Philippe Cantor


Philippe Cantor is a contemporary French bass-baritone.

Biography

First of all, Cantor turned his attention towards the interpretation of ancient music by the ensembles Ensemble Clément Janequin, Huelgas Ensemble, and Ensemble Organum.
His soloist career began with the ensemble Les Arts Florissants of William Christie, of which he was one of the pillars during the 1980s, along with Agnès Mellon, Guillemette Laurens, Jill Feldman, Monique Zanetti, Dominique Visse, Étienne Lestringant, Michel Laplénie, Gregory Reinhart, François Fauché, and Antoine Sicot.
He also sang the baroque repertoire under the direction of Jean-Claude Malgoire, Sigiswald Kuijken, René Jacobs, Christophe Coin, David Stern, Jean-Christophe Frisch and Gilbert Bezzina with whom he made several recordings.
In 1992, he won the Concours de Rennes for his interpretation of Golaud's role and approached the roles of the 19th and 20th century repertoire, until the creation of contemporary works by Antoine Duhamel, Pierre Jansen, Jacques Veyrier, Jean-Claude Wolff ; Maurice Ohana, Henri Dutilleux, Philippe Forget conducted by Jean-Marc Cochereau, Robert Martignoni, Philippe Bender, Jean-Louis Forestier, Jacques Mercier, Christian Zacharias, and Ensemble 2e2m.
Today, he divides his activities between Baroque music ; oratorios; recitals and the stage where he was particularly noticed in the roles of Pimpinone, Don Alfonso, Leporello, Mamma Agata, Golaud, The Celebrant, Macbeth to the musical Sweeney Todd.
In 2013, he took part as a singer-actor in the performances of Henrik Ibsen's La dame de la mer by the Teatro Malandro, directed by Omar Porras.
His latest recordings are devoted to French melody with pianist Sophie Rives, published by "Anima Records": Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc, and Maurice Ravel.

Discography (selection)

With Les Arts Florissants