Peter Rose was born in Canterbury. He read music at the University of East Anglia and studied with Ellis Keeler at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1985 he won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship and in 1986 the Glyndebourne John Christie Award. He made his operatic debut in 1986 with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in Hong Kong (Commendatore).

His repertoire includes Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aix-en-Provence, Paris, London, Rome, Metropolitan Opera, Barcelona, Glyndebourne, Chicago), Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier (Vienna, Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, Seattle, Sydney, Melbourne, Minneapolis, Scottish Opera, Hamburg, Tokyo, Graz, Covent Garden, Barcelona, Munich, La Scala), Gurnemanz in Parsifal (Vienna, Hamburg, Graz), La Roche in Capriccio (Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House London, Chicago), Mustafa in L'Italiana in Algeri (Amsterdam, Dresden), Phillip in Don Carlos (Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin State Opera), Kecal in Bartered Bride (Covent Garden, Chicago), Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (San Francisco, Covent Garden, Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Paris, Metropolitan Opera), Dosifei in Khovanshchina (Hamburg), Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Glyndeborune, Welsh National Opera, Salzburg, Hamburg, Istanbul, Komische Oper Berlin, Munich, San Francisco, Geneva), Leporello in Don Giovanni (Cologne), Rocco in Fidelio (Vienna Staatsoper, Theater an der Wien, Komische Oper Berlin, Bregenz), Falstaff (Seattle), Claggart in Billy Budd (Cologne, Vienna, Hamburg, Munich, Santa Fe), Ramfis in Aida (Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin), Walter in Luisa Miller (Amsterdam), Cadmus /Somnus in Semele (Champs Elysees Paris, Covent Garden), Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer (Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Bordeaux, Munich), Zaccharia in Nabucco (Dallas), Fasolt in Das Reingold (Covent Garden), Silva in Ernani, Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Boris in Boris Godounov (ENO ), Mephistopheles in Faust and Pogner in Die Meistersinger (Hamburg).

Concert engagements include ‘Beethoven Symphony No.9’ with Giulini, Barenboim; ‘Mozart's Requiem’ with Mackerras, Barenboim, Mehta, Robert Shaw, Jurowski; ‘Mahler 8’ with Tilson Thomas; Verdi's Requiem with Rizzi; La Damnation de Faust with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Solti; Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges & L'Heure Espagnole with Boulez; Beethoven's 'Missa Solemnis' with Masur.

Recordings include Le Nozze di Figaro with Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic; Salome with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and von Dohnanyi; Un Ballo in Maschera with Rizzi; The Barber of Seville; Tosca; Lucia di Lammermoor; Ernani; Aida; Bartered Bride for Chandos; Beatrice Cenci; Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Mackerras and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Virgin-Classics (DVD).

Plans include Ochs in Vienna, Amsterdam, Baden Baden; Daland in Munich, Berlin, Budapest and Covent Garden.