Previous Welsh National Opera Roles: Ford Falstaff (Spring 2008)

Born in Tasmania, Simon Thorpe studied at the Guildhall School of Music, where he was awarded the Harold Rosenthal Prize. He spent a year at the National Opera Studio. A finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition, he now studies with Robert Dean.

In the UK, his engagements have included Escamillo Carmen and Pacheco Inés de Castro for Scottish Opera, Zurga Les pêcheurs des perles, Lescaut Manon Lescaut and Sharpless Madama Butterfly for Opera Holland Park, Escamillo Carmen and Germont Père La traviata for English Touring Opera, Donald Billy Budd, The Foreman Jenufa and Marcello La bohème and Ford Falstaff for Welsh National Opera, Kuligin Katya Kabanova and Marcello Rigoletto for Opera North, Alfio Cavalleria Rusticana and Guglielmo Le Villi for Chelsea Opera Group and Sharpless Madama Butterfly for Opera North.

He sang Pacheco Inés de Castro with Scottish Opera in Lisbon, Sharpless Madama Butterfly and Scarpia Tosca for Lyric Opera, Dublin and Sharpless Tosca for Singapore Lyric Opera, whilst his engagements in The Antipodes have included The Steward Flight and Roucher Andrea Chénier with the State Opera of South Australia and The Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Private Willis Iolanthe and Montano Otello for Opera Australia.