Brett, Charles (Michael)

views updated

Brett, Charles (Michael)

Brett, Charles (Michael), English countertenor; b. Maidenhead, Oct. 27, 1941. He studied with Julian Smith (1957–60) and John Whitworth (1958–60), and at King’s Coll., Cambridge (B.A., 1963; M.A., 1967), where his mentors were Willcocks, Dart, and Leppard. In 1964 he made his debut as a soloist with the Monteverdi Choir and Orch. under Gardiner’s direction in Cambridge, and subsequently was engaged to sing around the globe with many of the leading conductors and orchs. He made his recital debut in 1968 at the Winter Gardens in Malvern. Following his operatic debut as Angelica in Fux’s Vinitrice di Alcina at the Graz Opera in 1984, he sang in Handel’s Semele in Ludwigsburg (1985), Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito in Tourcoing and on tour in France (1986), and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Aachen (1987–88). In 1995 he directed a production of Dido and Aeneas at the Cervantino Festival in Mexico.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire