He’s all over the Sussex festival this year. But why did one of our greatest singers get off to such a slow start?

"Our jury was bowled over by Brindley Sherratt @bassbrinbald who played Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier @WNOtweet, and have placed him on the #RPSMusicAwards Singer shortlist!"

The Royal Philharmonic Society on Twitter - @RoyalPhilSoc

JUST ANNOUNCED: Brindley will sing the evil Judge Turpin alongside Bryn Terfel and Angelika Kirschlager in a new production of Sweeney Todd by Andreas Homoki at the Opernhause Zürich in November 2018.

The ceremony featured performances from several artists, including some of the evening’s winners. Brindley Sherratt sung Claggart’s aria from Billy Budd.

JUST ANNOUNCED: Brindley will be performing the role of Fafner in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, and as John Claggart in Deborah Warner's new production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd.

Brindley sat down to chat to Opera Show.

“Brindley Sherratt as Fafner...baleful in tone and scarily duplicitous...”

Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 28 January 2018

“Singing almost entirely from memory, Brindley Sherratt imbued his Baroque-influenced parlando with telling gravitas and engaged in magisterial dialogue with the chorus in ‘Go down, Moses’. Every word was crystal-clear: as Sherratt’s deep, focused bass reverberated, phrases such as “They took a terrible vengeance” and “The words of wisdom are these” made my spine tingle.”

Claire Seymour, Classical Source, 15 January 2018

“The joker in the pack – no, joker is definitely the wrong word – was the addition of Brindley Sherratt’s matchless Claggart to the company. The great British bass, still currently on Baron Ochs duty for WNO, revisited the role with which he scorched Glyndebourne’s earth in its revival production and delivered a performance of staggering presence and baleful intent. Herman Melville’s master-at-arms is a creation of pure evil, more a brother than a cousin to Otello’s Iago, and Sherratt’s interpretation of it was a masterclass in malignity and power.”

Mark Valencia, Bach Track, 25 June 2017

“Brindley Sherratt is superb as the lecherous, arrogant Ochs; in an unusually nuanced reading of the role, it’s his very sense of entitlement that signals the death knell of an already outdated social hierarchy.”
Steph Power, Opera News, July/August 2017

“Honestly, I’m a little daunted by this. The next few sentences were going to be full of reasons why I don’t think I’m qualified to hand out advice on something that I seemed to just stumble into and am still, daily, trying to get the hang of. On the other hand, I am getting a bit wrinkly and I am beginning to notice with alarm that younger folk often pipe down as I, the strong and stable wise old sage, start to tell my stories. And so on that basis, and because I have sung a lot of notes in a lot of places, I shall get on with it.”