Christian Curnyn is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading conductors specialising in the Baroque. In 1994, Christian founded the Early Opera Company and with them has given notable performances throughout the UK and abroad, along with multiple award-winning recordings for the Chandos label. Their recording of Semele was chosen as a Best Recording of 2008 by The Sunday Times, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine and awarded the 2008 Stanley Sadie Handel Prize. Other award-winning discs include Eccles’ The Judgement of Paris, (awarded a Diapason D’or), Handel’s Alceste (winner of the Opera award in the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2013), Acis & Galatea (winner of the Opera award of the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards).
“Under Christian Curnyn the ROH orchestra was transformed, fizzing and swirling in a buff, buoyant version of period style that wasn’t afraid to flaunt its curves”. - Richard Bratby, The Spectator.
Recent highlights include concerts with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Aalborg and Antwerp Symphony Orchestras, Handel’s La resurrezione for the Haymarket Opera Company in Chicago, a double bill of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s Venus and Adonis for Opera Collective Ireland/AKAMUS. With Early Opera Company he conducted a performance and recording of Maurice Greene’s Jephtha. EOC recently collaborated with Buxton International Festival on an acclaimed production of Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno.
He has conducted notable opera productions in the UK, Europe and North America. For The Royal Opera, Covent Garden these include Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse at The Roundhouse, Cavalli's L'Ormindo to inaugurate their series at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s The Globe, where he returned for Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo, Apolloe Dafne (a series of short operas performed over Covid-19), a concert performance of Handel’s Ariodante and a new production of Alcina, (dir. Richard Jones). For English National Opera successes have included Olivier Award-winning productions of Handel’s Partenope and Rameau’s Castor et Pollux (dir. Barrie Kosky), After Dido (Katie Mitchell’s realisation of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Charpentier’s Medée, and Handel's Rodelinda. Elsewhere in the UK he has conducted productions for Opera North, Scottish Opera and Garsington Opera.
Christian’s work in Europe and beyond includes Partenope with Opera Australia, Vivaldi’s Farnace and Handel’s Ariodante for Landestheater Salzburg, Cavalli’s La Calisto and Gluck’s Ezio for Frankfurt Opera, Castor et Pollux and Zoroastre by Rameau at Komische Oper Berlin, Rameau’s Platée, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Handel’s Alcina at Stuttgart Opera, Mozart Idomeneo for Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos, Le nozze di Figaro at Theater Basel and Handel’s Orlando for Oper Halle. In the USA Christian has conducted Partenope and Cosi fan Tutte for New York City Opera, Handel's Tolomeo for Glimmerglass Opera, and Cavalli's Giasone and Charpentier’s Medée for Chicago Opera Theater.
Specialist early music ensembles among Christian’s collaborators include Academy of Ancient Music, AKAMUS, English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Irish and Wroclaw Baroque orchestras. He has also conducted programmes with modern forces including with the Bournemouth Symphony, Ulster, Hallé, Scottish Chamber Orchestra (including a recording on the Decca label with Nicola Benedetti), Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Ensemble Resonanz, Essen Philharmoniker and Budapest Festival Orchestra as well as a Messiah tour in Australia with the Tasmanian, West Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.
