NealDavies

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  • Bass-Baritone

About Neal

Neal Davies studied at King’s College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music, and won the Lieder Prize at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. An acclaimed bass-baritone, he has enjoyed a distinguished career spanning opera, concert and recording, working with many of the world’s leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles. His collaborations have included Sir Mark Elder, Daniel Harding, Bernard Labadie, Jonathan Cohen, Sir Andrew Davis, Paul McCreesh, René Jacobs, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Charles Mackerras and William Christie. He has appeared regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms.

The 2026/27 season sees Neal return to the operatic stage as the Learned Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury with English National Opera. He also appears as Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Dinis Sousa and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at The Sage. On the concert platform, Neal joins The Philadelphia Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah, performs Bach cantatas with NACO and Bernard Labadie, and sings Bach’s St John Passion with Polyphony and Stephen Layton. He also performs Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall and Handel’s Messiah with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.

The 2025/26 season saw Neal return to English National Opera as Sir Joseph Porter in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, and perform Handel’s Saul with Jonathan Cohen and the Handel and Haydn Society. The previous season included Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ at the Festival Berlioz La Côte Saint-André with Paul McCreesh and the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Mozart’s Requiem with Bernard Labadie and the Kansas City Symphony, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Jonathan Cohen and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He also appeared as Dr Bartolo in English National Opera’s production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Neal’s extensive discography includes Handel’s Serse with The English Concert and Harry Bicket, Songs of Travel with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, Mozart’s Il ritorno di Tobia with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Ivor Bolton, Acis and Galatea under Christian Curnyn, Messiah, Theodora, Saul and The Creation with Paul McCreesh, and Britten’s Billy Budd with Daniel Harding. His recordings have received a BBC Music Magazine Award, Gramophone Award and Grammy Award.

Contact

Katy Crompton

Katy Crompton

Associate Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Neal

Season Highlights

Sep 2026
Sage, Gateshead, Royal Northern Sinfonia
Cosi fan Tutte (Don Alfonso) Dinis Sousa, Royal Northern Sinfonia
Dec 2026
Philadelphia Orchestra
Messiah (Bass soloist) The Philadelphia Orchestra, Bernard Labadie
Feb 2027 - Mar 2027
English National Opera
Trial by Jury (Learned Judge)
Apr 2027
National Arts Centre Ottawa
Bach Cantatas National Arts Centre Orchestra, Bernard Labadie

Audio

  • Schubert, arr. Berlioz - Der Erlkönig
    Credit: Oxford Town Hall
  • Wolf, arr. Berlioz - Anakreons Grab
    Credit: Oxford Town Hall
  • Berlioz - L’Enfance du Christ
    Credit: BBC Radio 3
  • Handel - Acis and Galatea "O ruddier than the cherry"
    Credit: Early Opera Company

Photos

Download high resolution images

Selected Repertoire

Beethoven

Fidelio (Don Fernando)

Berlioz

Beatrice et Benedict (Don Pedro)   •   L'enfance du Christ (Hérode)

Britten

Curlew River (Traveller)   •   A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom)   •   The Rape of Lucretia (Junius, Collatinus)   •   Billy Budd (Mr Redburn)

Donizetti

L’elisir d’amore (Dulcamara)   •   Don Pasquale (Pasquale)

Handel

Jephtha (Zebul)   •   Giulio Cesare (Achilla)   •   Radamisto (Tiridate)   •   Acis and Galatea (Polyphemus)   •   Theodora (Valens)   •   Alcina (Melisso)   •   Ariodante (King)   •   Saul (Saul)   •   Orlando (Zoroastro)   •   Xerxes (Ariodate)   •   Agrippina (Pallante)   •   Belshazzar (Gobrias)   •   Rodelinda (Garibaldo)

J. Strauss

Die Fledermaus (Frank)

Janacek

The Makropolus Case (Kolenaty)   •   Sarka (Premysl)

Monteverdi

L'Orfeo (Plutone)

Mozart

Die Zauberflöte (Papageno)   •   Don Giovanni (Leporello)   •   Le nozze di Figaro (Bartolo)   •   Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso)

Nicolai

Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Reich)

Puccini

Madama Butterfly (Sharpless)

Purcell

Dido and Aeneas (Sorcerer)   •   King Arthur (Bass)

Schubert

Die Freunde von Salamanca (Fidelio)

Sullivan

Mikado (Ko-ko)   •   The Pirates of Penzance (Major General Stanley)   •   The Yeomen of the Guard (Sergeant Meryll of the Yeomen)   •   Trial by Jury (The Learned Judge)

Press

  • Samuel (Saul) London Handel Festival | Arcangelo | Jonathan Cohen

    Sinfonia Smith Square
    Feb 2026

    • ...luxury casting, this – the tremendous bass-baritone Neal Davies as Samuel, whom the witch conjures at Saul’s behest but who delivers his resonant prophecy of doom.

  • Elgar's Dream of Gerontius | BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra | Ryan Wigglesworth

    Paisley Abbey
    Feb 2025

    • Finer still, however, was the trio of soloists... Neal Davies sang the bass solos with stentorian clarity, the sort of sound that pins you to your seat...

  • Marriage of Figaro

    English National Opera
    Feb 2025

    • Neal Davies particularly impressed with a forcefully sung Bartolo, every inch the self-important small town solicitor with a minor scandal in the cupboard

    • Excellent support comes from Rebecca Evans’s Marcellina and Neal Davies’s Bartolo

    • The supporting cast is strong, with stalwarts Neal Davies and Rebecca Evans well matched as Bartolo and Marcellina, Hubert Francis as a wide-boy Basilio and Ava Dodd as Barbarina, all micro-mini and Instaface

  • Bach's Christmas Oratorio

    St John Smith Square, London
    Dec 2023

  • Parry's Prometheus Unbound

    Sep 2023

    • Neal Davies’s bass is broader than in former years, and all the better suited to the kind of Wotan-size declamation demanded of him here.

    • The four soloists on the disc – Sarah Fox, Sarah Connolly, David Butt Philip and Neal Davies – are all exemplary, as is Vann’s direction, the playing and chorus. This is a historic, sublime and essential recording.

  • Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius

    Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
    Jun 2023

    • Neal Davies’ Priest and Angel of the Agony brought gravitas and comfort to Gerontius’ bedside in Part 1, and pleaded imploringly for his soul in Part 2.

    • Neal Davies gave us an authoritative priest and angel of the agony, his oaky tone a welcome contrast.

    • Neal Davies, as the Priest and Angel of the Agony, made himself heard through every texture by a combination of finely projected tone and exemplary enunciation...

  • Mozart's Magic Flute

    Birmingham Hippodrome
    May 2023

    • Bringing stage charisma to the fore was bass-baritone Neal Davies as Papageno, who interpreted the character with a casual informality and humour that matched Evans' libretto perfectly.

  • Handel's Music for the Royals

    City Halls, Glasgow
    Mar 2023

    • Bass baritone Neal Davies was similarly unmistakable, particularly on his solo aria.

  • Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard

    London Coliseum
    Nov 2022

    • And there are excellent performances on stage, particularly from Neal Davies as an avuncular Sergeant Meryll...

    • ...and the bass-baritone Neal Davies, a canny Sergeant Meryll, can sing Handel or Janáček or Ryan Wigglesworth with equal aplomb.

  • Handel's Serse

    St. Martin in the Fields
    May 2022

    • Handel’s Serse returned on Thursday to London, city of its 1738 world premiere, with conductor Harry Bicket, the English Concert, and a cast with no weak link... As Ariodate (father of both Romilda and Atalanta), Neil Davies makes a two-dimensional character lively and believable at every turn.

    • Two quality men supported the phalanx of female power... the always-underrated Neal Davies, looking as if butter wouldn’t melt, gave a more understated but perfectly focused characterisation, this time of smug opportunism which buckles at the last moment.

    • D’Angelo led an outstanding cohort of singers to whom this idiom is now second nature: Paula Murrihy’s fine Arsamene and Daniela Mack’s dark-hued Amastre completed the female dominance in the cast, nobly supported by the male voices of Neal Davies as Ariodate and William Dazeley’s comic Elviro.

  • Mozart's Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso)

    London Coliseum
    Mar 2022

  • Bach's St John Passion

    Battersea Arts Centre, London
    Apr 2021

Discography