Peter Coleman-Wright
Peter Coleman-Wright (born 13 October 1958) is an Australian baritone from Geelong. He began his career at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he sang Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte", winning the Touring Prize. Subsequently, he sang Sid in "Albert Herring" and Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Pizzaro in "Fidelio". Career. He performed many roles for English National Opera (ENO) including Don Giovanni, Figaro, Billy Budd, Onegin, Scarpia, Michele in "Il tabarro", Toreador, The Forester in "The Cunning Little Vixen", Traveller in "Death in Venice", Henze's Prince von Homburg, and The Prisoner by Dallapiccola . He made his Royal Opera Covent Garden debut as Dandini in "La Cenerentola" and has sung many roles for the company for 20 years. Roles include Billy Budd, Papageno, Don Alvaro in "Il viaggio a Reims", The Narrator in "Paul Bunyan", Marcello, Ping, Donner, Gunther and Beckmesser. A champion of new works, he has premiered several roles for ENO, namely "The Plumber's Gift" by David Blake and "Inquest of Love" by Jonathan Harvey and "Caligula" by Detlev Glanert. He made his European debut as the Soldier in Busoni's "Doktor Faust" for Netherlands Opera and subsequently worked for Bordeaux , Geneva, Bastille Paris, La Fenice Venice, Munich, Vienna, Brussels, Bregenz and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, La Scala Milan singing many roles including Don Giovanni, the Count in "The Marriage of Figaro", Marcello, Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly", The Traveller in "Death in Venice" and The Forester. He made his American debut as Don Giovanni at New York City Opera and his Metropolitan Opera debut as Dr. Falke in "Die Fledermaus" returning for Marcello, Fieramosca ("Benvenuto Cellini") and Belcore in "L'elisir d'amore". He sang Sharpless for the opening of the new theatre at Santa Fe and Rodrigo in "Don Carlos" and Sharpless  for Houston Grand Opera. He also created the role of Henry Miles in Jake Heggie's "The End of the Affair". He has sung many roles for Opera Australia, including Golaud ("Pelléas et Mélisande"), Billy Budd, Scarpia, Don Giovanni, Mandryka, Macbeth, , The Traveller for which he won Helpmann Award in 2006 for best supporting male. He created the role of Harry Joy in Brett Dean's 2010 opera "Bliss" (Brett Dean wrote the role especially for Coleman-Wright) which he also performed at the Edinburgh International Festival. He was the soloist in the performance of Dean's "The Last Days  of Socrates" which won the 2014 APRA Award for Performance of the Year. He has been a very active concert singer working with many conductors and in most of the great concert halls, including Royal Albert Hall, London South Bank, Barbican, Wigmore Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, St Cecilia Rome, Luxembourg, Aldeburgh Festival, and Avery Fisher Hall New York. At the 2002 Helpmann Awards, he won the Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical for his role in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". The recording of Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" with Coleman -Wright won the 2014 International Classical Music Award. Coleman-Wright was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours. In 2020, he was appointed artistic director for National Opera Canberra and, with his wife as co-artistic director, for Pacific Opera, Sydney. Personal life. Coleman-Wright is married to operatic soprano Cheryl Barker and they have a son, Gabriel. Along with his wife, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 2009; they both received the Order of Australia in the same year, 2015. The couple performed together  in "Tosca" (2002, ENO and 2005, Opera Australia), the world premiere of Jake Heggie's "The End of the Affair" (2004, Houston Grand Opera), "Arabella" (2008, Opera Australia, Sydney Opera House and State Theatre (Melbourne)). They gave several concert recitals together, (2008 in Sydney with Piers Lane, 2012 in Melbourne with Ensemble Liaison) and the semi-staged performance of "Kiss Me, Kate" in 2016 at QPAC in Brisbane. In 2021, Coleman-Wright sang Jupiter in Neil Armfield's production of Rameau's "Platée" for Pinchgut Opera opposite Barker's Juno. Awards. Mo Awards. The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known  informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Peter Coleman-Wright won two awards in that time.