Paul Carey Jones (born 11th March 1974 in Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh-Irish bass-baritone opera singer.
Early life and education
Jones was born in Cardiff, to a Welsh father (from Carmarthenshire) and an Irish mother (from County Mayo), and is a dual-nationality citizen of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. He attended the Welsh-medium schools Ysgol Gymraeg Melin Gruffydd (primary school, ages 4–11) and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf (secondary school, ages 11–18), and remains a fluent Welsh speaker. He then studied Physics at The Queen's College, Oxford University, where he was awarded a Styring Exhibition in 1993, but "became increasingly aware that the course of the rest of my life was going to diverge from Physics". After completing a PGCE teacher training course at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, he then returned to Ysgol Glantaf to teach Physics for two years, before resigning in 1998 to study singing at the Royal Academy of Music and then the National Opera Studio in London, supported by Welsh National Opera. He appeared in the first round of University Challenge as team captain for the Royal Academy of Music, in 1999.
Career
Jones has appeared as a principal guest artist several times for Scottish Opera and Northern Ireland Opera, as well as for the Royal Opera, The Icelandic Opera, Welsh National Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Comunale Bolzano, Teatro Rossini, at the Wexford Festival, Buxton Festival, for Opera Holland Park, Longborough Festival Opera, Opera East, Bampton Classical Opera, Diva Opera, and Lyric Opera Dublin.
Wagnerian roles
Jones was joint winner of the 2013 Wagner Society Singing Competition, and has since performed several of Richard Wagner's heldenbariton roles. He appeared for Longborough Festival Opera as Wotan in Die Walküre (2021) and Siegfried (2022), and is due to reprise the role in their full cycle of Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2024, in a production directed by Amy Lane and conducted by Anthony Negus.
Contemporary music
Jones has given world premiere performances of works by the composers Stephen McNeff (the oratorio Cities of Dreams in 2007; the role of Elisha in the opera The Burning Boy in 2017; and the role of Y Bon Pebr in the opera 2117 / Hedd Wyn in 2022); Stuart MacRae (his Prometheus Symphony at the 2019 Lammermuir Festival); Conor Mitchell (the title role in The Musician, Belfast 2021), John Metcalf (the roles of Dancing Williams, Sinbad Sailors, Willy Nilly, Mr Pugh, Mr Pritchard and Mr Floyd in Under Milk Wood: An Opera, Metcalf's adaptation of Dylan Thomas' play for voices); Peter Wiegold (his short opera based on the movie Brief Encounter in 2004); Jonathan Owen Clark (his opera Hidden States in Newcastle in 2004); Richard Elfyn Jones (his oratorio In David's Land at St David's Cathedral in 2006, and his set of songs Four Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins in 2008); Jonathan Dove (his opera for television, Man on the Moon, in 2006); Keith Burstein (playing the role of Mohammed in the opera Manifest Destiny at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe); David Power (his set Forever and Other Songs); Emily Hall (four settings of words by Toby Litt at the 2010 Grimsby St Hugh's Festival); Sadie Harrison (Heartoutbursts); and Timothy Raymond (From Dark to Dark). For Northern Ireland Opera in 2012 he created the roles of the Policeman in Ed Bennett's Jackie's Taxi, the Father in Christopher Norby's The Girl Who Knew She Could Fly and the Father in Brian Irvine's May Contain Flash Photography.
His work in contemporary opera has also included the role of Blazes in Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse at the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, Sam in Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti for Second Movement, Andy Warhol in the Italian premiere of Michael Daugherty's Jackie O at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, The Priest in the Scottish premiere of The Trial by Philip Glass and Pacheco in the world premiere of the revised version of Ines de Castro by James MacMillan, both for Scottish Opera, and The Colonel in the Icelandic premiere of Daniel Bjarnason's Brothers for The Icelandic Opera.
Collaboration with Oliver Mears
Jones works regularly with the director Oliver Mears. Their collaborations include Scarpia (Tosca), Verdi's Macbeth, Father (Hansel and Gretel) and Noye (Noye's Fludde) for Northern Ireland Opera; Scarpia (Tosca) and Speaker (The Magic Flute) for Nevill Holt Opera; and Sam (Trouble in Tahiti) and Monsieur Juste (The Three Wishes) for Second Movement.