Langridge, Philip (Gordon)
Langridge, Philip (Gordon)
Langridge, Philip (Gordon), esteemed English tenor; b. Hawkhurst, Kent, Dec. 16, 1939. He studied violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London; took voice lessons with Bruce Boyce and Celia Bizony. He was active as a violinist but also began to make appearances as a singer from 1962. He first sang at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1964, and made regular appearances there from 1977; also sang at the Edinburgh Festivals from 1970. He appeared at Milan’s La Scala in 1979; then sang for the first time at London’s Covent Garden as the Fisherman in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale in 1983. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Ferrando in Così fan tutte on Jan. 5, 1985. He was chosen to create the role of Orpheus in Birtwistle’s opera The Mask of Orpheus at London’s English National Opera in 1986. In 1992 he appeared as Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex at the inaugural operatic production at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto. He portrayed Jupiter in Semele at Covent Garden in 1996. After singing Captain Vere in Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera in 1997, he returned there as Schoenberg’s Aron in 1999. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1994. Admired as both an operatic and a concert singer, Langridge maintains an extensive repertoire ranging from the Baroque masters to contemporary works. He is married to Ann Murray.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire