Biography

Australian tenor Paul O’Neill has, over the past decade, forged for himself a compelling international career.

“Listening to O’Neill… one had a sense of intelligent musicianship, refined technique and a sophisticated theatrical instinct placed utterly at the service of the music.”

As an ensemble member of the Berlin Staatsoper O’Neill sang many roles including: Italian tenor 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. Other roles include: Duca di Mantoa in Rigoletto with Opera Holland Park (London), Opera Australia, West Australian Opera, Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Staatstheater Mainz; Turridu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Carlo VII in Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco for Theater Bielefeld; Jason in Cherubini’s Médée for Theater Bielefeld and Staatstheater Mainz and Cavaradossi with Theater Bielefeld, Theater Madgeburg, Oper St Gallen and Western Australia Opera; Pirelli in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth for West Australian Opera.

He sang Don José in Carmen at the Glyndebourne Festival and West Australian Opera; Laca in Jenufa and The diary of one who disappeared for Opéra de Lille; the title role of Gounod’s Faust at Theater Hagen, Theater Münster and Staatstheater Mainz; Rodolfo in La Bohème for Oper Halle, Freeze Frame Opera, West Australian Opera and Handa on Sydney Harbour; Elvino in La Sonnambula and Laca in Jenufa with Oper Graz; Radames in Aida at the Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen; Prince in Rusalka at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken; and Isepo for Ponchielli’s La Gioconda in concert at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Upcoming roles include: Alfredo in La Traviata for Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour; Tenor soloist for Opera in the Park and Elijah as well as Turiddu/Canio in Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for West Australian Opera.

O’Neill’s concert repertoire includes: Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater; Handel’s Ode on Saint Cecilia’s Day and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Deutsche Staatsphilhaminoie Rheinland-Pfalz, Beethoven Orchester Bonn and both the Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the West Australian Opera; Verdi’s Requiem at the Konzerthaus Berlin and West Australian Symphony Orchestra; Seeman and Hirte in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with both the Stavanger and West Australian Symphony Orchestra; Mendelssohn’s Elias and Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, both with the Berlin Philharmonic, under Seiji Ozawa and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 2, Lobgesang with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. O’Neill has worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Asher Fisch, Bruno Bartoletti, Andris Nelsons, Stefan Blunier, Neeme Järvi, Steven Sloane, Alexander Soddy, Dirk Kaftan, Omer Meir Wellber, Leo Hussain.

Paul earned his Bachelor of Performing Arts at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and was 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. He was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Awards, the Australian Singing Competition’s Opera Awards and the Mathy Awards.