Peter Auty
| Peter Auty | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 November 1969 |
| Occupation |
Choirboy (former) Operatic tenor |
| Known for | Singing the main song in the animated film The Snowman |
Peter Robert Auty (born 4 November 1969) is an English operatic tenor who has worked with most of the major opera companies in Britain and a number of companies in continental Europe.
Choirboy
Auty is a former choirboy who sang at St Paul's Cathedral. At the age of 13, he sang "Walking in the Air", the theme song to the 1982 animated film The Snowman. Most people thought Aled Jones was the original singer, but his version was a cover of the song released as a single in 1985. Auty's version, which was recorded especially for The Snowman, had been released as a single two years earlier. Due to a rush to finish the film on time, Auty was not credited on the film until it was remastered in 2002.
For a while during the early eighties, Auty's voice was a household sound when he sang for a British Rail television commercial: "This is the Age of the Train!".
Auty took the role of Camille in York Light Opera Company’s production of The Merry Widow in 1995. Subsequently he moved to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music where he studied under Peter Alexander Wilson.
Opera singer
Auty's professional stage debut was in 1998 in an Opera North production of Verdi's Don Carlos. He subsequently sang the roles of Rodolfo in La bohème with the company in 2002 and Don José in Carmen in 2010. Elsewhere in Britain, he has sung at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Cassio in Verdi's Otello and Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore) and roles with Scottish Opera and English National Opera. In Europe he has appeared in Frankfurt, Rouen and at other venues.