Canadian tenor Colin Ainsworth has distinguished himself with his exceptional singing, remarkable diction, and diverse repertoire stretching from the Baroque to modern music.
Acclaimed for his interpretations of the major Classical and Baroque operas, his many roles have included the title roles in Orphée et Euridice, Pygmalion, Castor et Pollux, Roberto Devereux and Albert Herring; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Fenton in Falstaff, Tonio in La Fille du Régiment, Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Pylades in Iphigénie en Tauride, Renaud in Lully’s Armide, Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress, and Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also an avid supporter of new works, he has appeared in the world premieres of John Estacio’s Lillian Alling at the Vancouver Opera, Stuart MacRae’s The Assassin Tree at the Edinburgh International Festival, Victor Davies’ The Transit of Venus with the Manitoba Opera, and Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna at Sadler’s Wells in London and at the Luminato Festival. Other past opera engagements have included appearances at the Royal Opera House, Chicago Opera Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, L’Opéra Français de New York, Opera Atelier, Pacific Opera Victoria, Calgary Opera, and the Greek National Opera.
A prolific concert singer, Mr. Ainsworth has appeared with the Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, Music of the Baroque in Chicago, Mercury Baroque in Houston, Les Violons du Roy in Montreal, the Nash Ensemble, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. He has also appeared at the Lanaudiere, Montreal Baroque, Elora, and the Aldeburgh Connection festivals. His vast concert and recital repertoire includes Bach’s Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion, and St. John’s Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Dichterliebe and Die Schöne Müllerin and Janáček’s Diary of One Who Vanished. Mr. Ainsworth frequently is in recital singing the music of Schubert, Schumann, Duparc, Fauré and has premiered many new works, especially that of Canadian composer, Derek Holman, of whom he has premiered four song cycles.
Mr. Ainsworth’s growing discography includes Vivaldi’s La Griselda (Naxos), Castor et Pollux (Naxos), Schubert Among Friends (Marquis Classics), Gloria in Excelsis Deo with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (CBC Records), the collected masses of Vanhal, Haydn, and Cherubini with Nicholas McGegan (Naxos), and the premiere recording of Derek Holman’s The Heart Mislaid which was included on the Aldeburgh Connection’s Our Songs (Marquis Classics). He also appears in a live DVD recording of Lully’s Persée with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Euroarts).