JohnFindon

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  • Tenor
John Findon
John Findon

About John

British tenor, John Findon, has earned high praise for his performances from critics at home and abroad. His 'glamorous tone' (Bachtrack), 'heroic sound' (The Observer), and 'imposing stage presence' (London Unattached) combine to create what Opera Gazet describes as a 'rare type of tenor.'

This 2025-26 season John makes his US, house and role debut at Des Moines Metro Opera as Lenny Of Mice and Men; returns to English National Opera as Don Jose Carmen; tours Peter Grimes with Opera North and covers the title role in Deborah Warner’s production of Peter Grimes at the Royal Ballet and Opera. On the concert platform John joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for Tippett’s A Child of Our Time; the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for Berlioz’s Requiem.

Recent highlights include his house debuts at Dutch National Opera jumping in as Peter Grimes, Bacchus Ariadne auf Naxos Opéra de Rouen, Narraboth Salome Teatro di San Carlo, and Andrei Mazeppa Grange Park Opera. John’s concert highlights include the London Symphony Orchestra’s concert setting of Strauss’ Salome (Narraboth) cond. Sir Antonio Pappano, Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra for Dream of Gerontius cond. Cristian Măcelaru.

John studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a Harewood Artist at English National Opera from 2022 to 2024 and a Jerwood Young Artist at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017. During these years, he performed roles including Spoletta Tosca, Mime and Loge cover in Das Rheingold, Siegmund cover in The Valkyrie, Borso Rigoletto, Melot Tristan und Isolde, and Giuseppe cover in La traviata, among many others. He was also the recipient of the Leonard Ingrams Award from Garsington Opera in 2022.

John is based in Sussex, United Kingdom

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Contact

Grace Hewett

Grace Hewett

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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Season Highlights

Sep 2025
BBC Proms - Royal Albert Hall
Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Zinovy) BBC Philharmonic John Storgårds (conductor)
Oct 2025 - Nov 2025
London Coliseum, English National Opera
Bizet: Carmen (Don Jose) Olivia Clarke / Clelia Cafiero (conductor)
Feb 2026 - Mar 2026
Opera North Tour
Britten: Peter Grimes (title role) Garry Walker (conductor)
Mar 2026
Royal Festival Hall
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 London Philharmonic Orchestra Tan Dun (conductor)
May 2026
Royal Ballet and Opera
Britten: Peter Grimes (cover) Jakub Hrůša (conductor)
Jun 2026 - Jul 2026
Des Moines Metro Opera
Carlisle Floyd: Of Mice and Men (Lennie Small) Christopher James Ray (conductor)

Video

Photos

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Selected Repertoire

Bizet

Carmen (Don José)

Britten

Peter Grimes (title role)   •   Owen Wingrave (Sir Philip)

Dvorak

Rusalka (The Prince)

Handel

Rodelinda (Grimoaldo)   •   Semele (Jupiter)

Humperdinck

Hansel and Gretel (Witch)

Janáček

Jenufa (Steva, Laca)   •   Káťa Kabanová (Boris Grigorjevič)   •   The Cunning Little Vixen (Cock)

Korngold

Die tote Stadt (Paul)

Leoncavallo

Pagliacci (Canio)

Mozart

Idomeneo (title role)   •   La clemenza di Tito (Tito)   •   Die Zauberflote (Monostatos, First Armed Man)

Puccini

Tosca (Spoletta)

Puccini

Tosca (Cavaradossi)

Shostakovich

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Zinoviy Borisovich)

Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men

Strauss

Ariadne auf Naxos (Bacchus)

Strauss

Salome (Narraboth)

Tchaikovsky

Iolanta (Vodemont)   •   Mazeppa (Andrei)

Thea Musgrave

Mary, Queen of Scots (James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell)

Wagner

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Walther)   •   Das Rhinegold (Mime/Loge)   •   Die Walkure (Siegmund)   •   Siegfried (Mime and Siegfried)   •   Gotterdammerung (Siegfried)   •   Tristan und Isolde (Tristan/Melot)   •   The Flying Dutchman (Erik)

Weber

Der Freischutz (Max)   •   Oberon (Huon)

News

Press

  • Strauss | Salome - Narraboth

    Teatro di San Carlo, Naples
    Mar 2025 - Mar 2025

    • John Findon's booming, clear tenor captured Narraboth's neurotic obsession with poignant fragility. The quality of his voice, and the precision of his phrasing, helped to portray the character's mental instability.

    • John Findon’s Narraboth is excellent, right from the opening phrase with a very incisive declamation; the page by Štěpánka Pučálková has beautiful timbre and phrasing

    • John Findon's vocal and interpretative performance is remarkable, returning a valid and appropriate portrait of Captain Narraboth, fatally attracted by Salome's beauty.

    • Narraboth was sung by a heroic-sounding John Findon who clearly has a great Wagner future ahead of him

  • Tchaikovsky | Mazeppa - Andrei

    Grange Park Opera
    Jun 2025 - Jul 2025

  • Musgraves | Mary Queen of Scots - Earl of Bothwell

    English National Opera
    Feb 2025

    • John Findon sang as the Earl of Bothwell. Findon’s imposing stage presence together with a clear and assertive voice made him measure up as the eminent Earl. Whether threatening to run poncy prospective partners through or stamping off into banishment, Findon felt in place.

  • Britten | Peter Grimes

    Dutch National Opera
    Oct 2024

    • John Findon is the young tenor who replaced the ailing Issachah Savage in the title role. Findon stepped into the role last minute, which fits him like a glove. A rare type of tenor, he manifests a deep baritonal treasure trove right down to the pianissimo. From the dark depths jump up illuminated color accents: a Caravaggian chiaroscuro! A fine actor he is, too. His bipolar tormented Grimes, alternately adrift and out of control (after which he beats himself up), then manically driven or dreamy, is utterly believable.

    • In any case, for the dress rehearsal and the premiere, the English tenor John Findon was called upon, who had recently played the role elsewhere and had managed to master the direction in half a day. He pulled out all the stops to make the premiere a great success and received a huge ovation.

    • John Findon [had] the Herculean task of memorising a staging that had taken five weeks to make in just one night. He does so commendably, delivering a moving Grimes with a capacity to express both the brutality and the poetry inherent to his character.

    • It is instead British tenor John Findon, who is not a stranger to Grimes stand-ins, having stepped in almost exactly a year ago at English National Opera. … what’s for sure is that his resonant voice and humble embodiment of this complex figure is one that makes its mark.

  • Bizet | Carmen - Don Jose

    Glyndebourne
    May 2024

    • he found a breathtaking intensity, with a high-octane vibrato and gleaming ring in his confrontations with Escamillo and Carmen at the smugglers’ encampment, feeding off Chaieb’s defiance. In the final scene, the voice still shone, but found some added snarls and rasps, as the animal violence of the scene came out. On his knees, after strangling her – “You can arrest me now” – there was a rare moment of tenderness with a sob in the voice. One to watch.

    • He makes it his own, with a voice that grows in power as the character grows in confidence, and a stage presence that unfolds from detachment and diffidence to lethal passion.

  • Janáček | Jenůfa - Steva

    English National Opera, London Coliseum
    Mar 2024 - Mar 2024

    • The voice of John Findon, great Wagner tenor in the making, rings out in the vast space.

    • John Findon had a whale of a time as bad-boy Števa, entitled and irredeemably self-regarding, Findon's rather over-the-top antics fitted admirably into Alden's distorted world, whilst Findon's singing in Act One rightly held focus, this Števa knew how to be liked. In Act Two, Findon gave us a sight of the weak man underneath, unable to deal with Jenůfa's pregnancy, and unable to deal with the Kostelnička's fierceness.

    • John Findon as Števa asserts his immensely powerful tenor to brilliant effect, as he immerses himself in playing the brash popular guy who is actually such a coward that he will attempt to deflect criticism by blaming others for how they have treated him.

    • Števa, was sung by John Findon with a swagger in the voice and a thrust in his step. Findon’s easy tenor and sleazy manner was an ideal contrast to Smagur’s awkward outcast.

    • Števa is brutishly sung by tenor John Findon, who can turn on romantic charm like a tap

  • Britten | Peter Grimes

    English National Opera
    Sep 2023 - Oct 2023

    • The role of Peter Grimes fell to British tenor, John Findon...plunging himself wholeheartedly into this lonesome and anguished character in a telling and surefooted performance... Go there!’ (act 2, scene 2) is a lovely and inviting aria and thoughtfully sung with intensity and feeling by Findon. He looked the part of Grimes through and through and was suspiciously alert to all the hypocrites and gossips of the Borough he shuns.

    • With a strong supporting cast of Simon Bailey’s reassuring presence as Balstrode, John Findon as an Bob Boles the Methodist, and Anne-Marie Owens as Mrs Sedley, this led to a terrific performance.

  • Smetana | The Bartered Bride - Vašek

    Garsington Opera
    Jun 2023 - Jul 2023

    • As the naïve, hapless and socially inept younger brother Vašek, he was in fine voice and brought his talent for nuanced characterisation to the production.

    • John Findon’s portrayal was both ridiculous and touching as appropriate, his tenor suitably self-pitying to distance it from that of Jeník.

Discography