About Brett Polegato

Brett Polegato’s artistic sensibility has earned him the highest praise from audiences and critics: “his is a serious and seductive voice,” says The Globe and Mail, and The New York Times has praised him for his “burnished, well-focused voice” which he uses with “considerable intelligence and nuance.” The Italian-Canadian baritone appears regularly on the world’s most distinguished stages, and has collaborated with such conductors as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniele Gatti, Andris Nelsons, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Jeffrey Tate, Marc Minkowski, and Martyn Brabbins. He can be heard as soloist in the Grammy Awards’ Best Classical Recording of 2003 – Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (Telarc) with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Robert Spano.

In recognition of his lifetime achievement in the field of classical music, Brett was presented with a 2024 Opera Canada Ruby Award. The award represents the highest honour in Canadian opera.

One of today’s most sought-after lyric baritones on the operatic stage, Brett has made a name for himself in a number of dramatic roles, most notably the title roles in Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin, which his has sung at the Canadian Opera Company, the New Israeli Opera, Grange Park Opera and Vancouver Opera, and Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca for Grange Park Opera (UK).

Brett has become something of a contemporary opera specialist and is in much demand as the creator of new roles. One of his most important career highlights was the World Premiere of Kevin Puts’ new opera, The Hours in 2022. At the request of maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Brett created the role of Richard Brown, opposite the Clarissa of Renée Fleming, in concert performances of the work with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In 2024, he created the role of Prospero in the World Premiere of Anthony Bolton’s new opera, Island of Dreams, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest for Grange Park Opera (UK), and in 2023 he sang the title role in the Canadian premiere of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.

In 2019, Brett made his long-awaited debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Massenet’s Manon. The final performance was broadcast live in cinemas around the world and was later televised on PBS’s Great Performances.

Polegato’s discography shifts as seamlessly through genres as his live appearances. In addition to the Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, his recordings include the Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem (ASO Media), Ben Moore’s Ode To A Nightingale (Delos), his critically praised solo disc, To A Poet, with pianist Iain Burnside (CBC Records) and a live period-instrument performance of Messiah with the Handel & Haydn Society (Arabesque Recordings).

With the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra he has recorded Bach’s Coffee and Peasant Cantatas (Analekta-Fleur de Lys) and, most recently, Handel’s Messiah. In 2000, CBC Records released a disc entitled Opera Encores that joined him with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra led by Richard Bradshaw.

He finished first among the men at the 1995 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Mr. Polegato is represented exclusively by Simon Goldstone at Rayfield Allied.