ARCHIE BUCHANAN
Death in Venice - St. Endellion Summer Festival
What impressed me most about Archie's 'Tadzio' was his quiet, understated professionalism. He had obviously really prepared what he was going to do, had spent time getting it right, and was totally focused both in performance and backstage, without making a meal of it. Especially within the context of a relaxed summer festival, this meant that his performance stood out as being rock solid, truthful and beautiful to watch. Without that personal investment, the central relationship between him and Aschenbach would have been rather meaningless. We were lucky to have him there in this role.
Roderick Williams OBE
Biography
Archie Buchanan is an experienced and versatile young tenor. Born in north London, he is currently a scholarship holder, studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under Robert Dean and Janice Chapman.
As a treble soloist, Archie appeared at all the major concert halls in London and for The Royal Opera at Covent Garden and English National Opera at the Coliseum. At Covent Garden he sang in The Cunning Little Vixen (2010, under Charles Mackerras), Macbeth, where he sang Third Apparition (2011, under Pappano) and in the 2013 production of Die Zauberflöte, where he was First Boy – a role he also performed for ENO in 2012. Other solo performances have included the treble role with full orchestra in a screening of The Matrix at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011. In 2013 he gave the world premiere of Zbigniew Preisner’s ‘Diaries of Hope’ in the Wroclaw Festival, Poland, followed by the UK premiere at the Barbican. In November 2013 he played the role of Harry in Britten’s Albert Herring for the BBC, as part of the Britten Centenary celebrations.
He is a former chorister of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, with whom sang at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011, and at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee service in 2012. A former member of Finchley Children’s Music Group, he performed in countless high profile events from Madonna at Live Earth in Wembley Stadium in 2007 to the premiere solo performance of Julian Dawes’ setting of ‘I never saw another butterfly’. As a treble, Archie sang on a number of soundtracks for film and TV and recorded as soloist for Zbigniew Preisner and for the PlayStation Game Ni no Kuni – the Wrath of the White Witch.
As a Tenor has performed the solos in Tippett’s African-American spirituals from “A Child of Our Time”, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. For The Guildhall, he’s been chorus for three of the opera school productions (Venus & Adonis, La fedeltá premiata and, The Angel Esmeralda) as well as performing ‘Eisenstein’ in Die Fledermaus in 2021. In 2016 he sang the role of Tamino from The Magic Flute for Southgate Youth Opera. Whilst singing with the Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir, he was a soloist on an album with baritone Roderick Williams: Signum’s “Roderick Williams: Sacred Choral Works” (2017). A versatile singer, he performed to capacity audiences covering Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ at the Camden Jazz Café with the Trans-Atlantic Vocal Ensemble. He is a regular in the chorus, and as a soloist, at the St Endellion Summer Festival in Cornwall.
As an actor Archie has performed the role of ‘Tadzio’ from Britten’s Death in Venice alongside Mark Padmore and Roderick Williams (2019) and ‘Melichior’ from Spring Awakening directed by Simon Cole.
Archie is a Nevill Holt Emerging Artist and will join the chorus in their productions of “La Bohème” and “The Barber of Seville”. Archie was also due to make his debut at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House last summer as ‘Volvox’ in Matt Rodgers’ new opera She Described It To Death (2020) but unfortunately this was cancelled due to COVID-19. A versatile performer, Archie was very excited to present the release of a new musical: Between by Rudy Percival, in which he originated the role of Aaron Ivers. (2021)