New Zealander, Simon O’Neill is one of the finest helden-tenors on the international stage.
He has frequently performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Berlin, Hamburg Vienna and Bayerische Staatsopern, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala and the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Edinburgh and BBC Proms Festivals, appearing with a number of illustrious conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Colin Davis, Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi, Sir Donald Runnicles, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Jaap van Zweden, Daniel Harding, Simone Young, Andris Nelsons, Pietari Inkinen, Esa Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel.
Simon’s performances as Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Pappano, Teatro alla Scala and Berlin Staatsoper with Barenboim, at the Metropolitan Opera with Runnicles in the celebrated Otto Schenk production returning with Luisi in the Lepage Ring Cycle and in the Götz Friedrich production at Deutsche Oper Berlin with Rattle were performed to wide critical acclaim. He was described in the international press as “an exemplary Siegmund, terrific of voice", "THE Wagnerian tenor of his generation" and "a turbo-charged tenor"
“Simon O’Neill made a tremendous debut in the title-role, giving notice that he is the best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade.”
This season, Simon returns to the Opéra National de Paris Ring Cycle as Loge in Calixto Bieito’s Das Rheingold conducted by Pablo Heras-Cassado and makes his debut at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the title role of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Alexander Soddy.
On the concert platform, he performs Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Sydney, Parma, Beijing and Prague and tours a programme of Wagner scenes and arias with Pietari Inkinen and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He also sings the Dr Marianus in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Reykjavík Arts Festival and makes his Melbourne Symphony Orchestra debut in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Simon appears as Florestan in Fidelio with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in Korea and the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan and Japan, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Future engagements include title roles of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung with San Francisco Opera, Tristan und Isolde in Singapore, and Tannhäuser in Japan and China.
Recent highlights include the title role in Tristan und Isolde at Staatsoper Hamburg under Kent Nagano and San Francisco Opera under Eun Sun Kim and Parsifal at both the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Opéra National de Paris. Simon returned to the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra for Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, appeared in the title role of Lohengrin at Sofia Opera, and made his South American debut as Tristan at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo. He also performed Siegmund in Die Walküre for Oper Leipzig and appeared as Tristan with , as well as in concert with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra under Giordano Bellincampi. With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, he sang Florestan in Fidelio under Simone Young and Boris in Janáček’s Katya Kabanova with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Simon’s acclaimed interpretations of Siegfried have featured in concert performances with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Sir Simon Rattle, the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young. His performances have established him as a leading interpreter of the major heldentenor repertoire. He made his English National Opera debut as Jimmy McIntyre in Kurt Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
Simon appeared as soloist in the world premiere of Victoria Kelly’s award-winning Requiem with the Auckland Philharmonia, later collaborating with Neil Finn of Crowded House. Last season, he returned to San Francisco Opera in the title role of Lohengrin under Eun Sun Kim, and performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony No. 8 in Bremen, Dunedin, and Madrid. Simon made his role debut as Loge in Das Rheingold with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, performed Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder with the Sydney Symphony and Simone Young, and toured Europe with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester under Alan Gilbert. He also sang Gurre-Lieder with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Rattle, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
Simon has appeared in many of the world’s leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall for Das Lied von der Erde with James Levine and The Met Orchestra and Missa Solemnis with the Boston Symphony, Florestan in Fidelio at both the Salzburg Festival and BBC Proms with Barenboim and with the National Symphony Orchestra and Eschenbach at the Kennedy Center, Gurrelieder in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and Edinburgh Festival with Rattle and Runnicles, Das Lied von der Erde, Fidelio and Parsifal in concert at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Pappano and Gatti, Parsifal Act 3 with Nelsons and the Bayerischer Rundfunks Orchestra at the Munich Herkulesaal, Der Freischütz with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass with Dutoit at Tokyo’s NHK Hall and with Boulez in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, Mahler’s Symphony No.8 at the Sydney Opera House with Ashkenazy and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 for the reopening of London’s Royal Festival Hall. He also had the honour of touring Europe with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performing Act I Die Walküre in concert, performing complete the Ring Cycle with the Staatskapelle Berlin with Barenboim at the BBC Proms and Act 1 in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle at the Philharmonie. Simon made his debut with the New York Philharmonic has Siegmund in Die Walküre Act one in concert with Jaap van Zweden.
Notable debuts have included; the Royal Opera House (2005) Jenik in The Bartered Bride with Mackerras, the Salzburg Festival (2005) in Die Zauberflöte with Muti, the Metropolitan Opera (2006) as the Gran Sacerdote in Idomeneo with Levine, Opera Australia (2009) as Sergei in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Armstrong, Siegmund in Die Walküre at Teatro alla Scala (2010), the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin with Barenboim and the Bayerische Staatsoper with Nagano (2013), Chairman Mao in Nixon in China with Renes with the San Francisco Opera (2012), and the Wiener Staatsoper (2012) in the title role of Parsifal with Thielemann.
Simon made his Bayreuth Festival debut in the title of Lohengrin in the new Hans Neuenfels production with Andris Nelsons and returned as Parsifal in the celebrated Stefan Herheim production with Daniele Gatti. Other notable engagements have included opening La Scala’s season as Siegmund in Die Walküre with Barenboim and with the Wiener Staatsoper with Welser-Möst. He returned as Siegmund in the celebrated Keith Warner Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Ring Cycle where he also performed; Lohengrin, Fidelio, Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the title role of Parsifal. He made his debut with the Hallé Orchestra in the title role of Wagner’s Siegfried in concert with Sir Mark Elder at the Edinburgh Festival and with Jaap van Zweden with the Hong Kong Philharmonic – both these performances have been released on CD. He made his debut as Der Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Berlin Staatsoper with Simone Young and as the Tambourmajor in Wozzeck with Levine at the Metropolitan Opera.
At extremely short notice Simon made his role debut in the title role of Verdi’s Otello in concert at the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis (2009). His performance was widely acclaimed by critics, who described his musical and dramatic portrayal of the infamous protagonist as “thrilling”, “a triumph”, “an immense performance” “a tremendous debut in the title-role, giving notice that he is the best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade.” He has gone on to perform the role on stage in Houston, Boston, Auckland and Sydney.
His discography includes his ‘Best Classical Tui’ award winning lieder CD is titled Distant Beloved with pianist Terence Dennis and the Decca label; his debut solo award winning album; Father and Son, Wagner Scenes and Arias (Lohengrin, Parsifal, Siegmund and Siegfried) with Pietari Inkinen and the NZSO for EMI. His recording, as tenor soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Gustavo Dudamel the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon won the Grammy Award.
Simon has recorded the title role of Siegfried with three orchestras: Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchestrer des Bayerishen Rundfunks (2023), the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder (2020) and with Jaap van Zweden for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Ring Cycle recording for Naxos (2018). His recent LSO Live recording of Boris in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle is receiving rave reviews. Other recordings include; Die Walküre on Blu-ray and DVD with Daniel Barenboim from La Scala, the title role of Parsifal on Blu-ray and DVD with Sir Antonio Pappano from Covent Garden, the title role of Otello and Max in Der Freischütz with Sir Colin Davis for LSO Live, Die Zauberflöte for the Salzburg Festival Mozart 25 DVD with Riccardo Muti, Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Valery Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic and with Vladimir Ashkenanzy and the Sydney Symphony, Beethoven Symphony No.9 with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Paavo Järvi and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Kent Nagano, Frank Martin’s Der Sturm with the Netherlands Radio Symphony and Thierry Fischer and Chauson’s Le Roi Arthus with Leon Botstein and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is honoured to appear alongside the greatest singers in the EMI release of Voices of German Opera.
Simon became an Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours list, he is an alumnus and holds a Doctor of Music (Honoris Causa) from Victoria University of Wellington and is an alumnus of the University of Otago, the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard Opera Center. He is a Fulbright Scholar, was awarded the 2005 Arts Laureate of New Zealand and was a grand finalist in the 2002 Metropolitan Opera National Auditions returning as guest artist in 2007. He also appears on the 1998 New Zealand one-dollar performing arts postage stamp.
