Deutsche Vita

Ashley Holland studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and represented England in the 1995 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 1998 Ashley won the prestigious Ranieri ‘I cestelli’ competizione dell' opera at the Hamburg Staatsoper.

He was for a number of years a principal baritone at English National Opera, where his roles included Zurga Pearl Fishers, Germont La Traviata, Ford Falstaff, Sharpless Madam Butterfly, Escamillo Carmen, Guglielmo Cosi fan tutte, Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, Belcore L'Elisir D'Amore, Lescaut in Massenet's Manon, Ottokar Der Freischütz and Marcello La Bohème. He also sang the baritone role in ENO's co-production with the Mark Morris Dance Group of Handel's L'Allegro. Other engagements include Antonio in concert performances of Linda di Chamounix with Mark Elder and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Don Giovanni for Calgary Opera, roles in Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra/Kent Nagano and in Weill's Der Protagonist and The Royal Palace with the BBCSO conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. He has also performed the roles of The Bosun Billy Budd at the Bastille, Junius The Rape of Lucretia in Lausanne, Ford Falstaff and Marcello La Bohème at the Semperoper Dresden, Sharpless Madama Butterfly in Cincinnati, Ivo in La Vera Storia at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Masetto Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Amfortas Parsifal in Graz, Sharpless Madama Butterfly with Opera Pacific, Enrico Lucia di Lammermoor at the Lyric Opera Chicago and Don Carlo Ernani at ENO.

Concert engagements include major tours of Mahler's 8th Symphony with the SWF Sinfonie Orchester conducted by Michael Gielen (including his début at the Musikverein in Vienna), and the Orchestre National de Lille, Britten's War Requiem in London, The Messiah, Carmina Burana and Belshazzar’s Feast with The Hallé in Manchester, Brahms' Requiem at The Barbican, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at the Royal Albert Hall, Lord Mountararat Iolanthe and The Royal Palace at the BBC Proms, and Ford in a concert performance of Falstaff with Mark Elder and the Halle Orchestra.

Ashley recently sang Ford Falstaff at ENO, Di Luna Il Trovatore with Houston Grand Opera, Germont La Traviata with Opera Pacific and Mr Redburn Billy Budd at ENO. He recently sang Orazi e Curiazi (Orazio) at Minnesota Opera, Thais (Athanael) at Grange Park Opera, and the title role in the World Premiere of Caligula by Detlev Glanert at the Frankfurt opera house, which will be followed soon by the same production in Cologne. He sang Satyagraha (Philip Glass) at ENO and Roberto Devereux at the Buxton Festival in 2007 and it returning to Cologne and to Frankfurt for CALIGULA.

Ashley also just sang the Messiah with the Huddersfield Choral Society, the Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen with the BBC Philharmonic, Vaughan Williams' 5 Mystical songs and Faure Requiem at the Hong Kong Festival and will sing the Mozart Requiem at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney.

His recordings include Belcore in The Elixir of Love and Ford Falstaff for Chandos.