Stuart Skelton

Born in Sydney in 1968, Stuart Skelton is one of the finest heldentenors on the stage today. He was the first Australian to win the renowned Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna.
Stuart was trained as an opera singer in Sydney, as well as the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in the classes of Barbara Honn and Thomas Baresel. As an Adler Fellowship member, Stuart Skelton began his international singing career in San Francisco. The multiple prizewinner now makes guest appearances on the most renowned opera and concert hall stages worldwide: at the New York Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Opernhaus Zürich, Dresden Semperoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the State Operas of Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin.
Apart from the great Wagnerian Heldentenor roles (Lohengrin, Parsifal, Erik, Siegmund, and Rienzi), Skelton’s repertoire comprises many further demanding opera parts, including Beethoven’s Florestan, Saint-Saëns’s Samson, Dvořák’s Dimitrij, Strauss’s Kaiser und Britten’s Peter Grimes. He continues to be in demand on concert stages around the world, collaborating with conductors of the likes of Daniel Harding, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Simone Young, Michael Tilson Thomas and Daniel Barenboim.
Stuart Skelton’s extensive discography includes Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder (Edward Gardner / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra), Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius (Sir Andrew Davis / BBC Symphony Orchestra), und Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Michael Tilson Thomas / San Francisco Symphony). He is also participating in three separate complete recordings of Wagner’s Ring cycle: with the Hamburg Philharmonic conducted by Simone Young, with Seattle Opera, and with the State Opera of South Australia under the baton of Asher Fisch.
The 2014 International Opera Awards named him Male Singer of the Year; furthermore, Skelton has been twice honoured with the Sir Robert Helpmann Award: once for his performance of Siegmund in the State Opera of South Australia’s 2004 production of the Ring Cycle, and again in 2010 for Best Male Performer in a Lead Role for his portrayal of Peter Grimes for Opera Australia.