And here’s David Himself…
Clapham resident, trustee of St Paul’s Opera and opera grandee as librettist of Powder Her Face (Thomas Ades) Philip Hensher (inset, below) quizzes David Butt Philip on his past, present and future
Philip Hensher: How did you start singing professionally?
David Butt Philip: Well, I was a cathedral chorister! So you could say that I was singing professionally from a very young age. I was singing there from the ages of 11 to 14. After that, I had a bit of a break from classical music until I went to university. And after that I went to the Royal Northern College of Music.
PH: Is it unusual to move from being a baritone, as you were in your twenties, to a tenor as you now are? How hard was it to shift?
DBP: It’s actually not that unusual. Male voices change a lot during your twenties. I had six years singing at the conservatoire as a baritone. I left at 28 and changed over two years. It was both my own consideration and reflection and supported by advice from others. It happened while I was singing in the Glyndebourne chorus – I consulted with a few different people.
PH: Your early career included a period as part of Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. What did that involve, and what did it teach you?
DBP: It was an interesting opportunity! You could say it was a half-and-half position – half training and half a job. What did it teach me? Confidence in the tenor repertory, and the ability to stand on stage with singers at the absolute top of the profession and not freak out. There is an impostor syndrome that needs to be beaten, and that helped a lot. And of course it introduced me to a wide range of repertory.
PH: What would you say the highlights of your career have been since then?
David Butt Philip as Apollo in Daphne: Wiener Staatsoper, September 2023
DBP: Certainly my debut at the Met in New York, in Boris Godunov. And last year, two new productions. One was Rusalka at Covent Garden. The other was Meistersinger at the Vienna State Opera, taking the role of Walther von Stolzing.
PH: What have been the companies you’ve most enjoyed working with?
DBP: All of them have been enjoyable, but maybe the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Vienna State Opera both feel like homes away from home.
PH: Is Vienna a challenge to sing in?
DBP: Well, the auditorium is actually quite small! But the challenge is that the orchestra pit is quite high – the orchestra can be very loud.
PH: What are the roles you’d love to sing in the future?
DBP: I would love to sing Cavaradossi in Tosca, and Werther. The Wagner roles – I think I’ll stick to the ones I’ve sung, for the moment in Lohengrin, Meistersinger, and Erik in The Flying Dutchman.
PH: How did you come to be connected to St Paul’s Opera?
David Butt Philip as Apollo, Daniel Jenz as Leukippos, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Daphne
DBP: It was through a friend of friend. Tricia Ninian (SPO founder) is a good friend of Mary Lucille Hindmarch, who is a friend of my family. I’ve known her since I was a very small child. We started with a masterclass. It was a very positive and constructive experience! When you’re starting to give a masterclass, you fear that you might have nothing to say. And then when it starts, you realise that you have three hundred things to say.
PH: What can we expect from your gala at St Paul’s Church in Clapham this coming Friday?
DBP: There might be some less obvious repertory than in the past. We might have used up some obvious repertory in previous concerts in the last two years. The other thing you can expect - with two sopranos [Rainelle Krause and Alison Langer] taking part, some exciting high notes!
David Butt Philip as Apollo, Daniel Jenz as Leukippos, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Daphne