Jacques Imbrailo

The South African baritone studied at the Royal College of Music under Ryland Davies and with the highly prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Among his most important Covent Garden roles have been Count Almaviva/The Marriage of Figaro, Malatesta/Don Pasquale, Schaunard/ La bohéme, Demetrius/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the title role/Owen Wingrave. Imbrailo has made a strong impression internationally in Mozart roles: Guglielmo/Così fan tutte (Houston Grand Opera), Count Almaviva (Welsh National Opera, Opéra de Lille), the title role/Don Giovanni (Scottish Opera), and Papageno/The Magic Flute (WNO). He also appeared in repertoire as diverse as Aeneas/ Dido and Aeneas (Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera), Figaro/The Barber of Seville (WNO), Valentin/Faust (Baden-Baden), Pelléas/Pelléas et Mélisande (WNO, Essen, DVD), and Tarquinius/The Rape of Lucretia (Houston). The baritone has earned particular acclaim as Billy Budd (Glyndebourne, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dutch National Opera, CD, DVD). Among his concert credits are Carmina Burana (New York Philharmonic), Britten’s War Requiem (Madrid’s Teatro Real), Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’s Requiem, and numerous solo Lieder recitals. Imbrailo was awarded the Audience Prize at the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition

Lyric Opera debut: Joachim Messner/ Bel Canto (2015|16)

Last updated: December 7, 2015
Photo: Sim Canetty Clark