Nicolas Courjal
Born in France, he studies with Jane Berbié. Nicolas Courjal started in the ensemble of the Opéra Comique in Paris and Wiesbaden, and participated at the Wexford Festival.
He rapidly sings at the Bastille, the Chatelet, in Lyon Nice, Toulouse, Montpellier, Tours, La Fenice, Nantes, at the Sferisterio Macerata, in Metz, at the Maestranza in Seville, Covent Garden, in Japan, Marseille, at the Choregies d’Orange, the Grand Theatre of Geneva, in Monte Carlo, and Moscow.
He participates in creations by Pascal Dussapin , Marius Constant, Philippe Fenelon, Laurent Petitgirard and René Koering.
He appears in Robert Le Diable at Covent Garden ; L’Heure Espagnole with the Orchestre National de Lyon, in Lyon and in salle Pleyel Paris, sings the Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestre National de Lorraine, Basilio in Bordeaux, Nourabad (Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers with Alagna) in concert in Paris , the Sultan in Marouf at the Opera Comique. He also sings in Ballo in Maschera in Orange, in Les Troyens (Narbal, also with Alagna) in Marseille, and in Sigurd in Geneva; Herculaneum by Felicien David, with Palazetto Bru Zane,, in Le Roi d’Ys (title role) and La Straniera. He also sings Sarastro, in Vichy, Mephistopheles (La Damnation de Faust) a the Berlioz Festival, König Marke in Bordeaux, in Rossinis Mose, and is Gessler (William Tell) in Monte-Carlo as well as at Covent Garden, where he’s also performing two series of Carmen as well as the High Priest in Oedipus by Enesco at Covent Garden, Orfeo by Monteverdi in Lausanne and Rameau’s Zoroastre at the Festivals of Beaune, Montpellier and Aix-en-Provence.
He sings also his first Pimen in Marseille, in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Lausanne and Narbal (Les Troyens) with the Ochestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg (recorded for Warner), Mephistopheles (La Damnation de Faust with the Russian National Orchestra at the Colmar Festival, Ramfis at the Chorégies d’Orange and recently debuted also in Marseille as Filippo II/Don Carlos.
In concert he appears with the Orchestre de Mulhouse, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Avignon Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de Lyon, the Malaysian Orchestra, the Philharmonie de Lorraine, RTVE Madrid, Santa Cecilia, Philharmonia Orchestra London, at the Philharmonie de Paris and in recital at the Choregies d ‘Orange.
Nicolas Courjal sings notably under the direction of MW Chung, C. von Dohnany, C. Eschenbach, V. Fedosseiev, L. Foster, J. Mercier, M. Plasson, L Zlatkin, S. Baudo, D. Oren, JE Gardiner, M. Minkovski, B. Soustrot, P. Steinberg, A. Pappano, E. Pekka Salonen, R. Pichon, J. Nelson, R. Pichon, M. Franck, FX Roth.
He sings all the lead roles of the bass repertoire including Filippo (Don Carlo), King Mark (Tristan und Isolde), Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Fiesco (Simone Boccanegra), Pimen (Boris Godunov), Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia). He is a recognized reference in the French bass repertoire, that he has sung extensively everywhere in the world : Narbal (Les Troyens), Gessler (Guillaume Tell), Méphistophéles (Faust and La Damnation de Faust), Bertram (Robert le Diable), the four devils in Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
Nicolas Courjal did several recordings and videos recordings :
Stabat Mater by Dvorak, Requiem by Lancino, Elefant Man by Petigirard, Carmen / Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Dimitri in Joncquières and Herculaneum by Félicien David, both with the Palazetto Bru Zane and recently Les Troyens
