Anthony Michaels-Moore

Anthony Michaels-Moore (born 8 April 1957) is an English operatic baritone and the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition (Philadelphia, 1985) Anthony has since performed in many of the world's major opera houses across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He has distinguished himself as a specialist in Verdi and Puccini roles, most renowned for his portrayals of Rigoletto, Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra, Iago in Otello, Germont in La traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Scarpia in Tosca. In addition to the standard repertoire, he has sung and recorded the baritone roles of some of the less-known 19th Century Italian operas.

Anthony currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Michaels-Moore was born in Essex. Between 1975 and 1978, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment while studying music and history at Newcastle University upon Tyne, and, after a year at Fenham teacher training college, he became a primary school teacher. From 1981 onward he studied singing privately, became a member of the chorus at the English Bach Festival from 1982-4. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1984–85, earning a MMus/MA in Opera. In 1985 Anthony was named the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition and sang the roles of Messenger (Oedipus rex) for Opera North and Scarpia in Tosca for Scottish Opera Go Round.

His career has been centered on the Italian repertoire, starting with lyric roles, but now focused on the great Verdi baritone roles. A review of his 2009 performances of Rigoletto with English National Opera noted his ability to be both "gloriously lyrical and terrifyingly baleful at the same time", combining beautiful Italianate legato with "monstrous power". Another reviewer of that production opined that "he is [Britain's] leading Verdi baritone". Performances in Canada as Rigoletto ("performing with amazing presence, his dark voice suited the character perfectly… brought a remarkable breadth of expression to the role") and in Europe as Scarpia ("he is obsequiously, sadistically, loathsomely mellifluous") as well as Falstaff in 2010 have also drawn high praise.

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