Simon O'Neill

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Simon O'Neill
ONZM
Background information
Birth nameSimon John O'Neill
Born1971 (age 52–53)
Ashburton, New Zealand
GenresOpera
WebsiteOfficial website

Simon John O'Neill

ONZM (born 1971) is a New Zealand-born operatic tenor
. In 1998, his image appeared on the New Zealand one-dollar performing arts postage stamp.

Biography

O'Neill was born in

.

While studying at the Juilliard Opera Center, he sang the title role in

Merola Opera Program,[2] he performed Rodolfo in La bohème as well as the title role in La clemenza di Tito with Wolf Trap Opera.[3] In 2004, O'Neill was the subject of a TVNZ, BBC documentary The Understudy[4] about his contract at the Metropolitan Opera to cover Siegmund for Plácido Domingo in the Met's Otto Schenk production of Die Walküre.[5]

O'Neill made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Gran Sacerdote in Mozart's Idomeneo with James Levine, his Royal Opera House debut as Jenik in Smetana's The Bartered Bride [6] with Sir Charles Mackerras followed by Florestan (Fidelio) with Antonio Pappano and Salzburg Festival in Die Zauberflöte with Riccardo Muti and his Vienna Staatsoper debut as the title role in Parsifal with Christian Thielemann.

He performed the role of Siegmund in

Deutsche Oper[8] and the Metropolitan Opera with Donald Runnicles and in the 2013 Otto Schenk Ring production and in the Robert Lepage production with Fabio Luisi.[9]

He made his 2009 debut in the title role of Verdi's Otello[10] with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra and in 2010 he debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in the title role of Lohengrin,[11] returning in the title role of Parsifal in 2011. The same year, O'Neill made his role debut as Walter von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Covent Garden.

His performances have included; the title roles of

Boston Symphony
.

O'Neill contributed as tenor soloist to the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mahler's "Symphony No.8" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The recording received two nominations for the 2022 Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album in Classical.[14][15] It won the Best Choral Performance Award.[16]

O'Neill is the patron of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing (Newzats),[17] The New Zealand Opera School, the New Zealand Singing School,[18] New Zealand Circle 100, the New Zealand Brass Foundation,[19] St Kilda Brass, the Auckland Boys' Choir, the Ashburton MSA Choir and the UK Singingworks.[20] He appears on the 1998 New Zealand one-dollar performing arts postage stamp.

In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, O'Neill was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to opera.[21]

Recordings

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Victoria University of Wellington Honorary Doctorate". Victoria University of Wellington. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  2. ^ "San Francisco Opera". San Francisco Opera Merola Programme. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Wolftrap Opera". Wolftrap Opera. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Great Southern Film". Great Southern Film. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Simon O'Neill". Opera Australia. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  6. ^ "Royal Opera House Collections The Bartered Bride". ROH. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  7. ^ "Royal Opera House Die Walküre BBC". BBC. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  8. ^ "Deutsche Oper Berlin". Deutsche Oper. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  9. ^ "Metropolitan Opera Die Walküre" (PDF). The Met Opera. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  10. ^ "London Symphony Orchestra Otello Parsifal". LSO Live. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  11. ^ "Bayreuth Festival Lohengrin Parsifal". Bayreuth Festival. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  12. ^ "Royal Opera House Parsifal". ROH. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  13. ^ "West-East Divan Orchestra with Barenboim". The Independent. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  14. ^ "New Zealander tenor Simon O'Neill nominated for two Grammy awards". RNZ. 26 November 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  15. ^ O'Neill, Simon (26 November 2021). "Double 2022 Grammy Nomination For New Zealander Simon O'Neill | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  16. ^ Skipwith, David (4 April 2022). "Grammys 2022: New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill was woken up with a call to say he'd won". Stuff. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  17. ^ "Newzats Patron". Newzats. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  18. ^ "New Zealand Singing School Patron". Singing School NZ. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  19. ^ "New Zealand Brass Foundation Patron". Brass Foundation NZ. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  20. ^ "UK Singing Works Patron". Singing Works. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  21. ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 2017". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.

Links

Sources

External links