Ed Lyon

Tenor

Management

Helen Hogh
[email protected]

Fiona Wells
[email protected]

Groves Artists represents Ed Lyon worldwide

Biography

Ed Lyon studied at St John’s College Cambridge, the Royal Academy and the National Opera Studio. He enjoys an international career in a wide repertoire ranging from the baroque to contemporary music and has appeared in many of the world’s leading opera and concert venues including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, the Netherlands Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Aix, Edinburgh, Holland and Aldeburgh Festivals, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, BAM New York, the Theater an der Wien and the BBC Proms, with conductors including Antonio Pappano, William Christie, Valery Gerghiev,  René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Emmanuelle Haïm, Teodor Currentzis and Christian Curnyn.

Recent and future operatic projects include the central role of Colin/ Denisov’s L’écume des jours for Stuttgart Opera, Lurcanio/Ariodante and Septimius / Theodora as well as roles in Ariadne auf Naxos, Tristan und Isolde, Der fliegende Holländer, and Tannhäuser  for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden,  Steva/Jenufa for Opera North, the world premiere of Nicolas Lens’ Shell Shock,  Tamino, Spoleta / Tosca and Don Gomez / Henry VIII  for La Monnaie, Brussels,  L’Ormindo for the ROH at the Globe, Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni and Lurcanio for Scottish Opera, the title role in La Clemenza di Tito for Opera de Rouen, Freddy/My Fair Lady for the Châtelet in Paris, Jaquino/Fidelio and Pane / La Calisto in Madrid, Lurcanio for the Israeli Opera, Don Alonze/L’amant Jaloux and Septimius for Pinchgut Opera in Sydney, Eduardo in Ades’ Exterminating Angel at the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera House, Peter Quint / The Turn of the Screw and the title role in Orfeo for Garsington Opera, Jupiter/Semele in Karlsruhe,  Belmonte / Die Entführung aus dem Serail for The Grange Festival, King Arthur with Capella Mediterrenea at the Grand Théätre de Génève,  Ferdinand / Miranda for Oper Köln,  the title role in Candide for Welsh National Opera, a concert performance of Dido and Acteon with Early Opera Company, acclaimed staged performances of Janacek’s The Diary of One who Disappeared in Brussels, London, Brno, Rome and at the Beijing Festival as well as staged choreographed performances of Tancredi and Clorinda with Shobanah Jeyasingh Dance  Company.

Other highlights have included extensive tours with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie including Paris, London, Amsterdam and New York in repertoire including the title roles in Lully’s Atys, Rameau’s Pygmalion and Hippolyte and Charpentier’s Actéon, the title role in Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Aix Festival with René Jacobs, the title role in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie and Purcell’s Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne and Pane/La Calisto and Lysander/A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Royal Opera, and Haydn’s L’anima de filisofo with Currentzis.

Ed Lyon’s concert repertoire includes the baroque and nineteenth century oratorios as well as major tenor concert works such as The Dream of Gerontius, Elijah and the Britten tenor repertoire.    His many concert engagements have included performances at the BBC Proms (including Bach with The English Concert and Maxwell-Davies with the BBC Singers), City of Birmingham SO (Tom Rakewell in a concert performance of The Rake’s Progress), appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, New London Concert, Musikkollegium Winterthur, The King’s Consort, Easter at King’s, Ludus Baroque, Die Kölner Akademie, Israel Camerata and the English Chamber Orchestra. Recent and forthcoming highlights include performances of Messiah, St John Passion (arias), Elijah, B minor mass at the Royal Festival Hall, Seven Deadly Sins by Sir James Macmillan, performances of the War Requiem with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and NDR Hannover as well as with the Cambridge University Music Society,  a concert performance of Solomon with the Early Opera Company on stage at Covent Garden, St Matthew Passion (Evangelist) for the Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall,  the world premiere of The Masque of the Red Death with the SWR Sinfonieorchester, The Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,  St John Passion (Evangelist) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,  performances of Beethoven Symphony No 9 in Europe and the US with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra / Sir John Eliot Gardiner,  Elgar’s The Apostles with the Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder and a recital with the Theatre of the Ayre at the Wigmore Hall.

Recordings include Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, The Triumph of Time and Truth with Ludus Baroque,  Les Troyens (DVD) with the ROH Covent Garden and Antonio Pappano, L’enfance du Christ with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg / Ivor Bolton.  In October 2019 he released his first solo album, The 17th Century Playlist on Delphian records and the recent recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master with the BBC Concert Orchestra on Resonus Classics has received wide critical acclaim.

This biography is for website use only. For a full and updated biography, please email [email protected]

Audio/Video

Select an audio or video file
from the list below

Reviews

  • Clorinda Agonistes

    The standout, however, is the tenor Ed Lyon. His warm and impassioned singing imbues Monteverdi’s music with clarity and humanity, while his presence — as narrator in the first half and a sound technician in the second — is charismatic throughout.

    Debra Craine The Times, September 2022
  • La Resurrezione, London Handel Orchestra

    And as John the Evangelist, Ed Lyon sang with burnished tone and deep sincerity, bringing an ecstatic quality to Ecco Il Sol Ch’Esce Dal Mare that arguably made it the emotional high point of a fine and rewarding evening.

    Tim Ashley The Guardian, April 2022
  • Handel's Solomon

    Ed Lyon’s Zadok (a thankless role – part special-advisor, part spiritual cheerleader) was impeccable from start to finish, his coloratura machine-gun swift and much more accurate, phrasing wonderfully malleable and reactive.

    Alexandra Coghlan The Arts Desk
  • Mozart's Die Zauberflote

    British tenor Ed Lyon shines with highs perfectly mastered. Tamino’s charismatic interpreter offers a remarkable version of the character, with a confident and confident voice.

    Soline Heurtebise Olyrix Review
  • The Turn of the Screw

    You can see and hear Ed Lyon’s Quint grooming Miles with feral, predatory seduction, leaning into Quint’s melismatic wails in a way that’s like Peter Pears via Frank Sinatra, and Lyon’s presence, whether seen or just dimly perceived, is deeply unsettling.

    Peter Reed Classical Source
  • Mozart Requiem

    “Ed Lyon showed he could seize his moments with the ring of a Mozart tenor of special quality”

    Martin Kettle The Guardian, November 2020
  • Theodora / Royal Opera House (DVD)

    Ed Lyon performs Septimius’s airs with immaculate diction and a shrewd sense of sentences, and his appoggiaturas, precise trills and intelligent embellishments are weighed perfectly.

    David Vickers Gramophone / 2023
  • Orfeo / Garsington Opera

    Ed Lyon was an appealing Orfeo, with a fair share of vocal beauty, plenty of vigour and good characterisation of each of the many moods.

    David Karlin Bachtrack / June 2022
  • Orfeo / Garsington Opera

    In the title role, Ed Lyon gave an astonishingly detailed, nuanced performance.  Vocal technique, musical intelligence and dramatic presence were splendidly fused here… There was not a phrase that was ill-considered or lacking in dignity – and his dancing evinced a similar blend of poise and pliancy… Lyon negotiated the declamation and dazzling divisions with equal discernment and skill, and made us believe in Orfeo’s bliss, wretchedness, determination and sincerity.

    Claire Seymour Opera Today / June 2022
  • Theodora / Royal Opera House

    Lyon is forthright, handsome in tone and presence.

    Tim Ashley The Guardian / February 2022

News

  • Ed Lyon to sing The Diary of One Who Disappeared
    09.03.17

    Ed Lyon to sing The Diary of One Who Disappeared

  • Ed Lyon in Salzburg Festival debut
    07.06.16

    Ed Lyon in Salzburg Festival debut

  • Grammy Award Nominations 2015
    08.12.14

    Grammy Award Nominations 2015

  • Opus Arte releases Hippolyte et Aricie DVD featuring Ed Lyon
    05.08.14

    Opus Arte releases Hippolyte et Aricie DVD featuring Ed Lyon

  • Christian Curnyn and Ed Lyon in first opera to be presented at the new Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe
    19.03.14

    Christian Curnyn and Ed Lyon in first opera to be presented at the new Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe

  • Ed Lyon opens in new Don Giovanni for Scottish Opera
    15.10.13

    Ed Lyon opens in new Don Giovanni for Scottish Opera