Simon O’Neill

Simon O'Neill's performances in the great international opera houses and festivals have excited acclamations as one of the finest heldentenors today. Born in New Zealand in 1971, Simon studied piano and brass from an early age. He graduated from the University of Otago and the Victoria University of Wellington with a Bachelor of Music with Honours. As a Fulbright Scholar he was awarded a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music.  Simon completed his graduate studies at the Juilliard Opera Center under the tutelage of Marlena Malas in 2002.

Notable debuts have included the title Metropolitan Opera in Idomeneo (with James Levine), Royal Opera House as Jenik in The Bartered Bride (Sir Charles Mackerras), Salzburg Festival in Die Zauberflöte (Riccardo Muti), BBC Proms (Pierre Boulez), Max in Der Freischütz at Theater an der Wien (Bertrand de Billy) and Australian Opera as Sergei in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Richard Armstrong).  He has sung Lohengrin and Fidelio at the Royal Opera House and Parsifal with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. His performances as Siegmund at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera won critical acclaim and led to him being described as a ‘the star’ and ‘THE Wagner tenor of his generation’.

Simon has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms and Berlin’s Waldbühne with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performing Act 1 Die Walküre and Fidelio. An accomplished recording artist, Simon has recently released his debut solo CD with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra - Wagner Arias, Father and Son (Lohengrin, Parsifal and the Ring) with EMI records.

At extremely short notice Simon made his debut in the title role of Verdi’s Otello in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. His performance was hailed unanimously by critics as; “a tremendous debut in the title-role, giving notice that he is the best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade.”

Simon’s diary of future engagements includes Die Walküre, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal at the Royal Opera House, Die Walküre and Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Houston Grand Opera and the Vienna, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin State Operas, Boris Godunov and the title role of Otello at La Scala and Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival.