Northern Irish baritone Ben McAteer’s recently made his debut at Theater an der Wien as Pangloss Candide (one of his signature roles) with Marin Alsop in a new production by Lydia Steier, leading to an immediate reinvitation. Joining Alsop again, he sings Szymanowski’s Stabat mater this season in Brussels and Katowice, and also returns to Wexford Festival Opera for Stanford’s The Critic and as Falke Die Fledermaus to Irish National Opera, followed by his debut at The Grange Festival in the same role. Among recent additions to his repertoire are Germont La Traviata (covered for English National Opera) and Malatesta Don Pasquale and Officer Two/Blazes The Lighthouse (INO). A natural performer of Gilbert & Sullivan, he recently also appeared as Earl Mountararat Iolanthe at ENO and Grand Inquisitor The Gondoliers and King Paramount Utopia Limited for Scottish Opera and for the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.
Recent concert work includes Haydn’s Creation with the Ulster Orchestra and Daniele Rustioni, Brahms’ German Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and a return to the Hamburg Symphony for Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri.
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Orff Carmina Burana, Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Usher Hall Edinburgh (November 2024)
Best of all was baritone Ben McAteer… who sounded lyrically persuasive in the Spring music, forthright in the love scenes, and semi-deranged in the tavern numbers.'
Simon Thompson, The Arts Desk
Ben McAteer’s gorgeously full baritone alternated with falsetto in the tricky “Dies nox et omnia” and he was a wonderfully entertaining abbott who had clearly discovered the Jumblies’ stash of Ring-bo-Ree.
David Smythe, Bachtrack
The Critic (Sir Walter Raleigh)
Wexford Festival Opera (October 2024)
Ben McAteer as Sir Walter Raleigh and Oliver Johnston as Sir Christopher Hatton made a great comic duo, the former’s baritone melding beautiful with the latter’s tenor line.
Andrew Larkin, Bachtrack*****
Candide (Dr Pangloss), Theater an der Wien
(January 2024)
Ben McAteer as Dr. Pangloss is equipped with tangled hair à la Einstein. He sings it robustly and confidently.
Dr. Helmut Christian Mayer, Opera Online
Ben McAteer made light work of Pangloss’ witty numbers
Mark Pullinger, Opera Now****
Ben McAteer as Dr Pangloss gave a wonderful parody of the philosopher Voltaire
Gerhard Persché, Opera Magazine
Ben McAteer entertainingly presents the parody of a cute, quirky German provincial scholar.
Frieder Reininghaus, Neue Muzik Zeitung
“The cast delivered exceptional performances… [a further standout] was Ben McAteer, dual cast as Dr Pangloss and Martin.
Chanda VanderHart, Bachtrack*****
…the concerned scholar Dr. Pangloss (Ben McAteer, funny and with tangled cliche hair à la Albert Einstein)
Ljubiša Tošić, Der Standard
Ben McAteer is a sonorous Dr. Pangloss with a fine sense of humor
Regine Müller, Die Deutsche Buhne
Northern Irish baritone Ben McAteer gave a sonorous and funny Dr. Pangloss
Harald Lacina, Online Merker
Iolanthe (Lord Mountararat), English National Opera
London Coliseum (October 2023)
Comedy and vocal gold came once again from Ben McAteer as the Earl of Mountararat
David Nice, The Arts Desk****
Ben McAteer as a closeted Earl of Mountararat [is] in terrific voice.
Michael Billington, The Guardian****
Ben McAteer’s imposing, finely-enunciated Mountararat was in the old-school Donald Adams class.
Christopher Webber, Opera Magazine
Both Earls hit the spot – Ben McAteer (Mountararat) sang a lusty and jingoistic ‘When Britain ruled the waves’ and has all the makings of a future Lord Chancellor
John Rhodes, Seen and Heard International
'If there is an institution in Great Britain which is not susceptible of any improvement at all, it is the … stage manager!,' improvised baritone Ben McAteer, who wins this year’s Culture Whisper trophy for quick thinking. The show briefly came to a standstill while a technical problem was resolved, and then cranked back into action.
Claudia Pritchard, Culture Whisper
Northern Ireland baritone, Ben McAteer, revives his acclaimed role of Earl of Mountararat
Tony Cooper, The Opera Critic
Ruairi Bowen and Ben McAteer make for a brilliant combination as Earls Tolloller and Mountararat respectively, with McAteer also returning to his role.
Sam Smith, Opera Online
Dove Mansfield Park (Sir Thomas Bertram)
Byre Opera (June 2023)
The biggest impact in Byre’s updated production—everything from mobile phones to social media screenshots and lounge lizard costuming—came from characters with the most extrovert lines, notably Ben McAteer’s imposing Sir Thomas Bertram...
Andrew Clark, Opera Magazine
CD: Maltworms and Milkmaids: Warlock and the Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra
[EM Records EMRCD080] (August 2023)
...the star of the album is Ben McAteer whose agreeably lyrical baritone can effortlessly muster plenty of much-called-upon swagger and suggestive tongue-in-cheekery.
Paul Riley, BBC Music Magazine
… characterfully sung by baritone Ben McAteer whose enunciation is excellent… [In ‘Mr Belloc’s Fancy’ and ‘Captain Stratton’s Fancy’] McAteer, robust of voice and crisp of diction, enters fully into the spirit... McAteer proves an engaging storyteller.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Haydn The Creation, Ulster Orchestra
Ulster Hall (April 2023)
Ben McAteer, who sounded rich and savoury and heroic and who basically stole the show by leaning into the guileless comedy of Haydn’s musical depictions of birds and beasts: bleating like a sheep and hollowing out his voice, poker-faced, for that most collectible of lines, ‘In long dimension / Creeps with sinuous trace the worm’. Performances of The Creation tend, by their nature, to be cheerful occasions, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed an audience laughing out loud, or indeed rising to their feet for what looked like a wholly unpremeditated ovation.
Richard Bratby, The Spectator
Don Pasquale (Malatesta), Irish National Opera
(November 2022)
[Masterson] and Danby are ideally complemented – both vocally and in dramatic energy and comic timing – by baritone Ben McAteer as Pasquale’s friend Malatesta (the plastic surgeon)
Michael Dungan, The Irish Times
Ben McAteer as a Malatesta sounding more handsome of voice than the pre-show caution of his ailing state suggested: just perfect, in fact.
David Nice, The Arts Desk****
Ben McAteer summons gravitas as Dr Malatesta
Katy Hayes, Irish Independent
“McActeer’s fine visual portrayal of Malatesta” [whilst walking the part]
Ian Fox, Opera Magazine
Strong work all round from the… bullish Malatesta (Ben McAteer)
Robert Thicknesse, Opera Now
Lalla Roukh (Baskir)
Wexford National Opera (October 2022)
The Irish baritone balanced buffo
banter – the patter ever clear – with vocal finesse, in a strongly characterised performance.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Ben McAteer, from Northern Ireland and making his Wexford debut, was Baskir, who has never seen the king (essential to plot plausibility so he can spend the opera ignorantly frustrating his boss). He is a dupe made sympathetic by a fine voice… His sparring with Mirza was entertaining, vocally and histrionically… This season is labelled “Magic and Music” and what casting Wexford can often conjure up.
Roy Westbrook, Bachtrack****
Ben McAteer’s natural charisma and histrionic know-how meant his Baskir almost stole the show
Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine
…baritone Ben McAteer capering in the chief comic role of court official Baskir
George Hall, The Stage*****
Ben McAteer as Baskir is responsible for the funny moments. He has a hard time keeping the princess away from the poet and scores with a wonderful buffo-baritone. In interaction with O'Sullivan, McAteer also convinces with humorous play when he succumbs to the maid's attempts to flirt and thus allows himself to be distracted so that Lalla-Roukh can meet her Nourreddin again. Another highlight is the duet with Nourreddin in the second act, in which he tries to trick the king without realizing that he is talking to the king himself. When he subsequently fears for his life because Nourreddin and Lalla-Roukh have tricked him, he expresses this in a brilliant couplet, in which he is literally thrown across the stage by the dancers in the shopping cart like on a ship in a storm.
Thomas Molke, Online Musik Magazin
Utopia Ltd (King Paramount), National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company
(September 2022)
The singing was splendid, too. McAteer …who’d sounded positively Wagnerian as he announced his resolve to turn his kingdom into a limited liability company at the end of Act One, was an imposing and intensely sympathetic figure
Richard Bratby, The Arts Desk****
The usual G&S material was all present, nonsense and wit balanced with lyrical tunes and compelling ensembles. The cast captured it all with enthusiasm, with hats in the first act differentiating the suited men. Ben McAteer was suavely confident as King Paramount
David Smythe, Bachtrack****
Ben McAteer’s portrayal of a rather ineffectual king who turns into an effective one is finely played – in the trio where he eavesdrops on the plotting of Phantis and Scaphio, he conveys decided glee.
Catriona Graham, The Opera Critic
Opera Repertoire
| Bernstein | Candide (Voltaire/Pangloss/Martin) |
|---|---|
| Britten | The Rape of Lucretia (Tarquinius) |
| Gilbert & Sullivan | HMS Pinafore (Captain Corcoran) |
| Henze | Boulevard Solitude (Lescaut)* |
| Humperdinck | Hansel & Gretel (Peter) |
| Janáček | From the House of the Dead (Goryanchikov) |
| Korngold | Die Tote Stadt (Frank/Fritz) |
| MacRae | The Devil Inside (James) |
| Massenet | La Navarraise (Remigio) |
| Mozart | Così fan tutte (Guglielmo) |
| Puccini | La Bohème (Marcello) |
| Purcell | Dido & Aeneas (Aeneas) |
| Rorem | Our Town (Mr Webb) |
| Strauss | Die Fledermaus (Falke) |
| Tchaikovsky | Eugene Onegin (title role)* |
| Verdi | Rigoletto (Marullo) |
| *role studied/covered |
Oratorio / Masses Repertoire
| J.S. Bach | Christmas Oratorio |
|---|---|
| Beethoven | Symphony No. 9 – “Choral" |
| Brahms | Requiem |
| Durufle | A German Requiem |
| Elgar | The Apostles (Jesus) The Dream of Gerontius The Kingdom (St Peter) |
| Fauré | Requiem |
| Handel | Dixit Dominus |
| Haydn | Nelson Mass |
| Mealor | Crucifixus |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| Mozart | Requiem |
| Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Stravinsky | Pulcinella |
| Sullivan | The Golden Legend |
| Vivaldi | Magnificat in G |
Orchestral Song / Other Repertoire
| Adams | The Wound Dresser |
|---|---|
| Copland | Old American Songs |
| Delius | Cynara |
| Finzi | Let Us Garlands Bring |
| Hay | The Wind Among the Reeds |
| Schubert | Mass in G |
| Stanford | Songs of the Fleet |
| Turnage | At Sixes & Sevens |
| V. Williams | Fantasia on Christmas Carols |
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