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


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)
​
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
​
Strauss / Die Frau Ohne Schatten - Barak
Strauss / Elektra - Orest
Strauss / Salome - Jochanaan
​​​
Oratorio / concert
​
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









