David Bates
Conductor
Media
News
David Bates returns to the Komische Oper Berlin to conduct a new production of Handel’s Saul directed by Axel Ranisch. This follows on from his huge success with Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in 2022 (which prompted...
MORENews
David Bates is delighted to return to the Staatsoper Hannover to conduct a new production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Performances start on 28th April running until 2nd June.
MORENews
David Bates looks forward to making his French conducting debut at the Opéra de Rouen Normandie in March conducting Handel’s Serse. David directs from the keyboard in this co-production with...
MOREBaroque specialist David Bates conducts the orchestra of the Komische Oper with juice and vehemence.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, David Bates initially embarked on a professional singing career before turning to directing/conducting. He founded La Nuova Musica in 2007, a vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated to the music of the Baroque and Classical periods. Their most recent highlight was a semi-staged performance of Purcell Dido and Aeneas at the 2022 BBC Proms, described as a superbly evocative night in The Times and a highly shaped, highly articulated performance, a musical tour de force that filled the hall in Opera Today.
Highlights
- Komische Oper Berlin – Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice, Handel Saul, Handel Hercules
- Hannover Staatsoper – Handel Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, Handel Alcina, Monteverdi Orfeo
- Glyndebourne Festival – Handel Alcina
- Opéra de Rouen – Handel Serse
- BBC Proms – Dido and Aeneas – La Nuova Musica
- Munich Symphony Orchestra – Mozart/Beethoven concert
- Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century concert tour
Biography
Forthcoming plans include his debut concerts with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in the Netherlands; returning to the Komische Oper Berlin for multiple projects – in 2024 he will conduct Handel’s Hercules in a production by Barrie Kosky – and conducting a new production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at The Grange Festival with La Nuova Musica. Other highlights with LNM include an appearance at the London Handel Festival, continuing their series started in 2015 of performances of Handel where, so far, they have completed Acis and Galatea, Berenice, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Il Duello Amoroso, Apollo e Dafne, Orlando and Alcina; and a Mozart Concert Arias programme at Wigmore Hall with Lucy Crowe, as one of his many appearances there.
Last season he conducted Alcina at Staatsoper Hannover, where he also conducted a new production of Monteverdi Orfeo; made his debut with Opéra de Rouen Normandie with Handel Serse and conducted a new production of Handel Saul at the Komische Oper Berlin. He explored Mozart and Beethoven with the Munich Symphony Orchestra and conducted Monteverdi madrigals and motets at Wigmore Hall.
Other past highlights include a new production by Damiano Michieletto in 2022 of Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice at the Komische Oper, prompting Fredrik Hanssen in Der Tagesspiegel to write [Bates] can also draw out real beauty from Gluck’s score with a stylistic ‘all-rounder’ group like the Orchestra of the Komische Oper, which produces velvety sonorities, and heady gracefulness; a revival of the very successful production directed by Elisabeth Stöppler of Handel Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno for Staatsoper Hannover and Handel Alcina for Glyndebourne Festival with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Directing from the harpsichord, David’s previous opera productions have included Rinaldo for Glyndebourne on Tour; Cesti Orontea at the Innsbrucker Festwochen; Cavalli La Calisto for Cincinnati Opera; Iphigénie en Tauride at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon and Vivaldi Farnace with the Tony Award-winning theatre director Garry Hynes at the Spoleto Festival in the United States.
Together with LNM, David has made award-winning recordings for Pentatone and Harmonia Mundi. Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice on Pentatone, featuring Iestyn Davies and Sophie Bevan being shortlisted for a 2020 Gramophone Award and their CDs for Harmonia Mundi having received ‘Le choix de France Musique’ and Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’.
FOR USE IN THE 2023/24 SEASON
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