Paul Carey Jones
Biography
Welsh-Irish heldenbaritone Paul Carey Jones was born in Cardiff and studied at The Queen's College Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio, where he was winner of the National Eisteddfod of Wales' premier award for young singers, the W Towyn Roberts Scholarship. In May 2013 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, and he was joint winner of the 2013 Wagner Society Singing Competition. His continuing exploration of the heldenbariton repertoire is supported by The Mastersingers and the Carole Rees Award for Advanced Musical Studies, and his work during the current Coronavirus crisis is supported by the Arts Council of Wales.
Recent career highlights have included his Covent Garden debut in The Nose, his role debuts as Wotan Das Rheingold at London's Grimeborn Festival and Wotan Die Walküre at the Berwick Festival; his house debuts at Teatro Comunale Bolzano as Dr Schön / Jack the Ripper Lulu, The Icelandic Opera as the Colonel in Daniel Bjarnason's Brothers, and Opera Holland Park as Lescaut in Puccini's Manon Lescaut; the title role in the Chinese premiere of Britten's Noye's Fludde in Beijing and Shanghai, the Scottish premiere of Philip Glass' The Trial, the world premieres of John Metcalf's Under Milk Wood: An Opera, Stephen McNeff's The Burning Boy and Stuart MacRae's Prometheus Symphony, and covering the roles of Wotan / Der Wanderer in the 2018 Ring cycle at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
His future plans include Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen for Longborough Festival Opera, culminating in the full Ring cycle in 2023, and the world premiere recording of Russell Pascoe's Secular Requiem with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Paul Carey Jones has appeared as a guest principal artist for opera companies including the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Opera Holland Park, Wexford Festival Opera, The Icelandic Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Rossini di Lugo and Teatro Comunale Bolzano among many others. Roles have included Wotan Das Rheingold, Wotan Die Walküre, Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde, Donner Das Rheingold, Scarpia Tosca, Marcello La Bohème, Lescaut Manon Lescaut, Macbeth Macbeth, Father Hansel & Gretel, Nick Shadow The Rake's Progress, Don Alfonso Così Fan Tutte, Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro, Escamillo Carmen, Forester The Cunning Little Vixen and Dr Schön / Jack the Ripper Lulu.
A committed advocate of contemporary music, he has given the world premiere performances of operas, songs and song cycles by composers such as Stuart MacRae, John Metcalf, Jonathan Dove, Stephen McNeff, Sadie Harrison, Brian Irvine and Emily Hall. His roles in contemporary operas include Dancing Williams Under Milk Wood (John Metcalf), Richard Nixon Nixon in China (John Adams), Andy Warhol Jackie O (Michael Daugherty), Pacheco Ines de Castro (James Macmillan), Priest The Trial (Philip Glass), the Colonel in Brothers (Daniel Bjarnason), and Jaufré Rudel L'amour de Loin (Kaija Saariaho).
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 with the pianists Llyr Williams, Ian Ryan and Jocelyn Freeman. His debut song album, Enaid - Songs of the Soul with Llyr Williams was released by Sain in 2007.
As a recording artist he also appears on the original cast recording of Under Milk Wood: An Opera for Ty Cerdd Records, as Squire Alworthy on Naxos' recording of Edward German's Tom Jones, and as Andy Warhol in Jackie O for Dynamic DVD. His album of contemporary song with Ian Ryan, Songs Now, was released on the Meridian label.
Paul Carey Jones was a member of the late Yehudi Menhuin's Live Music Now! scheme, whose work he continues to support. He 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 and the Bryn Terfel Scholarship, as well as webinar and podcast appearances for Orchestras Live, Opera Holland Park, and Longborough Festival Opera.
Paul is a shareholder at Cardiff City Football Club, where he has sung live during the pre-match build-up, and is the official Bard of the Lemmings Cricket Club. His other hobbies include mathematics and physics, and crosswords and quizzes: in 1999 he captained the Royal Academy of Music's pioneering team on the BBC's University Challenge television quiz show. As a writer, he has contributed articles to Wagner News and the Mastersingers Newsletter, as well as to his online blog Ranitidine & Tonic.
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
Daugherty / Jackie O - Andy Warhol
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
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
Wagner / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Kothner
Wagner / Das Rheingold - Donner
Wagner / Das Rheingold - Wotan
Wagner / Die Walküre - Wotan
Wagner / Siegfried - Der Wanderer
Wagner / Götterdämmerung - Gunther
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
Wagner / Der Fliegende Holländer - Der Holländer
Wagner / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Hans Sachs
Wagner / Parsifal - Amfortas
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
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
