British-Australian tenor Adrian Dwyer has sung in many of the world's greatest opera houses and concert halls, gaining recognition for his extraordinarily wide-ranging vocal ability and vivid theatrical presence in works from the 19th century to the present day.
Engagements have taken him to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real (Madrid), Teatro Massimo (Palermo), Opernhaus Zürich, Dutch National Opera (Amsterdam), Welsh National Opera, the Israeli Opera, English National Opera, Opéra de Toulon, Scottish Opera, Irish National Opera, Cape Town Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera North, Birmingham Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, the State Opera of South Australia, as well as the Amsterdam, Edinburgh International and Aldeburgh Festivals.
Recent and upcoming performances include Mime Rheingold and Siegfried in Longborough Festival Opera's new Ring Cycle (and in Das Rheingold in Singapore), Sandy / Officer The Lighthouse at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Astrologer The Golden Cockerel and Gerald Barry's Alice's Adventures Underground at Theater Magdeburg, Almeric Iolanta with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Brighella Ariadne auf Naxos for Opera North, Gralsritter in a new production of Parsifal at Teatro Massimo Palermo, D’Esperaudieu in Gerald Barry’s The Intelligence Park at the Royal Opera House (Linbury Theatre), the title role in the world premiere of Anthony Bolton's The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko at Grange Park Opera, Inspector of Lunatics in the world premiere of Michael Gallen’s Elsewhere with Straymaker Opera and Music-Theatre Company and the Prince in John Adams’ A Flowering Tree at Opera Queensland.
Adrian made his Covent Garden main stage debut in 2019 as Anatole in David Pountney’s new production
of Prokofiev’s War and Peace for Welsh National Opera, following what critics called a “career-defining” house debut with the company as Andrei in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina.
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Carmina Burana
Royal Scottish National Orchestra (November 2024)
Adrian Dwyer’s characterful tenor as the blackened roasted swan was a torturous delight.
David Smythe, Bachtrack
The cumulative effect was helped by having three top notch soloists. Adrian Dwyer squawked his way effectively through the music of the roasted swan
Simon Thompson, The Arts Desk
Adrian Dwyer was a new voice to me, and although only having one solo, he portrayed the roasting swan to perfection, coping with the horrendously high notes easily but also conveying the awful nature of the experience convincingly
Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Edinburgh Music Review
Truly characterful
Ken Walton, VoxCarnyx
Mime (Der Ring des Nibelungen)
Longborough Festival Opera (2024)
Adrian Dwyer’s movements, gestures and comic timing make him an extremely accomplished Mime. He applies just enough ‘pinch’ to his tone to capture the dwarf’s scheming and malevolent nature, but overall lets his light but warm tenor shine through, which helps him to come across as less of a caricature than is commonly seen. Dwyer’s Act I encounter with Paul Carey Jones’ Wanderer is highly compelling
Sam Smith, MusicOMH
Dwyer’s lyrical tenor, largely bypassing a deliberately grotesque manner often required for this role, was nicely shaped, the wide-ranging vocal part handled with ease.
David Truslove, Opera Today
Mime [is] wittily portrayed by Adrian Dwyer
Inge Kjemtrup, The Stage (Siegfried)
Adrian Dwyer’s Mime was nicely balanced — comic without lapsing into caricature.
James Paulk, Classical Voice North America
Adrian Dwyer drew on his talent for sly comedy as Mime.
Colin Davison, British Theatre Guide
'Adrian Dwyer's crystal-clear Mime, which never fell into caricature'
Roger Parker, Opera Magazine
Mime (Das Rheingold)
Orchestra of the Music Makers (July 2023)
Adrian Dwyer made Mime into something more than despicable; one actually felt sorry for him at times.
Robert Markow, Opera Magazine
Astrologer (The Golden Cockerel)
Theater Magdeburg (Various Dates, 2022)
Tenor Adrian Dwyer convinces with his incredibly high, bright, and very clear tenor as well as with his lively, multifaceted playing, which leaves no doubts about his pride in his creation of the cockerel, his desire of the tsarina or his rage over Dodon.
Birgit Kleinfeld, Operngestalten
...finally, Adrian Dwyer as the Astrologer, who delivers the almost painfully high tenor part without any grating, preserves the mystery inherent in the composition of the character, and acts with almost dance-like agility.
Andreas Falentin, Die Deutsche Bühne
The astrologer, sung by Adrian Dwyer, is cast in this piece with an extremely high tenor. This is the voice range Rimsky-Korsakov called "tenore altino," and Dwyer does an exceptionally good job despite these demands.
Aspekt Magazin
Mime (Siegfried)
Longborough Festival Opera (May 2022)
The production is animated by lively acting and punchy singing. In particular, Adrian Dwyer drives Act I like a human dynamo as Mime, capturing perfectly the agitated frustration of a schemer who is ultimately powerless
Richard Morrison, The Times
Adrian Dwyer’s prancing Mime is crisply articulated.
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
Adrian Dwyer’s Mime is a clever portrait, sung with great character.
Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk
Character can trump vocal quality in the role of the obsessive dwarf Mime but not in Adrian Dwyer's performance.
Edward Bhesania, The Stage
Adrian Dwyer's bright and breezy Mime was refreshingly free from the kind of vocal contortions that dog more caricatured assumptions of the role.
Matthew Rye, Bachtrack
The opening act is completely engaging thanks to the non-stop energy pack of gesture and action from a rather likable Mime sung with crystal clarity rather than vocal malice by Adrian Dwyer.
Mike Smith, Opera Scene
Adrian Dwyer is a first rate Mime whose actions and reactions are always astutely observed. Dwyer succeeds in applying just enough of one to convey the requisite character while still producing a highly pleasing sound.
Sam Smith, MusicOMH
Adrian Dwyer’s Mime is a multi-faceted characterisation, at times approaching caricature and almost stealing the show with his blend of campery, menace and skulduggery, drawing our compassion as the underappreciated ‘nanny’ to Siegfried. He handles the wide-ranging vocal part with considerable skill.
David Truslove, Opera Today
Adrian Dwyer's Mime is a brilliant example of resourcefulness: a tall man, he cannot of course replicate Wagner's prescribed dwarf.
Christopher Morley , Midlands Music Review
Adrian Dwyer is simply a superb Mime in every way, vocally and dramatically, virtually a comic mime in his physicality. He is a tall, good-looking, and lanky man with a lovely voice and yet you believe it when Siegfried refers to him as an ugly dwarf.
Mel Cooper, Playstosee
Inspector of Lunatics (Michael Gallen's Elsewhere)
Straymaker & The Abbey Theater (November 2021)
The tenor Adrian Dwyer created a marvellous Inspector of Lunatics
Opera Magazine
Adrian Dwyer has a super showman number as the Inspector of Lunatics.
K. Hayes, The Independent
...who informs us of this fact: the charismatic and endlessly entertaining Inspector of Lunatics (Adrian Dwyer) – the villain of the piece
Brendan Finan, Journal of Music
Adrian Dwyer, Sarah Shine, Sinéad O’Kelly, Fearghal Curtis and Aaron O’Hare – inhabit their roles with boundless energy
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times
Anthony Bolton The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko (Title role)
Grange Park Opera (July 2021)
Adrian Dwyer singing Sasha had a limpid, light tenor that shone in moments of lyrical breakout, such as the final scene.
Benjamin Poore, OperaWire
The voices are unimpeachable. Adrian Dwyer gives us excellent diction in a light, clear tenor that pulls off the unlikely trick of making an FSB hard man into a loveable creature – albeit with plenty of reserves of inner strength.
David Karlin, Bachtrack****
In a quasi-epic context, the singing of Adrian Dwyer … their diction and commitment is exemplary.
Yehuda Shapiro, The Stage
The quality of the singing was excellent, particularly Adrian Dwyer as the eponymous hero…
Mark Ronan, The Article
Gerald Barry: The Intelligence Park (D’Esperaudieu)
Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (September 2019)
Tenor Adrian Dwyer as Paradies' urbane companion D'Esperaudieu [has] the ideal focus vocally and dramatically.
David Nice, The Arts Desk
Appearing as Paradies’s companion D’Esperaudieu, tenor Adrian Dwyer is the perfect foil, his voice light and agile.
Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International
The cast’s miraculous achievements … were, without exaggeration, phenomenal.
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian
As the companion D’Esperaudieu, Adrian Dwyer was more successful than most in communicating if not meaning then at least words, and he and Rhian Lois as Jerusha were able to produce a focused tone which could carry about the tumult and communicate with some directness.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
It would be impossible to perform this work half-heartedly, and the singers were extraordinary in their commitment and in the brilliance of their delivery.
Henrietta Bredin, Opera Magazine
I can only congratulate an excellent cast of six.
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
Each member of the cast carried Barry’s music with pinpoint accuracy.
Timmy Fisher, Bach Track
Puccini: Messa di Gloria
York Minster (June 2019)
Adrian Dwyer’s fluid tenor injected a prayerful tone at Gratias Agimus … The two soloists combined smoothly in the curiously curt Agnus Dei.
Martin Dreyer, The York Press
Wagner: Das Rheingold (Mime)
Longborough Festival Opera (June 2019)
His brother, Mime, was sung by a clarion-voiced Adrian Dwyer who brought considerable energy to his ensemble scenes.
David Truslove, Opera Today
Adrian Dwyer is an unexpectedly sympathetic Mime, enhanced by his lyrical tenor.
Peter Reed, Classical Source
We have some particularly likeable baddies with Mark Stone’s mesmerising Alberich and a nimbly crafted Mime from Adrian Dwyer.
Mike Smith, Art Scene in Wales
Adrian Dwyer was an agile, martyred Mime.
Yehuda Shaprio, Opera Magazine
Adrian Dwyer also puts in a highly notable performance in the small role of Mime.
Sam Smith, Music OMH
Adrian Dwyer’s Mime sounded as if he was auditioning for a more significant Wagner role.
Jim Pritchard, Seen and Heard International
Adrian Dwyer’s Opera Repertoire
| Adams | A Flowering Tree (Prince) |
|---|---|
| Adés | Powder her face (Electrician/Lounge Lizard) |
| Barry | The Intelligence Park (D’Esperaudieu) Alice's Adventures Under Ground (Tweedledee/March Hare/etc) |
| Beethoven | Fidelio (Jaquino) |
| Berg | Wozzeck (Andres/Hauptmann) |
| Britten | Paul Bunyan (Johnny Inkslinger) |
| Dove | Swanhunter (Lemminkainen) |
| Janacek | Aus einem Totenhaus (Skuratov/Cerevin) |
| Marschner | Der Vampyr (Edgar Aubry) |
| Maxwell-Davies | The Lighthouse (Sandy/1. Officer) |
| Mussorgsky | Khovanschina (Andrei Khovansky) |
| Prokofiev | War and Peace (Anatol) |
| Puccini | La Fanciulla del West (Trin) |
| Rimsky-Korsakov | The Golden Cockerel (Astrologer) |
| Smetana | The Bartered Bride (Jenik/Vašek) |
| Sondheim | Sweeney Todd (Beadle Bamford/Pirelli) |
| Strauss | Salome (Herodes/Erste Jude/Narraboth) Ariadne auf Naxos (Brighella/Tanzmeister) Der Rosenkavalier (Der Sänger) |
| Tchaikowsky | Cherevichki (Vakula) |
| Tippett | King Priam (Hermes) |
| Verdi | La forza del destino (Maestro Trabuco) Otello (Rodrigo) |
| Wagner | Der Fliegende Holländer (Steuermann) |
| Weber | Der Freischütz (Max) |
| Weill | Street Scene (Sam Kaplan) |
| Zemlinsky | Der Zwerg (Title Role) |
Adrian Dwyer’s Concert Repertoire
| Beethoven | Symphony No. 9 |
|---|---|
| Britten | Rejoice in the Lamb |
| Bruckner | Te deum |
| Handel | Messiah |
| Haydn | Creation |
| Mahler / Schoenberg | Das Lied von der Erde |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| Mozart | Requiem |
| Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Puccini | Messa di Gloria |
| Rossini | Stabat Mater |
| Schubert | Mass in Ab |
| Vaughan Williams | Serenade to Music |
| Verdi | Requiem |
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