Biography

Jérôme Varnier studied at the École d´Art lyrique at the Opéra de Paris. He made his debut as Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Opéra de Lyon, where he was member of the ensemble from 1995 to 2000, appearing also in productions of Orfeo, Carmen, Doktor Faust, La Bohème, A Midsummer Night´s Dream, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, Falstaff and The Cunning Little Vixen. In 2001, Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) under Marc Minkowski at the Oper Leipzig was the beginning of an international carrier.

He sang the role of Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Royal Festival Hall in London, in Paris Opéra-Comique and in a new production at Opéra de Lyon, Friar Laurence in Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette with Les Siècles under Francois-Xavier Roth in Brussels and Paris. He sang Colline (La Bohème), Commendatore (Don Giovanni) and Seneca (L´Incoronazione di Poppea) at the Opéra de Bordeaux. Furthermore he sang Brander (La Damnation de Faust) in Malaysia, le Bailli (Werther) in Lisbon, Nourabad (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) in Moscow. He also sang Herode (L´Enfance du Christ) with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Emmanuel Krivine in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Verdi's Requiem in Sydney.

He made his debute in La Monnaie in Brussels in 2011 with the role of Marcel (Les Huguenots), and at Teatro alla Scala in Milan with Le Fauteuil  et l'Arbre (L´Enfant et les Sortilèges). At the Opéra National de Paris, he sang le Médecin (Pelléas et Mélisande), Neptune and Third Parque (Hippolyte et Aricie) and der Haushofmeister (Capriccio). He appeared as Ramfis and Il Re d’Egitto (Aïda) at the Massy Opera, as Banquo (Macbeth) in Dijon, as le Spectre in (Hamlet) at the Theater an der Wien and Paris Opéra Comique, the part of Cardinal Brogni (La Juive) at Opéra du Rhin, as Sirocco in (L´Étoile) at the Dutch National Opera, Nettuno (Il Ritorno di Ulysse in Patria) in Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and Vienna, Méphistophélès (Faust) in Avignon and in Massy, Marcel (Les Huguenots) in Nice, Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Sydney and in Kanazawa Festival and Tokyo.

More recently, he was Crespel (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) in Bordeaux under Marc Minkowski, Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher au Théâtre de la Monnaie,  Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) recorded in Bordeaux (Alpha Classics), and made his debute in Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin singing Pluton in Hippolyte et Aricie with Freiburger Barokorchester under Sir Simon Rattle, le Muphti (Bourgeois Gentilhomme)  with Jérôme Deschamps in Montpellier, Versailles, Marseille, Bordeaux, Chambéry, Amiens, le Spectre (Hamlet) at the Opera Comique, Arkel in La Maestranza of Sevilla, le Spectre (Hamlet) at the festival de Radio France et de Montpellier, Caronte (Monteverdi's Orfeo) in Palma, Horace Truchet (On purge Bébé) in Brussels, Nettuno (Il Ritorno di Ulysse in Patria) in Geneva.

His repertoire extends to the 20th Century, with roles in Milhaud´s Le Pauvre Matelot (Berlin) and Christophe Colomb (Compiègne), Strauss´ Salome (Seoul) as well as contemporary works in Lyon like Dédale by Hugues Dufour, Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm, Le Premier Cercle by Gilbert Amy and L´Upupa by Henze, in Le Balcon by Peter Eötvös at the Festival Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam and in Toulouse.

Among his numerous recordings are : Phaëton (Erato), Hippolyte et Aricie (Archiv-Deutsche Gramophon), Doktor Faust (Erato), Dédale (Musique Française d'Aujourd'hui Radio France), Donizetti’s Les Exilés en Sibérie, Le Premier Cercle and Pelléas et Mélisande (Radio France) and F. Martin’s Golgotha (Profil, Edit. Günter Hänssler), Pelléas et Mélisande (Alpha Classics), Orfeo (Naïve). In DVD, Pelléas et Mélisande, L’Etoile, Hamlet.

Future engagements include,   Cramer (Henry VIII) in Brussels, Frère Laurent (Roméo et Juliette) in Rouen, and the release of the recording of Nettuno (Il Ritorno di Ulysse in Patria) for Naïve.