Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Bass

Since the outset of his career in 2006, Anglo-French Bass Edwin Crossley-Mercer has been a regular presence on the stages of Europe’s major opera houses and concerts halls, from debuts at the prestigious Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Easter Festivals, to performances with the renowned orchestras of Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London and Los Angeles.  An exemplary musicianship has allowed Crossley-Mercer to embrace a wide-ranging repertoire of roles across the baroque, classical and contemporary styles bringing collaborations with some of the finest conductors of our day including Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Philippe Jordan, Andris Nelsons, Riccardo Minasi and Leonardo García Alarcón.

From an earlier bass-baritone repertoire – focused principally on Mozart, Rossini, Handel and Rameau – today, Crossley-Mercer’s bass voice lends itself to a rich repertoire of roles by composers including Beethoven, Berg, Britten, Strauss, Verdi and Wagner. With a natural affinity for the French composers, Berlioz, Gounod, Massenet and Meyerbeer firmly feature on his performance schedule marking debuts at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival in Béatrice et Bénédicte, with the Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle in La damnation de Faust, at The Dallas Opera in Manon, with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Daniel Harding in Roméo et Juliette, at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence/Sir Mark Elder in Le Prophète, and with Orchestre National de France in L’enfance du Christ.

Most recent seasons for Edwin Crossley-Mercer have highlighted his vocal versatility with Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon at Opéra national de Lyon/Daniele Rustioni, Wagner’s Tannhäuser at Osterfestspiele Salzburg/Andris Nelsons,  von Weber’s Der Freischutz at Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin/Daniel Barenboim, Reimann’s Lear at Bayerische Staatsoper/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Rossini’s Guillame Tell under Diego Matheuz and Britten’s Peter Grimes under Thomas Guggeis at Theater an der Wien, Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Opernhaus Zürich/Riccardo Minasi and the Bayerische Staatsoper/Antonello Manacorda, as well as Handel’s Jeptha at the Händel Festspeiele Halle/Christophe Rousset, Rameau’s Les Indes galantes at Opéra national de Paris/Leonardo García Alarcón, and Rameau’s Platée for Gran Teatre del Liceu and Theater an der Wien under William Christie .  

Enjoying a buoyant concert career, Crossley-Mercer has amassed a broad and varied concert repertoire including Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Bach’s Matthäus-Passion.

A sought-after recitalist and former student of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Crossley-Mercer has presented lied and art song programmes at Bad Kissingen, Festspeiele Mecklenburg, Musée d’Orsay, Festival de Pâques, Festival International de Colmar, and at the Louvre. Twice a Grammy-Award nominée, Edwin Crossley-Mercer’s discography includes several baroque programmes (Charpentier and Lully), a collaboration with American composer Michael Linton on Carmina Catulli and Wilde Songs, a compilation of mélodies by Nadia Boulanger, and Schubert‘s Die Winterreise.