Bass
Julian Close
The Bartered BrideBiography
Julian Close read for a PhD in Applied Physics at the University of Leeds before going on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music. Previously for Irish National Opera he has sung Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto and the First Soldier in Richard Strauss’s Salome. He has appeared with major companies throughout the UK including the Royal Opera, English National Opera, Opera North, Garsington Opera, Welsh National Opera, and with the BBC Philharmonic in the Bridgewater Hall, the Barbican, the Royal Albert Hall and Saffron Hall. He sang the Theatre Manager/Banker in Berg’s Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and also with Dutch National Opera, and Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires.
His North American engagements have included roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Symphony, Washington National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has made numerous broadcasts on television and radio as well as global cinema screenings from the Metropolitan Opera. Recent engagements have included Talpa in Puccini’s Il tabarro and Simone in Gianni Schicchi for Scottish Opera’s production of Il trittico, Indra in Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore and Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto for Dorset Opera Festival, and the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Saffron Opera Group. Julian recently returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto. At Longborough Festival Opera he sang Hunding in Wagner’s Die Walküre, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, and King Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
Future engagements include his debut for Grange Park Opera, singing Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Hunding in Die Walküre and Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. He also performs Timur in Puccini’s Turandot at the St Endellion Festival in North Cornwall.
November 2025.