Opera Scotland

Russell Smythe Suggest updates

Born Dublin,19 December 1949.

Irish baritone.

Russell Smythe studied in London at the Guildhall School of Music and the London Opera Centre. He worked with the major British companies and frequently at continental houses.

He began his career with English Music Theatre in 1976, singing the Ballad Singer in the UK premiere of Britten's Paul Bunyan at Aldeburgh. He also created the title role in Stephen Oliver's Tom Jones. Roles with Welsh National Opera included Monteverdi (Ottone); Britten (Billy Budd), Tchaikovsky (Yeletsky, Eugene Onegin), Mozart (Papageno, Count Almaviva), Rossini (Figaro), Donizetti (Malatesta) and Handel (Garibaldo in Rodelinda). The last two were televised.

For the Royal Opera he sang Ned Keene, Malatesta, Dr Falke and Guglielmo. With English National Opera his roles included Pelléas, Papageno, Figaro, Tarquinius, Andrei Bolkonsky (War and Peace), Guglielmo and Albert (Werther). At Opera North he sang Figaro and Henri in Le roi malgré lui (Chabrier). He also appeared at the Buxton Festival in Donizetti's Torquato Tasso (title role) and the English Bach Festival as Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride) and Aeneas (Purcell).

Appearances in Scotland began with Papageno (a visit to Glasgow by WNO). He worked with Scottish Opera as Figaro, Falke, Eugene Onegin, Balstrode and Peter in Hansel and Gretel.

Appearances abroad include the Hamburg State Opera (Tony in West Side Story, Guglielmo, Figaro, Harlekin, Pelléas, Papageno); Vienna Volksoper (Count Eberbach in Der Wildschütz, Falke, Papageno); Paris Opéra (Harlekin, Dr Faustus); Lyon (Sherasmin in Oberon); Basel (Oreste, Germont); San Sebastian (Malatesta); Madrid (Ned Keene); Catania (Papageno); Vancouver (Papageno); Amsterdam (Nardo in La finta giardiniera) and Nancy (Orfeo). He also sang in Bordeaux, Frankfurt and Brussels.

Recordings on CD include Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie under Minkowski, Nardo in La finta giardiniera, Edward III in Donizetti's L'assedio di Calais and Ping in Turandot. He can be seen on DVD in the ENO Rape of Lucretia and the Warner Video recording of Sullivan's Cox and Box.