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The versatile operatic baritone Stéphane Degout has been a frequent sight on operatic stages in his native France, the U.S., Italy, and elsewhere since coming on the scene in the late '90s. In addition to mainstream Italian, German, and French opera, he has also appeared in early music productions and is adept in French song repertory.

Degout was born in Bourg-en-Bresse in eastern France on June 9, 1975, and grew up in nearby Saint-Jean-de-Niost. He attended the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Lyon, went on to the National Conservatory of Music and Dance, and has continued to live in France's second city. His debut major role came in 1998 at the Opéra National in Lyon, as Pagageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and he reprised the role in Aix-en-Provence in 1999. Degout studied with Margreet Honig at the conservatory and took master classes with Régine Crespin and Gundula Janowitz, among other prominent singers. A second prize in the 2002 Plácido Domingo Competition boosted his profile beyond his home region, and since then, he has appeared at many of the world's top houses.

At the Theater an der Wien, Degout has sung Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo. At London's Covent Garden, he has been seen as Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola and as Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. He has also made multiple appearances at both the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the early music field, he has worked under conductors René Jacobs, William Christie, and Emmanuelle Haïm, among others. Degout also lists several premieres of contemporary operas among his credits; he was cast in the premiere of Benôit Mernier's La Dispute in 2013 and in three operas by composer Philippe Boesmans: Au monde (2014) and La monnaie and Pinocchio (2017). The year 2018 saw the release of no fewer than three Degout recordings: a Pinocchio recording was issued on the Cypres label; the aria recital Enfers (with Raphaël Pichon) appeared on Harmonia Mundi; and he was the baritone soloist in Charpentier's Leçons de Ténèbres under conductor Jonathan Cohen on the Hyperion label. Degout was nominated for a Best Opera Recording Grammy Award in 2019 for George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence. He continued to record for Harmonia Mundi and had a busy schedule in 2019 and 2020 that was interrupted only briefly by the coronavirus pandemic. In March of 2020, he issued the album Epic: Lieder & Balladen with pianist Simon Lepper. Degout returned in 2022 with a pair of releases, an appearance on the group Pygmalion's recording of Bach's Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244, and another on an album of Ravel works featuring pianist Cédric Tiberghien. Degout was made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2012. ~ James Manheim

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, or Lady Rattle if you are so inclined, became a popular and critically celebrated figure in Europe before the age of 30. She was touted as the chief competitor to Cecilia Bartoli (although there is no evidence of a personal rivalry between the two). Her area of primary expertise is 18th century music, particularly Bach, but she has also had success in more Romantic opera and song repertory. Kožená's voice has been variously described as "sweet" and "fiery and melting," depending on her repertory; more constant attributes include her vocal agility and sense of drama, which are both highly regarded.

Kožená was born on May 26, 1973, in Brno, in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia). She initially studied at the Brno Conservatory, then with Eva Blahová at the College of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Even before her graduation in 1995, she was winning major prizes in the Czech Republic and internationally, the most significant being top honors at the sixth International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995. She spent the 1996-1997 season as a member of the Vienna Volksoper. In 1997, Kožená made her recording debut with an album of Bach Arias on the Archiv Produktion label. In 1998, she made her debut at the Drottningholm Festival as Paride in Gluck's Paride ed Elena. Her Bach recording caught the attention of the Deutsche Grammophon label, which signed her to an exclusive recording contract in 1999 that resulted in annual releases. In 2000, she debuted at the Châtelet in Paris as Gluck's Orpheus and at the Vienna Festival as Nero in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea. She appeared as Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2001. During this time, Kožená was also an active recitalist throughout Europe but was less known in the U.S., despite performances in San Francisco and at Carnegie Hall. Participation in Metropolitan Opera productions of Mozart and Janácek operas boosted her American reputation.

Kožená has been featured mainly in Baroque and Classical music, although she has also ventured into the Romantic era and 20th century Czech songs. As a recitalist, she has performed and recorded Britten, which has endeared her to the nationalistic British press. An even greater honor came to Kožená in 2003 with the success of her recording of Romantic French opera arias, not to mention her presence in the 2002 centenary production of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra Comique: she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2004, she was named the Gramophone Awards "Artist of the Year." Kožená married conductor Sir Simon Rattle in 2008, and they have three children together. Since her marriage, she has also been known as Lady Rattle. In 2009, Kožená's recording of Julietta fragments by Martinu won a Gramophone Award. The following season, she toured with the ensemble Private Musicke in a program based on her album Lettere Amorose. Kožená began a fruitful relationship with the PentaTone Classics label in 2017, which quickly resulted in several albums, including Il Giardino dei sospiri and Soirée: Magdalena Kožená & Friends in 2019. Her 2023-2024 season included recitals, concerts, and operatic appearances in countries around the world, and saw her release the album Folk Songs (with Rattle conducting the Czech Philharmonic) in 2023, followed by a recording of Handel's Alcina (with Marc Minkowski leading Les Musiciens du Louvre) in 2024. ~ James Reel & Keith Finke

José van Dam has recorded nearly 150 roles, appeared in multiple world premieres, received most of the awards given to singers, is one of the most respected musicians of his generation -- and almost nobody outside the world of classical music has even heard his name. His presence is rather austere, and his singing is notable for subtlety and attention to detail. His bass-baritone voice is rich, and his phrasing is impeccable in nearly every musical style, from Baroque to contemporary. He is an intense though introverted actor, and even starred in Le Maitre de Musique, a film about a reclusive singer who retires from the operatic stage to teach. While his somewhat limited bottom range makes the lowest notes of the bass roles problematic, his musicianship and sense of drama more than suffice to win him critical acclaim as Philip II and as Boris.

Unusually for an opera singer, his family was not a musical one. When he was 11, a family friend encouraged him to join the church choir. He began to study sight-singing and piano, and at 13 he became the pupil of Frederic Anspach of the Brussels Conservatory. He entered the Conservatory at the age of 17; won the first prize of the Conservatory the next year; at 20 won first prizes at the Liege and Toulouse competitions; and was engaged by the Paris Opera in 1962, where he made his operatic debut in Berlioz's Les Troyens, as Priam and the Voice of Mercury. In 1964 he sang the role of Escamillo for the first time, appearing in this role countless times in the future and recording it no fewer than four times. In 1965, he joined the Geneva Opera, where he sang the role of Maitre Fal in the world premiere of Milhaud's La mère coupable. Lorin Maazel engaged him to sing in his recording of Ravel's L'heure Espagnol on Deutsche Grammophon and invited him to become a member of the Deutsche Oper. He made his La Scala and Covent Garden debuts in 1973; in 1974, was named a Berliner Kammersänger and won the German Music Critics' Prize; and in 1975, made his Metropolitan Opera debut.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he continued to add new roles to his repertoire and began his long-standing partnership with Herbert von Karajan and with the Salzburg Festival. As he and his voice matured, he dropped certain roles, such as Escamillo and Figaro, and added roles such as Philip II, the Flying Dutchman, and Simon Boccanegra. In 1983, he sang the title role in the world premiere of Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise. He also continued to perform and record oratorio repertoire and became a noted interpreter of German lieder and French song, particularly the music of Henri Duparc. In the mid-'90s, he began again to explore new operatic repertoire, portraying Scarpia for the first time in 1995. He fared well in the inevitable comparisons to Gobbi. Both took a similar approach to roles -- studying the historical and literary sources for the character, but regarding them as supplementary to what the composer and librettist created.

He recorded widely for many labels. His aria recital CD on Forlane displays his versatility as an opera singer and his dramatic power. In the Wagner repertoire, his Amfortas in Karajan's recording on DG is a vivid depiction of that tormented king. In French opera, his Don Quichotte (EMI) under Plasson, brings out the humor, nobility, and pathos of the title role. He also was an admirable Leporello in the Losey film of Don Giovanni.

The Verbier Festival Orchestra is the resident ensemble at Switzerland's Verbier Festival, one of classical music's top summer events. The group consists of 95 musicians from ages 18 to 28.

The Verbier Festival was founded in 1994 in the mountainous resort town of Verbier, Switzerland, by music promoter Martin Engström. The Verbier Festival Orchestra was founded in 2000 as a training ensemble and is regarded as one of the top such groups in the world, with highly competitive admission standards. Each summer, the orchestra players are coached by top orchestral musicians from around the world, including members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. The Verbier Festival Orchestra is one of three groups associated with the festival; others include the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, made up of alumni of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra, originally called the Verbier Festival Music Camp Orchestra. In 2006, the group made its recording debut on the album UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra Highlights, and it has continued to appear on similar albums throughout its existence.

The website of the Verbier Festival Orchestra lists conductor Valery Gergiev as the orchestra's music director, and he spent considerable time in Verbier each summer until Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now some documents refer to conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy as the music director, and he has conducted several concerts and given chamber music master classes. The Verbier Festival Orchestra has backed numerous top international soloists in concert, including pianists Lang Lang, Daniil Trifonov, and Yuja Wang, bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and sitar player Anoushka Shankar. The Verbier Festival Orchestra has been featured on several albums other than compilations, including Michael Tilson Thomas in Verbier and a recording of Stravinsky's Les Noces and Le sacre du printemps in 2023; both appeared on the major Deutsche Grammophon label. ~ James Manheim

Charles Dutoit is among the world's most acclaimed conductors, perhaps best known for his long tenure as the music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has also held positions with venerable orchestras around the world, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Dutoit has collaborated with many leading musicians during his career, including Salvatore Accardo, James Galway, and especially Martha Argerich, with whom he won one of his two Grammy Awards and was also married to for a time. Though controversy has surrounded his late career and several associations were ended, he held the posts of co-director of Shanghai's MISA Festival and principal guest conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra as of the mid-2020s.

Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 7, 1936. He studied violin, viola, piano, and percussion as a child and became interested in conducting early after watching Ernest Ansermet leading the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in concert and rehearsal. Dutoit attended the Lausanne Conservatory, studying violin, piano, and conducting, then moved to the Geneva Conservatory to study viola and conducting, taking first prize in the latter and graduating in 1958. While still a student, Dutoit began his professional career, performing viola in several ensembles in South America and Europe. He also studied conducting with Alceo Galliera at Siena's Accademia Chigiana and attended Tanglewood in 1959. That year, he made his professional conducting debut, joining Argerich and a Radio Lausanne orchestra, and began regular guest-conducting appearances with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His first appointment was as the Radio Zurich conductor from 1965 until 1967. The following year, he succeeded Paul Kletzki as the chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, leading that group until 1978. In 1969, Dutoit married Argerich, and they had a daughter together. Though the marriage ended in 1973, the two continued a professional relationship.

Dutoit held several other posts during his Bern tenure, including with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (1973-1975) and the Gothenburg Symphony (1975-1978). In 1977, he was appointed artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He refined that group and, thanks to a substantial and lengthy recording contract with the Decca label, brought the Montreal Symphony to international recognition. Among these acclaimed recordings are Holst: The Planets (1987), Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (1991), and Berlioz: Les Troyens (1995); the latter earned Dutoit a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. During his tenure with the Montreal Symphony, Dutoit helmed the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer concert series at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts (1990-1999) and in Saratoga Springs (1990-2010). In 1991, he became the music director of the Orchestre National de France and took the same post with the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 1998 until 2003, after serving as principal conductor since 1996. Dutoit earned his second Grammy Award in 2000 for a recording of piano concertos by Bartók and Prokofiev, leading the Montreal Symphony with Argerich as a soloist. Dutoit stepped down from the Orchestre National de France post in 2001, and the next year, after complaints about his behavior by the Quebec Musicians Guild, he abruptly resigned from his Montreal position.

In 2008, Dutoit became the chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and took the artistic director and principal conductor positions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009. That year, he also began his tenure as the music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. He was named co-director of the MISA Festival in Shanghai in 2010, and the Philadelphia Orchestra named Dutoit its conductor laureate in 2012. In 2017, he became conductor emeritus of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and he was given the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. During that year and the following year, accusations of sexual assault were levied against Dutoit for incidents that occurred between the late '70s and 2010. He has denied all accusations. Engagements with multiple orchestras worldwide were canceled, he was stripped of his laureate title from the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he resigned his posts with the Royal Philharmonic in early 2018. Later that year, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, continuing to hold that post and the co-directorship of the MISA Festival as of 2024. ~ Keith Finke