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Paul Carey Jones

Biography

“The UK’s most convincing heldenbariton right now.”

- Hugh Canning, Opera magazine 

 

Welsh-Irish bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones has appeared as a principal guest artist for opera companies across the UK and Europe. He was winner of the 2013 Wagner Society Singing Competition and was recently elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution to the classical music industry.

 

A growing reputation in the three manifestations of Wotan in Wagner’s Ring cycle has seen him appear extensively in these roles to critical acclaim, most recently for Longborough Festival Opera in the summer of 2024, where Opera Now hailed him as “one of the finest Wotans of our time”.

 

His other heldenbariton roles include Der Holländer Der Fliegende Holländer, Hans Sachs Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde, Amfortas Parsifal, Donner Das Rheingold, Gunther Götterdämmerung, Peter Hänsel und Gretel, Dr Schön / Jack the Ripper Lulu.

Photo: David Price

Bio: Inner_about
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Beyond German repertoire, his roles have included Scarpia Tosca, Marcello La Bohème, Lescaut Manon Lescaut, Nick Shadow The Rake's Progress, Don Alfonso Così Fan Tutte, Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro, title role Don Giovanni, Sprecher Die Zauberflöte, the Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Noye Noye’s Fludde, and Balstrode Peter Grimes.

 

His operatic work includes appearances for the Royal Ballet and Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Opera Holland Park. Teatro Rossini di Lugo, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Comunale Bolzano, Gothenburg Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Estonian National Opera, and the Icelandic Opera. Other highlights include the title role in the Chinese premiere of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde in Beijing and Shanghai, Balstrode in the Baltic premiere of Peter Grimes for Estonian National Opera, and the world premieres of John Metcalf’s Under Milk Wood, Stephen McNeff’s i, Stuart MacRae’s Prometheus Symphony, and Gareth Glyn’s Tanau’r Lloer.

 

Paul Carey Jones also has an extensive experience as a concert soloist. His oratorio repertoire includes over fifty major works, including Mendelssohn's Elijah, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Bach's John and Matthew Passions. As a recitalist he has formed ongoing collaborations in recital and recording with the pianists Llyr Williams, Julius Drake, Ian Ryan, Jocelyn Freeman, Helen Collyer and Aleksandra Myslek.

 

His extensive discography includes three solo song albums, Enaid - Songs of the Soul for Sain, Songs Now for Meridian, and Song Lied Cân for Ty Cerdd, the title role in Arwel Hughes’ Dewi Sant and Grace Williams’s Missa Cambrensis with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as the original cast recording of Hedd Wyn 2117 (Stephen McNeff / Gruff Rhys), and the original cast recording of Under Milk Wood (John Metcalf / Dylan Thomas).

 

A committed advocate of Twentieth Century and contemporary music, he has given the premiere performances of operas, symphonies, songs and song cycles by composers including Stuart MacRae, John Metcalf, Jonathan Dove, Stephen McNeff, Sadie Harrison, Brian Irvine, Gavin Higgins, Gareth Glyn, and Emily Hall.

 

Paul Carey Jones works regularly as an audition panel member, media commentator, competition adjudicator and increasingly as a teacher, coach and mentor. Recent work in these capacities has included engagements for BBC Cymru/Wales, S4C, the National Eisteddfod of Wales, and the Bryn Terfel Scholarship.

 

As an author, his critically acclaimed first book of essays Giving It Away - Classical Music in Lockdown and other fairytales was hailed by by Opera magazine as “a powerful traversal of life in the pandemic”, and was followed by its sequel Things Left Unsaid, published in December 2025. He is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Westminster, funded by a prestigious Quintin Hogg Trust studentship, examining approaches to the use of Artificial Intelligence in the field of professional vocal healthcare. and he is a published academic author in the field. 

 

His other interests include data-driven analysis of the issues facing performing arts freelancers in the UK as a core member of Freelancers Make Theatre Work, and he is co-author of Making Freelance Work, a new book examining these issues scheduled for release in 2026 by Bristol University Press.

Repertoire

 

Opera: performed roles (selection)

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Adams / Nixon in China - Richard Nixon

Berg / Lulu - Dr Schön / Jack the Ripper

Bernstein / Trouble in Tahiti - Sam

Bizet / Carmen - Escamillo

Bjarnason / Brothers - The Colonel

Britten / Noye's Fludde - Noye

Britten / Peter Grimes - Balstrode

Daugherty / Jackie O - Andy Warhol

Delius / Margot La Rouge - L'Artiste

Donizetti / Don Pasquale - Malatesta

Donizetti / Rita - Gasparo

Fauré / Pénélope - Eurymaque

Humperdinck / Hänsel und Gretel - Peter

Janacek / The Cunning Little Vixen - Forester

Macmillan / Clemency - Abraham

Macmillan / Ines de Castro - Pacheco

Mascagni / L'amico Fritz - David

Maxwell Davies / The Lighthouse - Blazes

McNeff / The Burning Boy - Elisha

Metcalf / Under Milk Wood - Dancing Williams et al

Mozart / Così Fan Tutte - Don Alfonso

Mozart / Le Nozze di Figaro - Figaro

Mozart / Die Zauberflöte - Sprecher

Offenbach / Orpheus in the Underworld   - John Styx

Paisiello / Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Bartolo

Puccini / La Bohème - Marcello

Puccini / Manon Lescaut - Lescaut

Puccini / Tosca - Scarpia

Puccini / Turandot - Ping

Purcell / Dido and Aeneas - Aeneas

Purcell / The Indian Queen - Envy

Rossini / La Cenerentola - Alidoro

Saariaho / L'Amour de Loin - Jaufré Rudel

Smyth / The Wreckers - Lawrence

Stravinsky / The Rake's Progress - Nick Shadow

Turnage / Anna Nicole - Billy Smith / Deputy Mayor

Verdi / Macbeth - Macbeth

Verdi / Rigoletto - Monterone

Wagner / Das Rheingold - Donner

Wagner / Das Rheingold - Wotan

Wagner / Die Walküre - Wotan

Wagner / Siegfried - Der Wanderer

Wagner / Götterdämmerung - Gunther

Wagner / Der Fliegende Holländer - Der Holländer

Wagner / Die Meistersinger von N​ürnberg - Hans Sachs

Wagner / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Kothner

Wagner / Parsifal - Amfortas

Wagner / Tannhäuser - Biterolf

Wagner / Tristan und Isolde - Kurwenal

Weill / Der Silbersee - First Comrade

​

Opera: roles in preparation

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Strauss / Die Frau Ohne Schatten - Barak

Strauss / Elektra - Orest

Strauss / Salome - Jochanaan

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Oratorio / concert

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Bach - Magnificat

Bach - Mass in B minor

Bach - St John Passion (Christus)

Bach - St Matthew Passion (Christus)

Beethoven - Mass in C

Beethoven - Symphony number 9

Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem

Carissimi - Jephte

Duruflé - Requiem

Dvorak - Mass in D

Dvorak - Stabat Mater

Dvorak - Te Deum

Elfyn Jones - In David's Land

Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius

Fauré - Requiem

Finzi - In Terra Pax

Galuppi - Confitebor Tibi Domine

Gounod - St Cecilia Mass

Handel - Coronation Anthems

Handel - Messiah

Haydn - Creation

Haydn - Nelson Mass

Arwel Hughes - Dewi Sant

Kelly - Look Stranger At This Island

McNeff - Cities of Dreams

Mahler - Symphony number 8

Mendelssohn - Elijah

Mozart - Coronation Mass

Mozart - Spatzen Mass

Mozart - Regina Coeli

Mozart - Requiem

Mozart - Domenican Vespers

Nielsen - Symphony number 3

Orff - Carmina Burana

Puccini - Messa di Gloria

Purcell - Come, Ye Sons Of Art

Purcell - Welcome to All the Pleasures

Rossini - Stabat Mater

Salieri - Requiem

Schubert - Mass in G

Stainer - Crucifixion

Stanford - Songs of the Fleet

Stanford - Stabat Mater

Tippett - Negro Spirituals

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Christmas Carols

Vaughan Williams - Five Mystical Songs

Vaughan Williams - Sea Symphony

Walton - Belshazzar's Feast

Grace Williams - Missa Cambrensis

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