Laurence Dale

Laurence Dale, born in 1957, is an English tenor, stage director, artistic director, and conductor. He received his vocal training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under Rudolf Piernay, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Dale's performing career began with prominent operatic engagements in the early 1980s. In 1982 he sang the role of Hilarion in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Princess Ida with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Opera Chorus, and in 1983 he appeared as Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. That same year he made his Broadway appearance in Peter Brook's La Tragédie de Carmen. Dale had originally created the role of Don José in that production at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris in 1981, sustaining it across three seasons that included the New York engagement. In 1984 he appeared in the Channel 4 television series Top C's and Tiaras.

Among his most celebrated portrayals was Tamino, a role with which he opened Mozart Year in Salzburg in 1991. He subsequently performed the role at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and the Paris Opéra Bastille. In 1992 he created the role of Rodrigue in the world premiere of Debussy's Rodrigue et Chimène, staged to open the new opera house in Lyon and recorded for Erato Records under Kent Nagano. The following year, Dale performed the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo as part of Herbert Wernicke's production at the 1993 Salzburg Festival, and subsequently recorded the role under René Jacobs for Harmonia Mundi.

His discography encompasses a wide range of repertoire. He recorded Gounod's Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile alongside Barbara Hendricks and Jean-Philippe Lafont under Georges Prêtre, Mozart's C minor Mass under Franz Welser-Möst, and the title roles in Auber's Gustave III and Méhul's Joseph en Egypte. Additional recordings include Francesco Cavalli's La Didone with the Balthazar-Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Chausson's La Légende de Sainte Cécile under Jean-Jacques Kantorow for EMI Classics, and Boïeldieu's Le Calife de Bagdad under Antonio de Almeida.

His transition into stage direction grew directly from his performing work. Peter Brook invited Dale to redirect La Tragédie de Carmen for the Opéra de Bordeaux and subsequent touring productions. He went on to direct a broad range of works across Europe and beyond. At the Lehár Festival in Bad Ischl he directed Der Zarewitsch in 2000, Der Graf von Luxemburg in 2003, and Das Land des Lächelns in a co-production with Salzburg. In 2000 he also directed Haydn's L'Incontro improvviso for the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt and EXPO 2000 in Hannover. For New York's Gotham Chamber Opera in 2002 he mounted Milhaud's Les Malheurs d'Orphée and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, both designed by Dipu Gupta and Fabio Toblini and conducted by Neal Goren. In 2001 he directed the French premiere of Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face at Nantes, conducted by John Burdekin.

As Artistic Director of the Opéra de Metz, Dale staged Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Adès's Powder Her Face, and Lehár's Das Land des Lächelns. He also mounted the modern stage premiere of Auber's Gustave III alongside the French premiere of the original version of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, and completed that season with Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots starring Rockwell Blake as Raoul. His 2006 production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos for the Opéra de Monte Carlo was subsequently redirected for the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège in 2009. In South Africa, serving as Artistic Consultant to Opera Africa in Gauteng, he directed Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Verdi's Aida, and created Opera Extravaganza to develop and showcase South African singers. In 2023 he directed Verdi's Simon Boccanegra for Opera Philadelphia, and in 2025 directed Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

Dale served as Artistic Director of the Festival International d'Evian, Les Escales Musicales, from 2001 to 2012, and was additionally named Musical Director of the festival. On March 16, 2008, he stepped in for an indisposed conductor at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg and led the Johannesburg Philharmonic in a performance of Aida, an event that led to further conducting engagements. In 2009 he conducted the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne in a program including Fauré's Requiem alongside works by Wagner and Rossini, and in 2010 he conducted the Philharmonie of the Nations. In June 2011 he conducted the chorus and orchestra of the Opéra National de Lorraine at Evian in Gounod's Messe de Sainte Cécile and the French premiere of Elgar's The Music Makers. In 2024, Dale collaborated with composer and conductor George Petrou on a new opera pastiche, Sarrasine, which premiered on May 10, 2024, at the Göttingen International Handel Festival.