Gwyn Hughes Jones hails from Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey, in Wales. He made his professional operatic debut in 1995 with Welsh National Opera as Ismaele in Nabucco conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Among the roles he has sung for the company are Duca in Rigoletto, Rodolfo in La Boheme, Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore, the title role in Gounod’s Faust and Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Don José in Carmen.
Roles for other British companies include Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Macduff in Macbeth for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Rodolfo in La Boheme and Pinkerton in Anthony Minghella’s award winning production of Madame Butterfly and Calaf in Turandot for English National Opera.
Gwyn made his European debut as Ismaele in Nabucco with Opera National de Paris and subsequently sang Camille de Rossillon in Die Lustige Witwe for the company. Other appearances in Europe include the title role in Werther for Opera National de Lyon conducted by Christian Badea, Fenton in Falstaff for La Monnaie, Brussels conducted by Antonio Pappano, Rodolfo in La Boheme for the Norwegian National Opera, Don José in Carmen for Norwegian National Opera and Music Theatre Trondheim and Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly at the Festival Lírico Internacional de San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spain.
In 1999 Gwyn made his American operatic debut as Fenton in Falstaff conducted by Antonio Pappano for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the same year he appeared at San Francisco Opera singing Rodolfo in La Boheme and Ismaele conducted by Nello Santi. In 2001 Gwyn made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York singing Ismaele in Nabucco, a role he has revived twice for the company. The production, conducted by James Levine was released on DVD in 2005. Gwyn has also sung Fenton in Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Rodolfo in La Boheme for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Florida Grand Opera. In 2007, Gwyn made his debut with the Santa Fe Opera singing Rodolfo and in 2008, made his debut for Los Angeles Opera singing Cavaradossi in Tosca conducted by Placido Domingo.
His concert repertoire is extensive and includes Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. He has appeared with many orchestras, among them the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Trondheim Symfoniorkester, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an accomplished recitalist, having appeared at the Purcell Room, at the Auditorium du Louvre, Paris, St. Olaf Festival in Trondheim, Musashino Civic Cultural Hall in Tokyo and recorded the first ever televised recital from the Wigmore Hall, London.
Last season, Gwyn returned to English National Opera to sing Rodolfo in La Boheme and to Welsh National Opera as Manrico in Il Trovatore whilst on the concert platform he took part in opera galas in Sweden to mark the 100th anniversary of Jussi Bjorling’s birth. Highlights this season include Cavaradossi in Tosca under the baton of Placido Domingo for Washington National Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca and Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly for English National Opera and Duke in a concert performance of Rigoletto with the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis.