Tenor
During a career spanning thirty years, John Brecknock has thrilled audiences worldwide and his voice and presence have graced many of the great opera houses of the world. As well as his many opera roles he has persued a busy concert career. He has many television and radio performances to his name and his work is available on records and CD. Somehow or other he even managed to find time to co-write a successful book, SCALING THE HIGH C'S, published in 1996 in both UK and USA.
Born in Long Eaton, near Nottingham, John studied at The Birmingham School of Music and subsequently, with the late Denis Dowling, a principal baritone with English National Opera for many years. He joined Sadler's Wells Opera in 1967, where he sang many of the roles in his repertoire for the first time. His relationship with the Company continued with the move to the London Coliseum as the English National Opera, and his roles have included DON GIOVANNI (Don Ottavio), IL SERAGLIO (Belmonte), COSI FAN TUTTE (Ferrando), DIE ZAUBERFLOETE (Tamino), LA GAZZA LADRA (Gianetto), MANON (Chevalier de Grieux), ROMEO ET JULIETTE (Romeo), LA TRAVIATA (Alfredo), and LE COMTE ORY (The Count). It was with his singing the title role in a new production of WERTHER in 1977 that he became recognised as a leading exponent of MASSENET's music in England, and he has since sung many performances of French opera thoughout Europe, The United States and Canada.
John made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1974 as Fenton in FALSTAFF and has returned there frequently ever since. However, his work has taken him much further afield. He has sung major roles with The Paris Opera, The Vienna State Opera, and The Victoria State Opera in Australia amongst many others, as well as making many appearances in Eastern Europe.
Across the Atlantic, John has performed in Ottowa, Edmonton, Toronto, San Francisco, Miami, San Diego, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Santiago (Chile) and Buenos Aires. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in 1978 as Don Ottavio in DON GIOVANNI opposite Dame Joan Sutherland.
He is no stranger to television work and he has performed not only for the BBC but in USA, Canada and Australia. Although his home is now in Spain he has continued to visit England to do a series of broadcasts and recordings.
