangerous Apollo, excellent in his grieving final aria.”

(The Guardian, October 2020)

“Baritone Jonathan McGovern gives a beautifully judged performance, tracing the disintegration of Apollo from strutting macho-man to heartbroken lover, so overwhelmed in his last aria “Pianta cara” that he cannot complete the final cadence.”

(Bachtrack, October 2020)

“As Count Almaviva, Jonathan McGovern was suitably aristocratic of tone”

(Opera Magazine, May 2020)

“The sensuality and the libertine desire of Don Giovanni was carried by Jonathan McGovern, the movements of his body and his voice, strong and virile.”

(Agostino Trotta, Olyrix, September 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern’s Giovanni excelled when sheer dynamism and vocal brutality were required and his stage presence was compelling.”

(Opera Magazine. August 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern’s Don is highly mobile as well as vocally exciting, and always just one step ahead of the capable Leporello of David Ireland.”

(Lark Rise & Musical Opinion, June 2019)

“The central relationship between Giovanni — a cocksure, steel-eyed Jonathan McGovern — and his put-upon wingman Leporello was a bromance for the ages, never more believable or entertaining than in their boisterous joint recitatives.”

(Richard Bratby, The Spectator, June 2019)

“Don Giovanni is reinvented in Jonathan McGovern’s splendidly pugnacious, psychopathic portrayal.

(The Times, June 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern’s lithe acting and seductive baritone carry the evening in his arias and ensembles.”

(Classical Source, June 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern, a company regular and last year’s Papageno at this address, sang a forthright, mellifluously expressive Don, vocally the libertine of Mozart’s imaginings”

(Bachtrack, June 2019)

“McGovern sang [Don Giovanni] with strong tone, a flexible line and dramatic colour.”

(Opera Today, June 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern was excellent as Adonis…[and later] returned as a virile Aeneas”

(Opera Magazine, April 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern is a youthful, naive, meek, sultry, supple sounding Pelléas.”

(Kleinezeitung, February 2019)

“Jonathan McGovern brought an unforced, virile baritone to Andrey”

(Opera Magazine, November 2018)

“Jonathan McGovern as Andrei made an engaging romantic lead… measuring out yards of bronzed baritone with proud dignity.”

(Spectator, November 2018)

“McGovern’s focused line in the subsequent slow, simple declamation that she was to divorce her husband and marry another man, masked tragic emotional disturbance, as intimated by the violin’s commentary; the abruptness of the close was brutal. In the final song, in which Schiller describes a deserted landscape, the baritone’s dark tone and robustness through the angular line, “Fair world, where are you?”, was compelling.”

(Opera Today, November 2018)

“The beautifully dark-colored baritone of Jonathan McGovern (Adonis) beautifully matched Crowe.”

(Operamagazine.nl)

“Jonathan McGovern musters a really Russianate thrust of baritone as the perpetually anguished Andrei”

(The Times, September 2018)

“Jonathan McGovern’s expressive baritone makes of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky a noble and sympathetic figure”

(The Guardian, September 2018)

“The best music comes at the beginning; a thrillingly barbaric chorus of defiance, followed by a lovely lyrical nocturne for Andrei (beautifully sung here by Jonathan McGovern)”

(The Telegraph, September 2018)

“Of the chief protagonists, Jonathan McGovern (Andrei), Lauren Michelle (Natasha) and Mark Le Brocq (Pierre) were all excellent… McGovern sang the young prince with beautiful softness, and his deathbed scene with Natasha, cleverly viewed from vertically above, was some of the most memorable theatre I have seen.”

(Bachtrack, September 2018)

“More effectively drawn is the role of Andrei, sung splendidly by Jonathan McGovern. His death bed scene was spine tingling”

(Art Scene in Wales, September 2018)

“Jonathan McGovern sings Andrei with a yearning clarity that sends Rita McAllister’s functional new English translation ringing through the auditorium.”

(What’s on Stage, September 2018)

“Jonathan McGovern has one of the most beautiful baritone voices around today… Lovely burnished tone and exact diction were there in plenty”

(musicOMH, June 2018)

“McGovern is one of the most purely lyrical Papagenos I’ve heard, layering tenderness on top of his grubby, put-upon characterisation.”

(The Spectator, June 2018)

“Jonathan McGovern’s charismatic Papageno is a lovely character-study in peasant wit and wisdom”

(The Independent, June 2018)

“Jonathan McGovern uses his rich, rounded baritone to inject beguiling character-colour into a Papageno deprived of his customary bumpkin appeal ”

(Opera Today, June 2018)

“the young baritone Jonathan McGovern proves to be quite brilliant.”

(Anaclasse, July 2017)

“It is the central couple, however, that keeps this production anchored. Baritone Jonathan McGovern has oodles of youthful charm, along with the lithe, heroic voice one expects of Pelléas.”

(Financial Times, June 2017)

“Jonathan McGovern made a personable Pelléas with the right tenorial edge to his baritone”

(The Telegraph, June 2017)

“Jonathan McGovern is an agile and attractive Pelléas”

(The Times, June 2017)

“McGovern and Carroll make an entirely credible pair of innocents, whose growing feelings for each other gradually blossom into shy sexual rapture”

(The Guardian, June 2017)

“McGovern, a high baritone Pelléas in plain shirt and trousers (he has sung Papageno and Purcell’s Aeneas, but also Monteverdi’s Orfeo) likewise sings with great polish”

(The Arts Desk, June 2017)

“…his sinuous voice easily covers the role’s high range, and he looks suitably vulnerable and overwhelmed… Pelléas’s full-throttle declaration of love, just before he is killed by Golaud – tellingly anticipated in the orchestra – comes across as the focal point of the opera.”

(Classical Source, June 2017)

“Jonathan McGovern is simply made to sing Orpheus, deep in his role with an excellent vocal-theatrical integration that takes you without any loss of tension through the intricate passions of his character.”

(Audio Classica, May 2017)

“Jonathan McGovern as Papageno displayed a beautiful timbre and resilient baritone”

(Der Neue Merker, October 2016)

“A theatrical, linguistic and vocally powerful performance is offered by Jonathan McGovern as Papageno… Huge applause for the entire musical team, with many bravos especially for…Jonathan McGovern as well as Spinosi and the orchestra.”

(Opernnetz, September 2016)

“Papageno (Jonathan McGovern: with mischief, tremendous enthusiasm and everything else you need as a crowd favourite)”

(NDR, September 2016)

“Jonathan McGovern’s Alidoro was firm, expansive and aesthetically pleasing.”

(Music OMH, December 2015)

“Jonathan McGovern sang lustrously and stylishly as Alidoro.”

(The Telegraph, December 2015)

“Above all, the singing was a treat. Jonathan McGovern gave us a splendid Alidoro, sensitively acted, and always sung with control which could create vulnerability as well as volume: attractive and appealing, Alidoro was the believable centre of the piece around whom all lust (high and low) revolved.”

(Bachtrack, December 2015)

“[Jonathan McGovern] was consistently tender and impressively even at the top of his range. Looking suitably youthful and ardent, he too connected with the text, pacing himself towards Pelleas’s searing, unambiguous declaration of love, when he let rip with total authority.”

(Opera Magazine, December 2015)

“McGovern was a superbly haughty, then guilty Aeneas.”

(The Times, October 2015)

“Jonathan McGovern’s high-lying, mellifluous baritone is well suited to Pelléas”

(The Financial Times, October 2015)

“Jonathan McGovern’s clean-cut, brightly-sung Pelleas makes a nice foil to Susanna Hurrell’s fragile and fluttery Melisande, and together they make a poignantly star-cross’d pair.”

(Independent, October 2015)

“McGovern’s boyish appearance is matched by an immensely attractive, tenorial baritone that opens up at its top end with unexpected warmth.”

(Arts Desk, October 2015)