About Meet our contributors
Philip Eisenbeiss

Philip Eisenbeiss only ever had one real ambition: to become an opera singer. But scores of frustrated voice coaches convinced him to abandon this aspiration. Today he is a partner at a leading Hong Kong based executive search firm, where he runs the Wealth Management practice. He started his career in journalism and spent nearly a decade in banking. He was born in Germany and holds degrees in history and international relations from Columbia University.

Philip Eisenbeiss full pic

Philip’s first book Bel Canto Bully: the life and times of the legendary opera impresario Domenico Barbaja (Haus Publishing) has become one of the most talked-about books on opera, to his own and his publisher’s enormous surprise. An eponymous music CD featuring selections from operas commissioned by Barbaja was issued by Naxos Music. This book has been published in Italian (Il Padrino del Belcanto, EDT) and German (Domenico Barbaja: Schillernder Pate des Belcanto; Sieveking).

Philip spent nearly 10 years as a Board Director of Opera Hong Kong. In 2023 he joined the Board of Trustees of Opera Rara, the London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

He regularly writes and lectures about opera.

Living in Asia for over thirty years, Philip will fly anywhere for a good opera. The airlines love him. He no longer sings.

Contributed Posts
Dec 28, 2017 Cultus interruptus: An unusual Rigoletto at Royal Opera House
Nov 19, 2017 A lusty and lugubrious Lucia di Lammermoor at Royal Opera House
Aug 13, 2017 William Kentridge turns Salzburg’s new Wozzeck into a Gesamtkunstwerk
Aug 11, 2017 Salzburg: Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida by Shirin Neshat
Jul 29, 2017 Feather light and forgettable
Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2017
Jul 1, 2017 Paris, Texas & Pearls
Wim Wenders directs Bizet’s Pearl Fishers in Berlin
Jun 25, 2017 Jonas Kaufmann’s Otello at Royal Opera House
Mar 18, 2017 Nearly a Meisterstueck: Kaspar Holten’s Meistersinger von Nuernberg
Mar 5, 2017 Movers and Shakers of the Music World
Bartolomeo Merelli – Eagle of the Impresarios
Feb 9, 2017 Siegfried: Year Three of a Musical Marathon