Rupert Christiansen was born in London and educated at the universities of Cambridge and Columbia. As well as several books of cultural history, he has written about opera for many publications, including the Spectator, the Observer, the Times Literary Supplement and Vanity Fair. Since 1966 he has been opera critic of the Daily Telegraph and a regular broadcaster.
He also sits on the editorial board of Opera magazine and the jury for the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.
Rupert Christiansen is The Spectator's dance critic. He was previously dance critic for The Mail on Sunday from 1995-2020, and has written on dance-focused subjects for many publications in the UK and USA, including Vogue, Vanity Fair,Harper's and Queen, The Observer,Daily Telegraph, The Literary Review, Dance Now and Dance Theatre Journal. He was opera critic and arts correspondent for the Daily Telegraph from 1996-2020, and is the author of a dozen non-fiction books, including the Pocket Guide to Opera and The Complete Book of Aunts (both published by Faber). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997 and lives in London.
