Daniel Norman is a British tenor known for his compelling stage presence and versatility across a range of repertoire.
Last season, he joined the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich, where his roles included Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos, Edmondo Manon Lescaut, and Spalanzani Les Contes d’Hoffman. There, he previously performed Kaliboul in Offenbach’s Barkouf and Pirelli in Sweeney Todd.
He is highly regarded for his performances of Britten. Roles have included Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw (Glyndebourne), Squeak Billy Budd (ENO), Red Whiskers Billy Budd (Opera North, Aldeburgh Festival, and Glyndebourne), Bob Boles Peter Grimes at the St Endellion Festival, and Captain Vere Billy Budd (Central City Opera, Colorado).
He appears regularly in contemporary opera. He performed the role of Mao in Nixon in China (Opera Boston, Staatsoper Hanover, and Verona), and the role of Electrician in Adès’s Powder Her Face (Vienna, Boston, Russia, and a Channel4 film adaptation). In Harrison Birtwistle operas, he has performed the role of Judas in The Last Supper (with the London Sinfonietta and the BBC-SSO), and the role of Orpheus the Myth in The Mask of Orpheus (ENO).
In the UK, other recent roles include Monostatos Die Zauberflöte (English National Opera); Basilio Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park); Tanzmeister Ariadne auf Naxos (Opera North); Tinca and Gherardo Il Trittico (Welsh National Opera); Laca Jenufa (Longborough Festival); Moser Die Meistersinger and Sellem The Rake’s Progress (Glyndebourne).
Daniel has sung with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, CBSO, Minnesota Orchestra, Het Gelders Orkest, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Belgium. He has also performed at the BBC Proms, Three Choirs Festivals, Aldeburgh Festival, and Oxford Lieder Festival.
Britten concert highlights include Les Illuminations with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic, Nocturne with Edward Gardner, St Nicolas at the Gulbenkian and with the BBC Concert Orchestra, War Requiem for Philharmonia Taiwan and Southbank Sinfonia, and the first official staging of Britten’s Five Canticles at Westminster Abbey.
Recordings include four volumes of the Hyperion Schubert Edition with Graham Johnson, a Grammy nominated Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra), Maintop in Billy Budd, Slender in Sir John in Love (Hickox, Northern Sinfonia), Brett Dean’s Winter Songs with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet (BIS), Hugh Wood’s Comus (BBCSO, Sir Andrew Davis), and Rimenes in Arne’s Artaxerxes (Classical Opera Company, Linn). He has released three solo discs with pianist Christopher Gould: Winter Words / Who Are These Children? (BIS), Michelangelo and John Donne Sonnets, and Canticles (Stone Records).
This season he returns to Opernhaus Zürich to perform the roles Guillot de Morfontaine in Manon and Der Haushofmeister bei Faninal in Rosenkavalier, to Opera North for Basilio in Figaro and Horace Adams in Peter Grimes, and to Glyndebourne for Squeak in Billy Budd.
He was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford, where he read Engineering. He later studied in the US and Canada, and at the Royal Academy of Music.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Opernhaus Zürich - 28/06/2025
"Daniel Norman plays a wonderfully cunning and bumbling Spalanzani, the ‘father’ of Olympia."
oper-aktuell, Kaspar Sannemann
Manon Lescaut (Edmondo)
Opernhaus Zürich, February 2025
Daniel Norman shines in the role of Edmondo
Online Merker
Daniel Norman enchants with his bright tenor as Edmondo
Peter Wäch, Platform J
"Led by Edmondo, agile and alert, played by Daniel Norman" [sic]
Rauchzeichen Magazine
Daniel Norman, also making his role debut, leads a colorful and wildly costumed orchestra as Edmondo (the Zurich Opera Chorus, rehearsed by Ernst Raffelsberger, sings superbly and waves their instruments around in a ghostly, carnival-like manner). Norman sings this Edmondo excellently, with a wonderfully controlled voice. (translated)
Kaaspar Sannemann, Oper Aktuell
Mao, Nixon in China
Staatstheater Hannover
The exceptional ensemble of singers, entrusted with predominantly demanding vocal tasks, is led by Daniel Norman, who portrays the challenging and physically demanding role of Mao Tse-tung with verve and an almost profound delight in the Mephistophelian demeanour of the great leader.
Achim Dombrowski, Opera Online
Much applause also for Daniel Norman as the lasciviously lively Mao...
Henning Queren, Neue Presse
The fact that it works so well is also due to the fabulous singers... Daniel Norman as the fanatical but also funny Mao...
Ute Schalz-Laurenze, Neue Musikzeitung
Daniel Norman as Mao is a fanatical character, but he also possesses almost comical traits. His aria "We no longer need Confucius" has a completely different character compared to Nixon's aria. In this case, someone is loudly proclaiming their clichéd phrases of statecraft, which creates an aggressive tone. Daniel Norman's tenor voice is biting, sharp, and cutting. However, in the third act, he was also able to beautifully showcase his lyrical abilities.
Achim Riehn, Gesellschaft der Freunde des Opernhauses Hannover e.V. (GFO)
...Daniel Norman equips Mao with a beautiful tenor voice...
Dominik Lapp, kulturfeder.de
The tenor Daniel Norman succeeded exceptionally well in showing this aspect of the man alongside an equally vivid representation of him as an infirm, ailing man, dependent on artificial respiration.
Jurgen Gahre, Opera Magazine
Judas, The Last Supper (Harrison Birtwistle)
BBC Scottish Symphony
I was deeply moved by Daniel Norman’s diffident and remorseful portrayal
Kate Molleson, The Guardian
Britten 'Winter Words'
CD for BIS
Daniel Norman’s version has that lovely early-career freshness about the sound particularly when the top of the voice opens out. He combines it with something of Philip Langridge’s sinuous strength
Kate Kennedy, BBC Building a Library
To See the Invisible (Emily Howard chamber opera premiere)
Aldeburgh Festival
Daniel Norman made a memorable cactus fanatic, commanding centre stage with his powerful tenor enthusing over the long Latin name of his favourite plant
Charlotte Valori, Bachtrack
Monostatos, The Magic Flute
English National Opera
even though he is a petty, nasty villain, the other tenor, Daniel Norman, is just as persuasive as Monostatos
Neil Fisher, The Times
Daniel Norman made a funny yet nasty Monastatos, combining physical comedy with a real dramatic sense of threat
Planet Hugill
Captain Vere, Billy Budd
Central City Opera, Colorado
Daniel Norman triumphed as Vere, the troubled captain of the Indomitable; the tenor was riveting in his Prologue and Epilogue and stiff-backed while struggling to right the ship as it faced multiple crises. Norman’s expressive tenor never strayed and never lost power in clarity.
Marc Shulgold, Opera News
Norman masterfully portrayed a still-traumatized Captain Vere’s reliving of his role in the execution of Billy Budd
Willaim’s Reviews, Opera Warhorses
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