Paul Nilon

Tenor

Paul Nilon is well established as a young lyric tenor with opera companies throughout this country and abroad.

He has sung major roles with many opera companies including Fenton Falstaff, King Ouf L’Etoile, Belfiore La Finta Giardiniera, Paolino Secret Marriage and Ferrando Cosi fan tutte at Opera North; Almaviva Barber of Seville, Tamino Magic Flute and Lurcanio Ariodante for English National Opera; Benedict Beatrice and Benedict for Welsh National Opera; Belmonte Entführung for Opera Northern Ireland’ Osmin L’Incontro Improviso for Garsington Opera; Ermione at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and Elege for Young Lovers for Opéra Décentralisé Neuchatel. He has also sung several roles, including Grimoaldo Rodelinda for Musica nel Chiostro in Batingnano.

Handel and Mozart feature predominantly in Paul Nilon’s repertoire and he has sung Tamino for English National Opera and Scottish Opera, and Lurcanio in David Alden’s acclaimed production of Ariodante at English National Opera. In the 1993/4 season, he appeared in Cosi fan tutte at the New Israeli Opera and more recently in Barber of Seville. In 1996 he sang his first Verdi role – Alfredo in La Traviata for Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

Recent performances include Tom Rakewell in WNO’s new production of The Rakes Progress and also for the New Israeli Opera, Septimus Theodora for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Mischa in a new production of Martinu’s Julietta for Opera North, Nerone Incoranazione di Poppea for Welsh National Opera, Lensky Eugene Onegin for Opera North and Grimoaldo Rodelinda in concert at the Montreux Festival with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and staged performances for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Handel’s Solomon in Florence under Ivor Bolton, and the title role in Monteverdi’s Ulisse at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and Cremona with Trevor Pinnock.

Paul Nilon also has an active concert career and highlights to date include Gounod’s St Cecilia Mass in Madrid, a performance which was also broadcast on Spanish television, Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Valencia, Murcia and Liverpool, Handel’s Messiah in Leeds, Edinburgh and Madrid, and Bach’s B Minor Mass in the Royal Festival Hall London with the LPO. Concerts include Handel’s Solomon in Florence and the Mozart Requiem with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London and Paris, a concert of Handle’s Susanna for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Andrew Davis, L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, and Beethoven Missa Solemnis for BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Mark Elder.

Paul Nilon has appeared on five notable recordings for Opera Rara: One Hundred Years of Italian Opera, Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais, Medea in Corinto, Mercadante’s Orazie & Curiazi and Rossini’s Ricciardo e Zoraide.

His performance of the role of Nerone in Monteverdi’s Poppea was shown on BBC Television over Christmas 1998.