PAUL CAREY JONES
Bass-Baritone
Reviews - Extra
L'Artiste (Margot La Rouge)- Opera Holland Park, 2022
"Bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones (a former winner of the Wagner Singing Competition) revs up the decibels as the psychopath L'Artiste."- Clare Colvin, Reviews Gate
"Paul Carey Jones projected sonorous menace as Delius' murderous pimp L'Artiste"
- Richard Bratby, The Spectator
"Paul Carey Jones projects a hollow but sinister power as L’Artiste, calling to mind Wagner’s Hunding"
- Curtis Rogers, Classical Source
"Paul Carey Jones’s Artiste offering a contrasting, commanding, and vicious stage presence."
- Mark Berry, Seen and Heard International
"It was Paul Carey Jones, dangerously charismatic as L’Artiste (so called for his skills with a weapon, not a paintbrush), who brought the necessary snarl for this nasty little tale." - Alexandra Coughlan, Opera
Peter (Hänsel und Gretel) - Opera Holland Park, 2023
“The always magnetic (and vocally classy) Paul Carey Jones burst on the scene as Peter, laden with drink (internally) and food.” - Robert Thicknesse, Opera Now
“To have a Wotan, Paul Carey-Jones as the avuncular father, Peter the Broombinder, was unimagined luxury (it happens regularly on record, but rarely in the theatre)” - Hugh Canning, Operalogue
“Paul Carey Jones... filled OHP’s auditorium in glorious swaggering voice and with bags of attitude as the father." - Peter Reed, Opera magazine
"Carey Jones takes the evening by storm from the moment he opens his mouth... he puts everything into delivering the most impeccable vocal and acting performance." - Sam Smith, Music OMH
"Carey Jones found terrific charisma in the role, his sonorous bass-baritone joviality inflected with a rasp of underlying anger" - Boyd Tomkin, The Arts Desk
"resounding with absolute authority, Paul Carey Jones' booming baritone gives the production added texture."
- Cheryl Markosky, Broadway World
"Paul Carey Jones breezes through it, his voice six sizes larger than everyone else's."
- Alexandra Coghlan, The Telegraph
"Paul Carey Jones' resonant voice carries easily"
- Rebecca Franks, The Times
"if anyone steals the show it's Paul Carey Jones' gutsy father, with a voice like a series of thunder-claps and an all-embracing presence."
- Michael Church, The Independent
"Paul Carey Jones’ positively Wagnerian Peter was luxury casting; indeed, here is a singer who knows how to make his voice carry, even many yards offstage, and yet there is no lack of flexibility, quite the contrary."
- Mark Berry, Seen and Heard International
"...from the moment he enters on. bicycle, exudes good-natured energy ...and he sings with clarity and amplitude worthy of Wagner's Wotan." - Yehuda Shapiro, The Stage
"As a very experienced Wagnerian ...the whole production moved up a notch or two when his powerful voice was first heard off-stage" - Tim Hochstrasser, British Theatre
"Carey Jones’ voice has stunning power and clarity ... (he) brought happiness and glory to Opera Holland Park."
- Andrew Lohmann, London Unattached
"A truly magnificent Paul Carey Jones on tremendous vocal form."
- Anna Selby, The Arbuturian
"The standout performance... This is luxury casting as his high-quality Wotan is well-known. His booming glorious voice is heard from outside the large tent ...and the mood instantly lifts." - Josi Steinfeld, Plays To See
Wotan (Der Ring des Nibelungen)
- Longborough Festival Opera, 2024
"the most memorable part of this peformance arrives in Act III... our attention focuses... on the relationship between a father and a daughter, superbly sung by Paul Carey Jones (Wotan) and Lee Bisset (Brünnhilde). It's very moving." - Rebecca Franks, The Times
"Storytelling is to the fore ...a cast impressively led by Paul Carey Jones (Wotan) and Mark Stone (Alberich) ...Die Walküre had urgent clarity. Wotan's huge monologue and "farewell" were remarkable in steadiness and expression." - Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
"At the heart... is a trio of remarkable performances. Paul Carey Jones as Wotan carries the show with superhuman effort and unfailing conviction" - Jessica Duchen, inews
"The beating heart of the production is the fluctuating interactions between Wotan himself and his daughter Brünnhilde, which starts with an almost jokey joshing, and descends to suspicion and hate ...it is Paul Carey Jones who for me encapsulates the best of the Longborough approach ...he is a fragile, damaged god who tells his story in flexible, often hushed conversation, can be roused to impotent rage but then ends in a moment of profoundly moving farewell" - Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
"Real electricity flows between Paul Carey Jones' Wotan and Lee Bisset's Brünnhilde. Carey Jones' bass-baritone is firm, powerful and assertive and he stays the distance extremely well so that his final proclamation in the opera feels as strong as anything that has gone before ...their performances feel highly animated but never overblown.
"The (final) scene between Wotan and Brünnhilde is as heart breaking as any, and Carey Jones undergoes the transition from furious god to loving father extremely convincingly" - Sam Smith, Music OMH
"...they have put together a wonderful cast. Paul Carey Jones made a superb Wotan, dramatically expressive and showing the turmoil he is in... (Lee Bisset) and Carey Jones gave a beautiful rendering of their father/daughter relationship, particularly towards the end when he bids her farewell."
- Mark Ronan, The Article
"Paul Carey Jones' stong bass-baritone establishes the foundation from which he delivers a commanding performance as Wotan." - Sam Smith, Music OMH
"the extended farwewell between father and daughter of Act 3 is heartrending in its intensity: seldom have I witnessed such convincing singing and acting. Carey Jones' conflicting emotions palpable when exiling Brünnhilde from Valhalla and Bisset's distress at her rejection and pleading for protection moistens the eye." - David Truslove, Opera Today
"great opera is alive and well in modern Britain, as are the singers who can give it life... Paul Carey Jones took up his earlier role as Wotan and was magnificent." - Mark Ronan, The Article
"Paul Carey Jones was a strong Wotan. He is a gifted actor whose portrayal was fully credible and thoughtful... His voice was ample and attractive." - James L. Paulk, Classical Voice North America
Wotan (is) taken by the cavernous bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones ...he inhabits the role perfectly, authoritative yet vulnerable, noble yet fatally flawed" - David Truslove, Opera Today
"Carey Jones provides the most commanding of performances... His command of the German language could not be faulted... he sings at the height of his powers, a dominant performance" - Clive Peacock, Seen and Heard International
"Here we have excellent singers with Wagnerian skills and experience... Paul Carey Jones excels... Wotan's joy and then despair is vividly acted, matching the emotion, anger and frustration in his voice" - Mike Smith, Arts Scene Wales
"Lee Bisset and Paul Carey Jones are a dream team for the final act." - Gavin Dixon, Opera Now
"Paul Carey Jones campe un Wotan impérieux et sonore" - Emmanuel Andrieu, Classique News
"...this year's production felt to me on a new level, with widespread critical agreement that Lee Bisset's Brünnhilde, Paul Carey Jones' Wotan and Julian Close's Hagen were as good as you could expect from any opera house in the world."
- Alan Rusbridger, Prospect
"Leading this impressive cast from the top was Paul Carey Jones as Wotan. Jones completely embodies the role... His voice is perfect, evenly supported across the broad tessitura, and with a weight of tone that brings gravity even to his highest register. His acting too is always convincing, engaging and immediate. On the strength of this performance, he must rank as one of the finest of Wotans of our time." - Gavin Dixon, Opera Now
"More tellingly still, the key relationships unfolding on stage were skilfully choreographed, perhaps especially Wotan and Brünnhilde in their final moments ...increased attention to the words was an undoubted plus, with those explosive sequences of Wagnerian consonants achieving a level of prominence that, in my experience at least, was unprecedented. This made intensely memorable some of the episodes that can often seem comparatively routine. A case in point was the start of Wotan's long Act 2 narrative in Die Walküre, which as delivered by Paul Carey Jones was more spoken than sung - which underlined the musical caesura at this point and made new dramatic sense of it.
"Lastly come the cycle's central antagonists. Mark Stone's Alberich was a vocal and histrionic tour de force... He was matched at every turn by Carey Jones' Wotan and Wanderer. The stamina, the superb diction, the focused musicianship: all of these served as a model of the best this daring, innovative Ring cycle could produce."
- Roger Parker, Opera magazine
"Paul Carey Jones conveyed Wotan's failing divine force with devastating accuracy, as much in the desperation of his conflict with Fricka, or the sotto-voce musings of his narrative to Brünnhilde, or his fury and nobility in Act 3... His secure, full singing and presence both filled the theatre and expanded it in a compelling portrait."
- Peter Reed, Classical Source
- Richard Bratby, Gramophone