William Shimell

William Shimell

Born: September 23, 1952
in Brentwood, Essex, England, UK
William Shimell (born Brentwood, Essex, 23 September 1952) is an English baritone who has had an active international career performing in opera and on the concert platform since the 1980s, and more recently has appeared in non-singing roles in films.

Shimell studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the National Opera Studio. For his student performance at the Guildhall the Opera critic noted "William Shimells's Figaro stood out from all the others. His is a rich, full-toned baritone voice, and he used it to great musical and dramatic effect."

He joined the chorus of Kent Opera in 1978 and sang an usher in Rigoletto with them in 1980 and Venus and Adonis in the UK and Venice. At Sadler's Wells in 1981 he appeared as Young Scrooge in Musgrave's Christmas Carol.

He sang Masetto in Don Giovanni in February 1980 at London Coliseum for English National Opera, going on to sing Gregory in the new production of Romeo and Juliet in March 1981 and a Herald in the new production of Otello in September 1981, and other roles subsequently with the company. He made his debut at Glyndebourne Opera in May 1984 as Count Almaviva, and at La Scala in 1991 was Baron Dourlinski in Lodoïska. Other opera companies with which he appeared in the earlier part of his career include San Francisco Opera (1988), Frankfurt Opera (1988), Grand Theatre Geneva (1989), Vienna State Opera (1990), Lyric Opera Chicago (1991).

At Covent Garden he made his debut as Schaunard in La bohème in 1985, going on to sing in Così fan tutte (1986 and 1992 – as Guglielmo), Werther (1987 – Albert), Capriccio (1991 – Olivier), La bohème (1996 – Marcello), The Rake's Progress (2010 – Nick Shadow), Così fan tutte (2010 – Don Alfonso), and Manon (2010 - De Brétigny). At the Metropolitan Opera in New York Shimell made his debut in La bohème in 1996 as Marcello, continuing with Così fan tutte (1996 and 2010 – Don Alfonso), Madama Butterfly (2000 – Sharpless), Manon (2005 – De Brétigny) and Iphigénie en Tauride (2007 – Thoas).

With major companies, Shimell has sung the title roles in Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, Papageno, Dandini, and Malatesta.

In 1983 Shimell won the Shell International Opera Prize and he sang at the Last Night of the Proms in 1984.

In 2008 Shimell was working with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami in a production of Così fan tutte at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, when Kiarostami offered him a non-singing role in a film. Shimell had very little knowledge of cinema, but his fluency in French and Italian helped during filming (the initial script had been translated from Persian to French to English). The film, Certified Copy (Copie conforme), was released in 2010. Shimell then took a role in the film Amour (2012).

He has appeared on a few audio recordings, including the title role in Don Giovanni under Riccardo Muti, A Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley, Mass in B minor BWV232 by JS Bach, Summer's last will and testament by Lambert, Funeral cantata on the death of Emperor Joseph II, and Pulcinella.

Source: Article "William Shimell" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies for William Shimell...

Miranda's Letter
Title: Miranda's Letter
Character: Father
Released: June 21, 2016
Type: Movie
Miranda's Letter takes as a starting point the 'missing women' in Shakespeare, in this instance, The Tempest, and imagines what Miranda's mother would have wanted to say to her daughter. Commissioned as part of Shakespeare Lives 2016.
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Aloft
Title: Aloft
Character: Newman
Released: February 12, 2014
Type: Movie
As we follow a mother and her son, we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will become a renowned artist and healer, and he will grow into his own and a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist will bring about an encounter between the two that puts the very meaning of life and art into question, so that we may contemplate the possibility of living life to its fullest, despite the uncertainties littering our paths.
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Amour
Title: Amour
Character: Geoff
Released: September 20, 2012
Type: Movie
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
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Certified Copy
Title: Certified Copy
Character: James Miller
Released: May 18, 2010
Type: Movie
In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged English writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano.
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Let's See Copia Conforme
Title: Let's See Copia Conforme
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Abbas Kiarostami’s "Certified Copy" (2010).
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Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress
Title: Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress
Character: Nick Shadow
Released: January 1, 2007
Type: Movie
Stravinsky's masterwork The Rake's Progress, created for La Fenice in Venice in 1951, is based on a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, inspired by a series of 18th century prints by William Hogarth. This amazing production from La Monnaie De Munt jazzifies the setting by replacing Hogarth's sin city, London, with 1950s Las Vegas, turning it into a glittering, cinematic gallery of tableaux vivants inspired by the early days of television. Staged by one of the most visionary theatre directors of our age, the Québécois Robert Lepage, the neo-classical morality tale truly becomes a grand spectacle. Lepage's visual imagination works its magic superbly, while Kazushi Ono's energetic musical direction drives the sparkling ensemble to exhilarating heights. Recorded in High Definition and true surround sound.
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Hercules - Handel
Title: Hercules - Handel
Released: January 1, 2004
Type: Movie
William Christie, the master of Baroque music, and stage producer Luc Bondy join forces in Paris to give Handel's masterwork a new lease of life.
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L'Enfance du Christ
Title: L'Enfance du Christ
Character: Joseph
Released: December 30, 1985
Type: Movie
A television version of Berlioz's oratorio.