Daniel Norman

Acclaimed “multi-talented tenor” Daniel Norman (Financial Times) has been praised for his ability to inhabit complex characters and for his powerful and expressive vocal performances. His career-to-date has covered a versatile range of repertoire, from early and baroque music through to contemporary works. He was a choral scholar at New College Oxford, where he read Engineering. He went on to study in the US and Canada and at the Royal Academy of Music.

He has built an impressive operatic career both in the UK and internationally, working with companies including English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, L’Opéra National de Paris, Nederlandse Reisopera, Wexford Festival, the Bayerische Staatsoper, New Israeli Opera, Bergen National Opera, and Oviedo Opera. Recent roles have included Tanzmeister Ariadne auf Naxos for Opera North, Tinca and Gherardo Il Trittico for Welsh National Opera, Laca Jenufa for Longborough Festival, Die Meistersinger for Glyndebourne Festival and Sellem The Rake’s Glyndebourne on Tour.

He also appears regularly in contemporary opera and music theatre, with highlights including Mao Nixon in China for Opera Boston, Staatsoper Hanover and at the Fondazione di Arena di Verona, Orpheus the Myth The Mask of Orpheus for ENO, Judas in Birtwistle’s The Last Supper for the London Sinfonietta and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Basilio Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera Holland Park, Monostatos Die Zauberflöte for English National Opera and Electrician in the Vienna and Boston premieres of Adès’s Powder Her Face, also at the Mariinsky Theatre and in a film version for Channel 4.

Particularly noted for his performances of the music of Benjamin Britten, roles have included Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw (Glyndebourne on Tour), Squeak Billy Budd (ENO), Red Whiskers Billy Budd (Opera North, Aldeburgh and Glyndebourne in New York), Bob Boles Peter Grimes at the St Endellion Festival and his role debut in the US as Captain Vere Billy Budd for Central City Opera, Colorado. Concert highlights include Les Illuminations with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic, Nocturne with Edward Gardner, St Nicolas at the Gulbenkian in Porto, and with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Lancing College, War Requiem for Philharmonia Taiwan, and with Southbank Sinfonia in Coventry Cathedral, and the first official staging of Britten’s Five Canticles at Westminster Abbey.

Active on the concert platform, Daniel has sung with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Firebird Ensemble (USA), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Columbia, Het Gelders Orkest, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Belgium; with appearances at the BBC Proms, Three Choirs Festivals, Aldeburgh Festival, and Oxford International Song Festival.

Recordings include four volumes of the Hyperion Schubert Edition with Graham Johnson, a Grammy nominated Beethoven’s 9th Symphony Orchestra), (Vänskä, Minnesota Maintop in Billy Budd (Hickox/LSO), Slender in Sir John in Love (Hickox, Northern Sinfonia), Brett Dean’s Winter Songs with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet (BIS), Hugh Wood’s Comus (BBCSO, Sir Andrew Davis), and Rimenes in Arne’s Artaxerxes (Classical Opera Company, Linn). Daniel has also released three highly acclaimed solo discs with pianist Christopher Gould: Winter Words / Who Are These Children? (BIS), the Michelangelo and John Donne Sonnets, and the Canticles (Stone Records).

Daniel will join the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich for the 2024-25 season, where his roles include Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos, Edmondo Manon Lescaut, Borsa Rigoletto, Spalanzani Les Contes d’Hoffman. Daniel returns to Zürich after much success performing as Pirelli in Sweeney Todd and Kaliboul in Offenbach’s Barkouf.

Updated: Oct 2024