Christopher Stephen Varcoe (born 19 May 1949 in Lostwithiel, Cornwall) is an English classical bass-baritone singer, appearing internationally in opera and concert, known for Baroque and contemporary music and a notable singer of Lieder.
[1] On the opera stage he appeared in Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa in Antwerp, in Debussy's Fall of the House of Usher in Lisbon and London, in John Tavener's opera Mary Of Egypt for the Aldeburgh Festival, and he performed the part of Plutone in Peri's Euridice at the Drottningholm Festival in Sweden.
He performed Alexander Goehr's Sonata About Jerusalem with Oliver Knussen and the Schoenberg Ensemble, Bach's St Matthew Passion with Trevor Pinnock, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sir John In Love with Richard Hickox and the Northern Sinfonia, and Schubert's Mass in E flat major with Roger Norrington and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
[2] He recorded several Bach cantatas with John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, including an early 1990 recording of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, together with Ruth Holton and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson.
His recording of songs of Charles Villiers Stanford with pianist Clifford Benson was acclaimed in the International Record Review in 2000:He sounds as if he has been singing Stanford all his life, and his warm, natural baritone, finely judged legato and sensitivity to words are a joy throughout.