The British tenor Allan Clayton is admired for his wide range of vocal and acting skills, and performs at the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Opéra Comique in Paris and the Bavarian State Opera. His repertory stretches from the Baroque period to contemporary works, and includes the title roles of Handel’s Jephtha, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Britten’s Peter Grimes and Brett Dean’s Hamlet.
Highlights of 2024/25 include(d) his return to the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome as Peter Grimes, the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen at the Royal Opera House, a performance of Britten’s On Wenlock Edge under Antonio Pappano at the Aldeburgh Festival and the world premiere of Tom Coult’s Monologues for the Curious at the BBC Proms, along with his return to the Salzburg Festival.
Several composers have written song cycles with his voice in mind, including Mark-Anthony Turnage (Refugee) and Josephine Stephenson (Une Saison en enfer). He appeared in the world premieres of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.
He has performed in several of Barrie Kosky’s productions at the Komische Oper in Berlin, including as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Castor (Castor et Pollux), Jupiter (Semele), Candide and, most recently, Jim Mahoney (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny). He has appeared at the BBC Proms several times since his debut in 2008, including in Gerald Barry’s Canada, Vaughan Williams’s Pastoral Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ and the title roles in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Handel’s Samson.
His discography includes Handel’s Messiah, Joshua, Acis and Galatea and Belshazzar, Britten’s Saint Nicolas, Mozart’s Zaide and Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots as well as the world premiere recording of Benjamin’s Written on Skin.
Allan Clayton won the WhatsOnStage Award for excellence in opera and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer Award in 2018. He is an associate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied after completing a degree at St John’s College, Cambridge. In April 2025 he received an Olivier Award for his interpretation of Christian in Turnage’s Festen.
