SimonO'Neill ONZM

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  • Tenor

About Simon

Simon O’Neill ONZM is regarded as one of the leading heldentenors of his generation, appearing regularly at the world’s foremost opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Paris Opera, Berlin State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera and at the Bayreuth Festival, Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms appearing with a number of illustrious conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Pierre Boulez, Sir Donald Runnicles, Christian Thielemann, Jaap van Zweden, Daniel Harding, Simone Young, Andris Nelsons, Pietari Inkinen, Esa Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel.

This season, Simon will make his debut at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo as Tristan and his house and role debut at English National Opera as Jimmy MacIntyre (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). He will sing Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in Reykjavík, Das Lied von der Erde in Parma and Sydney, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Sydney, and the title role of Siegfried with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also returns to the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra for Götterdämmerung and to Opéra national de Paris as Loge (Das Rheingold) for the Calixto Bieito Ring cycle, after making his debut there in the title role of Parsifal.

Internationally acclaimed for his interpretations of Wagner’s great heroic roles, he has sung Siegmund (Die Walküre) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Antonio Pappano, at the Teatro alla Scala and Berlin State Opera under Daniel Barenboim, and at the Metropolitan Opera under Donald Runnicles in Otto Schenk’s celebrated production, later returning for the Robert Lepage Ring cycle under Fabio Luisi. At the Bayreuth Festival he has appeared in the title roles of Lohengrin and Parsifal. O’Neill is among the very small number of tenors in modern history to have performed the full span of Wagner’s principal heldentenor repertoire on the international stage. His broad repertoire also includes; Otello (Sydney, Auckland, Boston, London); Florestan (Fidelio) (London, Hamburg, Sydney, Houston); Der Kaiser (Die Frau ohne Schatten) (Berlin); Tambourmajor (Wozzeck) (New York, Hamburg); Idomeneo (New York, Auckland); Max (Der Freischütz) (Vienna, London); Boris (Káťa Kabanová) (London, Berlin); Mao (Nixon in China) (San Francisco, Auckland); Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) (Sydney); Calaf (Turandot) (Barcelona); and Cavaradossi (Tosca) (Tokyo, Berlin, Auckland and Hamburg).

Equally distinguished on the concert platform, O’Neill performs regularly with major orchestras in repertoire including Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony No. 8, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and concert performances of Wagner’s Ring dramas. His discography features recordings on major labels including Deutsche Grammophon (Grammy Award-winning Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Decca, EMI Classics, Naxos, and LSO Live.

Born in New Zealand, Simon O’Neill was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours. A Fulbright Scholar, he trained at the University of Otago, Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard School, and holds a Doctor of Music (honoris causa) from Victoria University of Wellington. He was named Arts Laureate of New Zealand in 2005, was a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and is notably featured on New Zealand’s 1998 Performing Arts postage stamp.

Simon is based in London

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Contact

Elan Fryar

Elan Fryar

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

General Management

Australia and New Zealand: Patrick Togher

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Season Highlights

Nov 2025
Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra
Götterdämmerung - Siegfried (in concert)
Nov 2025
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (tenor soloist)
Nov 2025
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Siegfried (title role)
Nov 2025
Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra
Götterdämmerung (Siegfried)
Feb 2026
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Das Lied von der Erde
Feb 2026
English National Opera
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Jimmy MacIntyre)
May 2026
Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
Das Lied von der Erde
May 2026
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Mahler 8th Symphony (tenor soloist)
Aug 2026
Teatro Municipal de Sao Paulo
Tristan und Isolde

Video

Audio

  • Mahler: 'Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde' from Das lied von der Erde
  • Mahler: 'Von der Jugend' from Das lied von der Erde
  • Mahler: 'Der Trunkene im Frühling' from Das lied von der Erde
  • Beethoven: 'Gott! Welch dunkel hier' from Fidelio

Photos

Selected Repertoire

Alban Berg

Wozzeck (Tambourmajor)

Antonín Dvořák

Rusalka (Prince)

Arnold Schönberg

Moses und Aron (Aron)

Bedřich Smetana

The Bartered Bride (Jenik)

Benjamin Britten

Peter Grimes (title role)   •   Billy Budd (Vere)

Camille Saint-Saëns

Samson et Delilah (Samson)

Carlisle Floyd

Susannah (Sam Polk)

Dmitri Shostakovich

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Sergei)

Ernest Chausson

Le Roi d’Arthus (Lancelot)

George Frederick Handel

Lotario (Berengario)

Giacomo Puccini

Tosca (Cavaradossi)   •   Turandot (Calaf)

Giuseppe Verdi

Otello (title role)

Jack Heggie

Moby-Dick (Captain Ahab)

John Adams

Nixon in China (Mao Tse-Tung)

Leoš Janáček

Káťa Kabanová (Boris)   •   The House of the Dead (Skuratov)   •   Jenufa (Laca)

Ludwig van Beethoven

Fidelio (Florestan)

Modest Mussorgsky

Boris Godunov (Dmitri)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin (Lensky)   •   Pique Dame (Hermann)

Richard Strauss

Die Frau ohne Schatten (Der Kaiser)   •   Die liebe der Danae (Midas)   •   Ariadne auf Naxos (Bacchus)   •   Daphne (Apollo)   •   Elektra (Aegisth)   •   Salome (Herod)

Richard Wagner

Die Walküre (Siegmund)   •   Parsifal (title role)   •   Tristan und Isolde (Tristan)   •   Siegfried (title role)   •   Götterdämmerung (Siegfried)   •   Tannhäuser (title role)   •   Lohengrin (title role)   •   Das Rheingold (Loge/Froh)   •   Der fliegende Holländer (Erik)   •   Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Walter)

Ruggero Leoncavallo

Pagliacci (Canio)

Samuel Barber

Anthony and Cleopatra (Caesar)

Umberto Giordano

Andrea Chenier (title role)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Idomeneo (title role)   •   Die Zauberflöte (Geharnischter Mann)   •   La clemenza di Tito (Tito)

News

Press

  • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

    English National Opera
    Feb 2026

    • ENO has got the tenor, luxury casting in the shape of top Wagnerian Simon O'Neill…… No doubt about it, though, this is O'Neill's night. Jon Vickers said he'd never sing the role on stage as the demands were greater than those of Siegfried; this Wagnerian makes it all sound fearlessly easy, and the eve-of-execution solo is the most powerful stretch of the evening.

    • The linchpin role is Jimmy Mahoney/MacIntyre, a logger from Alaska, who comes around to feeling that the pleasure city of Mahagonny is the foulest place on earth. The role is punishingly high and ENO is lucky to have Simon O’Neill, tireless and clarion-clear, the kind of Wagnerian tenor it demands. 

    • As Jimmy, Simon O’Neill is at ease singing as a lounge singer in ‘Deep in Alaska’ as he is in full operatic mode in his searing final aria. His delicate musical phrasing adds a poignancy to everything he sings.

    • Although the city itself is a tragedy, founded by criminals and going through many phases before disintegrating in its own immorality – this production is principally framed as the tragedy of Jimmy, the big-hearted Alaskan lumberjack whose fate is sealed when he commits the only true crime in the lawless Mahagonny: failing to settle his bar bill. This was the first time I’ve heard Weill sung by a full-on Wagnerian Heldentenor, and it was a revelation: Simon O’Neill soared above the powerful orchestral accompaniment with elegance of line and beauty of timbre, turning Jimmy into a heart-meltingly tragic character.

    • But its success here depends on two outstanding leads: Simon O’Neill as the blustering, tragic Jimmy MacIntyre, who takes his lumberjacks from Alaska to settle in Mahagonny, but is eventually executed for the unforgivable sin of having no money. His stentorian voice rings out boldly, and is matched by Danielle de Niese as Jenny Smith…..

    • Simon O’Neill brings his trenchant Wagnerian heroic style to bear on the role of the lead lumberjack, Jimmy MacIntyre.

      • AOL
      • 17 February 2026

    • ….and Jimmy the lumberjack, played by New Zealand-born tenor Simon O’Neill, swings suspended orange lamps around to simulate the oncoming storm. O’Neill (Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde, Das Rheingold) as angry and unfortunate lumberjack Jimmy MacIntyre dominates the stage with his powerful heldentenor voice. It is his story that binds the narrative. He demands understanding and sympathy from the audience as he journeys from embittered worker, through periods of hedonism, towards his inevitable yet unjust death, giving the most tender performance at the end.

    • Simon O'Neill as Jimmy is the evening's beating heart, his voice warm, fluid, and devastating in the final act when Jimmy is condemned not for violence but for an unpaid debt, while a murderer walks free having paid his way out.

    • Simon O’Neill, often seen in Wagnerian heldentenor roles, is luxury casting as Jimmy, and throws himself completely into the part as his voice more than conquers every demand placed on it.

    • Simon O’Neill’s superbly sung Jimmy McIntyre is whipping up the excellent chorus to a libertarian frenzy.

  • Siegfried

    Sydney Symphony Orchestra
    Nov 2025

    • As Siegfried, Simon O’Neill puts his clarion heldentenor to excellent use. He starts off with a brighter, youthful sounding voice to match the dim-witted teenager, imbuing it with more colour as Siegfried grows. Then, with Siegfried’s sexual awakening in the third act, he unleashes his fully matured yet spry voice – a brilliant example of vocal characterisation and pacing.

    • Ultimately, everything depends on Siegfried. Here we were in the safest hands with the New Zealander Simon O’Neill, one of the leading heldentenors of the age. O’Neill was faultless and tireless all night, despite everything that Wagner threw at him.

    • [The] duet scene with O’Neill is the cream on the cake of the whole opera, his ringing clear and pure high tenor cutting across the massive orchestra, with melodies that stay in the memory long after the opera ends.

Discography