Sir Thomas Allen

/
  • Baritone
  • Director

About Sir Thomas

Sir Thomas Allen is an established star of the great opera houses of the world. He has sung over fifty roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; this year he celebrates the 50th anniversary of his debut with the Company. An acclaimed recitalist, he is equally renowned on the concert platform and has appeared with the world’s great orchestras and conductors. His many honours include the title of Bayerischer Kammersänger awarded by the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the New Year’s Honours of 1989 he was created a Commander of the British Empire and in the 1999 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Bachelor. Among his proudest achievements is having a Channel Tunnel locomotive named after him; and most recently, being awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music 2013.

Sir Thomas is based in London

Contact

Ivo Ivanov

Ivo Ivanov

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Sir Thomas

Season Highlights

Oct 2023
Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Rossini The Barber of Seville (director) Stuart Stratford (conductor)
Nov 2023
Park Theater Eindhoven
Mozart Der Schauspieldirektor (Leo) Enrico Delamboye (conductor)
Jun 2024
Glyndebourne, Lewes
Lehar The Merry Widow (Baron Mirko Zeta) John Wilson (conductor)

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Press

  • Rossini The Barber of Seville

    Scottish Opera
    Oct 2023 - Oct 2023

    • "Sir Thomas Allen’s second revival of the Scottish Opera show that was the star baritone’s UK professional debut as a director is a crowd-pleaser, in all the best senses of that expression."

  • Mozart The Magic Flute

    Theatre Royal, Glasgow
    May 2019

    • an approach as pantomimic as Sir Thomas Allen’s in this revived Scottish Opera production from 2012, which the baritone-turned-director has returned to oversee, makes perfect sense.

  • Mozart Cosi fan tutte

    Royal Opera House
    Feb 2019

    • Sir Thomas Allen a chanté le rôle du vieux philosophe Don Alfonso un nombre impressionnant de fois, mais il y apporte encore de la fraîcheur. Sir Thomas Allen has sung the role of the old philosopher Don Alfonso an impressive number of times, but he still brings freshness to it.

    • infatti, poche note e qualche gesto scenico misurato a Sir Thomas Allen per dimostrare di essere ancora, a quasi 75 anni, l’artista dalla personalità musicale magnetica. La sua interpretazione di Don Alfonso è di quelle che si imprimono nella memoria immediatamente... ma la personalità artistica, la musicalità, se possibile, risultano ingigantite dall’avanzare dell’età. La recitazione è curata e analitica come da attore consumato: un capolavoro il suo Don Alfonso, una lezione artistica rara e pregiata. Just a few notes and some scenic gestures measured by Sir Thomas Allen are enough to show that he is still, at almost 75, the artist with a magnetic musical personality. His interpretation of Don Alfonso is one that immediately imprints itself on the memory...artistic personality, musicality, if possible, are magnified by advancing age. The acting is accurate and analytical as a consummate actor: his Don Alfonso masterpiece, a rare and valuable artistic lesson.

    • ...no one sings the role of Alfonso with more irony, or sheer joy...

    • Thomas Allen is such a pro, knows this opera inside out, and has no trouble engaging as Don Alfonso conceived as a participatory actor/director, revelling in the contradictions of the theatrical exercise being presented... His comic timing remains acute as ever, and includes a quicksilver classic!

  • Bernstein Candide

    Barbican Hall
    Dec 2018

    • ir Thomas Allen is a very experienced Dr Pangloss (and Narrator), being the person of choice for this part as much as he seems to be for the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos. On this occasion, his clear sense of ease with the role made his portrayal feel as eccentric as ever...

    • Thomas Allen, an avuncular Narrator, brought a veteran’s experience to his delivery of the spoken lines while sounding in good voice as Pangloss.

    • Sir Thomas Allen made for a perfectly English Narrator, doubling as Doctor Pangloss. Hilarious and perfectly English in delivery, he ensured that the parallels between the political scene for the setting of the play and current political trends did not go unnoted...He also exuded a confidence that ran like a thread through the performance, his voice ripe and resonant, particularly in his ‘Dear Boy’, where his masterly timing called on his years of experience.

  • Lehár The Merry Widow

    Metropolitan Opera Company, New York
    Dec 2017

    • As the cuckolded husband, veteran baritone Sir Thomas Allen, his voice holding up beautifully and his diction irreproachable, proved how a secondary character can sway the stage. He was as spry, vocally and physically, as singers half his age.

  • Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro

    The Royal Opera
    Feb 2019

    • Scheming away as the impresario Don Alfonso is Sir Thomas Allen, as elegant and suave as ever...

  • Recital

    Bridgewater Hall
    Mar 2016

    • It is hard to approach comment on the performance of a national treasure and deeply respected veteran of opera and voice production. Speculatively, this may read a little more like an account than a critique. But perhaps that is more due to the fact that this was quite simply a knock-out concert, from every angle and particularly in the detail.

Discography