Biography

Bass-baritone Christopher Purves has performed operatic roles from the Baroque to contemporary repertory and has sung choral music at the Proms and other major venues. His background is unusual in that it includes a substantial career in popular music with the doo-wop/jazz vocal group Harvey & the Wallbangers. Purves was born on October 11, 1961, in Cambridge, England. He shared with many other classical performers the background of boy chorister and choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge. He majored in English at King's College and, after graduating, joined Harvey & the Wallbangers in 1983. In that group, he not only sang bass but also played the trumpet. He left the group as it was dissolving in 1987 and performed for a time as a freelance experimental vocalist, also taking on gigs as an additional vocalist for the best-selling chorus The Sixteen. In the 1990s, Purves began to find roles with touring opera companies. He told Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph that he had received valuable advice from director Claire Venables while working on a production of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen: "Stop trying to pretend to be someone you're not. Just do nothing." From 1997 onward, Purves had recurring roles with Britain's Opera North company; his association with The Sixteen and its director, Harry Christophers, led to solo vocal appearances under top early music vocal conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe and Richard Hickox. He performed John Tavener's 140-minute Apocalypse at the Proms with the City of London Sinfonia. In later years, Purves has essayed major operatic bass and baritone roles, including Alberich in Wagner's Das Rheingold (at the Houston Grand Opera) and Verdi's Falstaff. He appeared in the 2010 film musical Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy). Purves was heard as Figaro on a 2004 Chandos recording of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and, in the 2010s, released two albums of Handel's bass (or "Base") arias with the early music ensemble Arcangelo and director Jonathan Cohen; the second volume appeared in 2018. The following year, Purves was heard as the bass soloist in conductor Martyn Brabbins' recording of Elgar's rarely heard cantata Caractacus, and he returned in 2023 on the recital My Soul, What Fear You? with pianist Simon Lepper. ~ James Manheim, Rovi