Thomas Allen (singer)
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Sir Thomas Allen is an English opera singer from Seaham Harbour, County Durham.
In 2006 Allen will have performed with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for thirty-five years. He has sung over forty roles with the company.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York will also be celebrated in 2006.
Allen has performed as Billy Budd, Pelléas, Eugene Onegin, Ulisse and Beckmesser. Additionally he has been praised for his execution of the Mozart roles of Count Almaviva, Don Alfonso, Papageno, Guglielmo and, of course, Don Giovanni.
Recently (as of 2005) he has appeared as Eisenstein (in Die Fledermaus), Don Alfonso, Ulisse and Don Giovanni at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Yeletsky (in 'Pique Dame) Sharpless (in Madama Butterfly) and the title role in Sweeney Todd at the Royal Opera House, Eisenstein at the Glyndebourne Festival, Don Alfonso at the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festivals, Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen) at the San Francisco Opera and Beckmesser at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Allen also appears in recital in the United Kingdom, throughout Europe, in Australia and America. The greatest part of his repertoire has been extensively recorded with such distinguished names as Georg Solti, James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Riccardo Muti.
Thomas Allen's first book, Foreign Parts - A Singer's Journal was published in 1993. He recently directed for the first time in Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music.
Honours
- Bayerischer Kammersänger, awarded by the Bayerische Staatsoper.
- Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music.
- Prince Consort Professor of the Royal College of Music.
- the Hambro Visiting Professorship of Opera Studies at Oxford University.
- Fellowship of the Royal College of Music
- Fellowship of the University of Sunderland
- M.A. from University of Newcastle
- D.Mus. from Durham University and the University of Birmingham.
- In the New Year's Honours of 1989 he was created a Commander of the British Empire
- In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Bachelor.
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