Biography

The Australian tenor began his vocal training while studying law at the University of Melbourne. After studying at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Australian National Academy of Music and the Juilliard School in New York, he became a member of the opera studio at the Hamburg State Opera and later a member of the ensemble. From 2013 to 2016, Michael Smallwood was a member of the ensemble at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, where he focused on Mozart, Handel and Richard Strauss.

His repertoire spans centuries, ranging from Monteverdi, Handel, Gluck and Mozart to Flotow, Wagner and Verdi to Richard Strauss, Janáček, Britten and Berg. He has also sung numerous contemporary works.

Guest engagements have taken him to renowned theatres and festivals worldwide, including La Scala in Milan, Opéra national de Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Vlaamse Opera and Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real de Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Leipzig, Santa Fe Opera, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, the Ruhrtriennale and the Handel Festivals in Halle and Karlsruhe. He is also a welcome guest at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, where he has performed roles such as Mercure in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Spoletta in Tosca, 2nd Jew in Salome and 1st Grail Knight in Parsifal.

He has sung and worked as a sought-after Baroque singer under conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Philippe Jordan, Simon Rattle, Marek Janowski, René Jacobs, Vladimir Jurowski, Ingo Metzmacher, Ulf Schirmer, Stefan Soltesz, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Michael Boder and Tomas Netopil, as well as with specialists such as William Christie, Alessandro de Marchi, Jane Glover, Thomas Hengelbrock, Andreas Spering and Konrad Junghänel.

Past engagements include Dido and Aeneas, Hippolyte et Aricie and Salome at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, the latter also with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Spoletta/Tosca with Daniele Callegari at the Semperoper Dresden and at the Opéra de Lyon with Daniele Rustioni conducting. He has also appeared at the Nederlandse Reisopera as the Gingerbread Witch/Hänsel und Gretel, at the Sydney Opera House and the Theater Essen as Tamino/Die Zauberflöte, and with Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, The Seven Deadly Sins and Happy End at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

In the 2025/26 season, Michael Smallwood will perform in a concert version of Richard Strauss' Salome with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor Cristian Măcelaru– both at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall and during the orchestra's guest performance at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, which will also be recorded for WDR. In Gothenburg, he will take on the tenor role in Carmina Burana under the baton of Emilia Hoving, and at the Theater Erfurt he will play Jack Twist in a new production of Charles Wuorinen's opera Brokeback Mountain.

Numerous recordings are available, including Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Volkov/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Glyndebourne Festival) and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Janowski/Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Radio Choir/PentaTone Classics).

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www.michael-smallwood.com 

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Photo: Mark Schulze          Steinen

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Photo: Mark Schulze Steinen

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Photo: Mark Schulze Steinen

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Video"Il mio tesoro" aus Don Giovanni (Don Ottavio)

YouTube"Frisch zum Kampfe" aus Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Pedrillo)

YouTube"The Diary of One Who Disappeared" (Janik)

YouTube"O gehorsamer Diener!" aus Die Soldaten (Erster junger Offizier)

YouTube"Aus Rosenwolken" aus Die Schöpfung

YouTube"Mit Würd' und Hoheit angetan" aus Die Schöpfung

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Audio
Händel: Almira
Ob dein Mund wie Plutons Rachen
Audio ExcerptHändel: Almira
Was ist des Hofes Gunst
Audio ExcerptBach: Weihnachtsoratorium
Frohe Hirten
Audio Excerpt

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