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Born in Australia and a resident of Paris, Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu studied piano and violin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and later on choral directing and singing. Among his teachers were Peter Lindroos and Howard Crook. His present teacher is Elisabeth Werres.
Topi Lehtipuu made his stage debuts at the Vantaa Opera (Finnish National Opera) in the title role of Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring), at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and then appeared as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. He soon performed at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and made a stunning role debut as Belmonte at the FNO in Helsinki.
The major Mozart tenor roles are now a central part of his repertoire, as well as the works of Monteverdi, Rameau, and George Frideric Handel. Much sought-after for his fine interpretation of New as well as Old Music, Topi Lehtipuu is often working under the batons of Ivor Bolton, William Christie, René Jacobs and Christophe Rousset, as well as Paul McCreesh, Emmanuelle Haïm, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Schreier and Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Besides his many engagements in France, Finland and at the Salzburg Festival, he has appeared in Los Angeles, Berlin, Dresden, Zürich, London, Madrid and Glyndebourne.
Topi Lehtipuu has sung Hylas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and was heard in the world premiere of Péter Eötvös’s Angels in America (Paris, 2004). He is active on the early-music scene, working under the batons of René Jacobs at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival and the and the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, with William Christie in Rameau's Les Paladins at the Châtelet in Paris; and with Christophe Rousset - lately in period performances of Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail. He has also collaborated with Sir Simon Rattle and with Esa-Pekka Salonen in their projects in Berlin and Los Angeles, respectively. In 2006 he appeared as Ferrando in Così fan tutte at the Glyndebourne Festival; in 2007 he returned to the Paris Opera in G.F. Handel’s Ariodante.
Topi Lehtipuu's extensive concert repertoire includes numerous oratorios and cantatas from J.S. Bach to Monteverdi as well as 20th-century music by such composers as Rautavaara, Schoenberg, and Pärt, to name but a few. He has sung in concerts and toured in Switzerland, the UK, France, Norway, Spain, and Japan, performing with Michel Corboz and the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne or under other renowned conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier, William Christie, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with whom he has recorded several of the Haydn masses (Philips).
In Germany, Topi Lehtipuu has appeared with both the RIAS-Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, at the Dresden Music Festival, at both the Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie in Berlin, including Renard by Igor Stravinsky with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle (2005). He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with two concerts (Mozart's Mass in C minor and Ariodante), and he was re-invited for a production of Zaïde in August 2006.
Among his most prestigious recordings are Rameau’s Les Paladins (William Christie, Les Arts Florissants) in the celebrated Chatelet production, and a CD of Monteverdi's Combattimento together with Rolando Villazón, Patricia Ciofi and Le Concert d'Astrée under Emmanuelle Haïm.
In addition to several concerts and recordings, opera projects until 2011 include G.F. Handel’s Jephta (Opéra du Rhin), Cosí fan tutte (Salzburg) Iphigénie en Tauride (La Monnaie, Brussels), his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with the world premiere of an new Péter Eötvös’ opera, I. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Glyndebourne Festival, La Finta Giardiniera for Theater an der Wien, followed by his Vienna State Opera debut with Cosí fan tutte and another role debut as David/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Glyndebourne Festival. |
