SimonO'Neill ONZM

Press

• 'Radiance' featuring excerpts from Tannhäuser and Parsifal

  New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

  Aug 2026

  • This was a brilliant piece of programming, reuniting one of the orchestra’s most charismatic music directors with our celebrated heldentenor Simon O’Neill, singing the music that secured his international reputation. His commanding presence and vocal heft effortlessly sustained the powerful attestations of Wagner’s closing Rome narrative, despite the absence of other characters to fuel the drama of its final moments. A recurring Andante section, hinting at Mahlerian marches yet to be written, reminded me of O’Neill’s prowess with Mahler’s music. Over the next year, he will be performing Das Lied von der Erde in Melbourne, Prague and China.

    • The New Zealand Herald
    • 23 August 2026

  • O’Neill approached the role with immense commitment, his tenor voice powerful and his projection flawless. He maintained an intense, radiant quality particularly in the lengthy Rome narrative section as well his farewell to Venus. His singing, from the quiet, noble passages representing redemption and faith, through the swirling chromatic agitation depicting sensual temptation of the Venusberg section was always focussed.

    • New Zealand Arts Review
    • 23 August 2026

• Tristan und Isolde

  Theatro Municipal de São Paolo

  Jul 2026 - Aug 2026

  • O Tristão de Simon O’Neill, de certa forma, faz o caminho inverso, da solenidade com que se dedica a Isolda no início da ópera, enquanto a leva para o rei, ao desespero do último ato, em que o monumental não está mais na articulação do poder, mas, sim, na forma como aos poucos o personagem se desfaz – a delicadeza e a dor de seu último “Isolde”, antes de se entregar à morte, nos rasgam por dentro. São dois cantores superlativos. O’Neill, na emissão e no uso de contrastes em direção às regiões mais graves da voz, filia-se a uma tradição de tenores heroicos wagnerianos que remonta à geração de meados do século XX. [Translated] Simon O’Neill’s Tristan, in a sense, follows the opposite trajectory: from the solemn devotion with which he attends to Isolde at the beginning of the opera, as he escorts her to the king, to the despair of the final act, where grandeur no longer resides in the exercise of power but in the gradual disintegration of the character. The tenderness and anguish of his final “Isolde,” before surrendering to death, tear us apart. They are two superlative singers. O’Neill, in the way he projects the voice and exploits contrasts toward its darker, lower register, belongs to a tradition of Wagnerian heldentenors stretching back to the mid-twentieth century.

    • Concerto
    • 24 July 2026

• Lohengrin (title role)

  Opera Sofia

  Jun 2026 - Jun 2026

  • The only guest artist in the cast, New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill, in the role of the mysterious knight Lohengrin — a character he first tackled in Bayreuth in 2010, and whom he has since played on some of the world's greatest opera stages — was once again particularly convincing. His heroic tenor voice, with a clear, silky and luminous timbre, generous in the half-tones and precise as sure in the high notes, is ideally suited to the profile of the Wagnerian hero. To these qualities are added a profoundly human conception of the character as well as a remarkable ability to color the vocal line in order to translate with finesse the psychological evolution, thus constituting one of the many merits of his interpretation. His account of "In fernem Land", in which he reveals his identity to Elsa, his voice seeming to float above the orchestra in an ethereal, almost supernatural atmosphere, was one of the most beautiful moments of the evening.

    • Classique News
    • 21 June 2026

• Mahler Das Lied von der Erde

  Sydney Symphony Orchestra

  Feb 2026

  • O’Neill was electrifying as he launched into the Drinking Song which forms the dramatic opening of the Mahler work, hitting the ringing top Bs with power and accuracy.

    • The Daily Telegraph
    • 01 March 2026

  • Both Young and O’Neill launched into this piece with an operatic full-throated-ness that made one’s hair stand on end. O’Neill acted and sang the entire score, even the bits in which he was not actually singing, and Young...

    • Australian Stage
    • 27 February 2026

  • O’Neill’s cleanly focused tone soared out when given a chance, and there are plenty of high Bs and B♭s in the part. He had the heldentenor heft needed for the first and fifth songs but could also lighten his voice effectively for the “faux Chinese” third song, “Of Youth”.

    • Limelight
    • 26 February 2026

• 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 Arts Desk
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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. 

    • Financial Times
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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.

    • Musical Theatre Review
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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.

    • Bach Track
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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…..

    • The Telegraph
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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.

    • The Recs
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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.

    • Scene Mag
    • 17 February 2026

  • 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.

    • Opera Online
    • 18 February 2026

  • The night’s exceptional performance was that of Simon O’Neill as crime boss Jimmy MacIntyre. Best known for his heldentenor roles in Wagner, O’Neill sang this demanding role with accuracy, stamina and a piercing, pure tone.

    • The Observer
    • 21 February 2026

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

    • The Times
    • 17 February 2026

• 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.

    • Limelight

  • 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.

    • Australian Book Review
    • 14 November 2025

  • [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.

    • The Age
    • 15 November 2025