Singing in talent quests and acting in
musicals and plays early in life fuelled a love of performing until, as
an adult, appearances with The Australian Opera and Tasmanian Opera
Company encouraged Christopher to give up teaching for an operatic
career that has spanned 35 years.
In Germany Christopher built up a repertoire of more than
30 roles in opera, operetta and musicals before returning to Australia
in 1981. After engagements with the state companies in Queensland,
Victoria and South Australia, Christopher joined the national opera
company in 1983.
In Australia, displaying chameleon qualities in a wide
variety of roles, he has sung Monostatos in The Magic Flute,
Poisson in Adriana Lecouvreur, Mendel in Fiddler on the Roof,
Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers, Trabuco in La Forza
del Destino , Basilio/Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro,
Spoletta in Tosca, Pang/Emperor in Turandot, Goro in
Madama Butterfly, Trin in Girl of the Golden West, Tinca in
Il Tabarro, Bardolfo in Falstaff, Missail in Boris
Godunov, Rector/Bob Boles in Peter Grimes, Snout in A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Lucano in The Coronation of Poppea,
Remendado in Carmen, Triquet in Eugene Onegin, Baron
Zsupan in Countess Maritza, Moser/Vogelgesang in The
Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Rustighello in Lucrezia Borgia,
Njegus in The Merry Widow, Blind in Die Fledermaus,
Schmidt in Werther, Schoolmaster in The Cunning Little Vixen,
Schreiber in Tannhäuser, Premier in The Eighth Wonder,
Leonato in Beatrice and Benedick, Feri in The Gypsy Princess,
Incredibile in Andrea Chenier, Pirelli in Sweeny Todd, de
Morfontaine in Manon, Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe, Benoit/Alcindoro
in La Bohème,
Borsa in Rigoletto, and Pimpinelli in
Paganini.
Recordings and videos for The Australian Opera/Opera
Australia are: Voss, Tosca, The Mastersingers, La Traviata, The Merry
Widow, Adriana Lecouvreur, Nabucco and Fledermaus.
In 1990 Christopher performed the role of David in Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the New Zealand International
Festival of the Arts then left real opera behind to take on the role of
the fictional opera tenor Piangi in the Australian premiere season of
The Phantom of the Opera - a role he performed over 700 times before
rejoining Opera Australia in 1993.
Since 2005 Christopher has added a behind-the-scenes role
as Assistant Director on Pinafore/Trial by Jury, Turandot
and La Bohème
for Opera
Australia. He most recently assisted in a successful staging of
Turandot for State Opera South Australia and will shortly reprise
this Graham Murphy production for Opera Queensland.
