Australian tenor Paul O’Neill has forged a compelling international career singing in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and Australasia. His 2021/2022 engagements included Alfredo (La traviata) for Opera Australia, Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) and Canio (Pagliacci) for West Australian Opera. In 2022/23, he sings Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) for Opera Australia, Macduff (Macbeth) for State Opera South Australia and Don José, Cavaradossi, Alfredo, Rodolfo and Otello for West Australian Opera; he is tenor soloist in Britten’s War Requiem and Siegmund in Die Walküre for West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
As an ensemble member of the Berlin Staatsoper, Paul sang many roles including: The Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Augustin Moser and Kunz Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger von Nūrnberg, Hirt and Seeman in Tristan und Isolde, Spoletta in Tosca and Gastone in La traviata.
Engagements since have included Don José (Carmen) and Alfredo for West Australian Opera, Rodolfo (La bohème) and Narraboth (Salome) for Opera Australia, the title role in Faust for Theater Münster, Cavaradossi (Tosca) in both Perth and Magdeburg and Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) throughout China. Other roles have included The Duke in Rigoletto with Opera Holland Park, Opera Australia, West Australian Opera and the State Theatres of Karlsruhe and Mainz; Turiddu, Cavaradossi and Carlo VII in Verdi’s Joan of Arc for Theater Bielefeld and Jason in Médée for Theater Bielefeld and the Mainz State Theatre.
He has sung Don José at the Glyndebourne Festival; Laca in Jenůfa and Janáček’s song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared for Opéra de Lille; the title role in Faust at Theater Hagen and the Mainz State Theatre; Rodolfo for Halle Opera and West Australian Opera; Elvino (La sonnambula) and Laca with Graz Opera; Radamès in Aida at the St Margarethen Opera Festival; The Prince in Rusalka at the State Theatre of Saarbrücken, and Isepo in La Gioconda in concert at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Paul O’Neill’s concert repertoire includes Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle and Stabat Mater, Handel’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day and Haydn’s Nelson Mass; Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic and the Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn; Orff’s Carmina Burana with West Australian Opera; Verdi’s Requiem at the Konzerthaus Berlin and West Australian Symphony Orchestra; and Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, both with the Berlin Philharmonic, under Seiji Ozawa and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He has also worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Bruno Bartoletti, Andris Nelsons, Stefan Blunier, Neeme Järvi, Steven Sloane, Alexander Soddy, Dirk Kaftan, Omer Meir Wellber, Simone Young and Leo Hussain.
Paul O’Neill earned his Bachelor of Performing Arts at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and was a Young Artist at West Australian Opera. He was awarded Opera Foundation Australia’s Covent Garden National Opera Studio Scholarship and studied at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill.
