Simon Bailey - Bass Baritone

Described as an ´elegant, sensitive and powerful Wotan´ (Der Opernfreund), ´a singer for Wotan who lives up to the ideal of a German bel canto´ (FAZ) and ´...one of the best Wotans I have ever heard on stage, with his powerful, well-controlled, agile baritone, precise intonation and excellent clarity of pronunciation´ (Klassik Begeistert), Simon Bailey has been delighting audiences across Europe in a career spanning 25 years.

Engagements in the 2024/25 season have included: Wotan Das Rheingold (Dortmund); Wotan Die Walküre (Dresden, Luzerne, Stockholm); Wanderer ​Siegfried (Dortmund, Saarbrücken, Versailles and Dresden); Klingsor Parsifal (Frankfurt); title role Der fliegender Holländer (Taipei), Gonzalo The Tempest (Kassel) and Rama in Holst´s Sita (Saarbrücken, world premiere).

A resident of Frankfurt, Germany, Simon has a repertoire of more than 100 major principal operatic roles from Berg to Britten, Mozart to Mayuzumi, Humperdinck to Händel and Vivaldi to Verdi. His unusually large vocal range means he has appeared as a low bass (Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Gonzalo in The Tempest), a Mozartian bass (with more than 50 performances of Leporello and 60 of Figaro including ROH Covent Garden and La Scala, Milan), as a typical Italian Buffo (most recently as Don Magnifico in Cenerentola). 
Recent success as Wotan (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre) and Wanderer (Siegfried) in Erl, Köln, Wiesbaden, Luzerne and Dresden has heralded a shift in focus to the great Wagnerian bass-baritone roles over the coming seasons.

Future plans include reprising Holländer in a new production for Welsh National Opera, Balstrode (Peter Grimes) in his company debut at Opera North in Leeds, a return to English National Opera as Don Magnifico (Cenerentola) and his debut as Hans Sachs Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Germany.