Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones has sung leading roles at many of the world’s major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and Opéra national de Paris.
In the 2021-22 season he makes his role debuts in the title role Otello for Grange Park Opera and in the title role Andrea Chénier for Chelsea Opera Group, and sings Calaf Turandot for Opéra national de Paris and Cavaradossi Tosca for Trondheim Symfoniorkester.
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Otello (Title Role)
Grange Park Opera, June 2022
Jones makes his own mark as Otello with his tenor’s penetrating force.
Geoff Brown, The Times ****
As Otello, Hughes Jones gives a full-bodied characterisation of a descent into madness.
Inge Kjemtrup, The Stage ****
Gwyn Hughes Jones rises to Otello’s heights with power and intensity
Richard Fairman, The Financial Times ****
As Otello, Hughes Jones commanded a plump, fruity and glossy tone that suited his passages of tenderness [...] his farewell sequences – “Or e per sempre addio” – soared and touched. And his final “Un bacio ancora” confirmed that this voice can attain a tragic tenderness.
Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk
At Grange Park, Gwyn Hughes Jones produced a noble Otello...
Mark Ronan, The Article
Andrea Chénier (Title Role), Chelsea Opera Group
QEH (May 2022)
Hughes Jones is arguably the most Italianate of British […] he has worked his way up from much lighter roles, acquiring a rock-solid technique and a slightly gnarly timbre that recalls the late Giuseppe Giacomini […] Above all, he has absorbed the vocal style of a native Italian tenor, and he sings the Italian text both beautifully and expressively, so that his incisively declaimed and idiomatically sung solos-the Act 1 'Improvviso' at the Di Coigny residence, 'Si, fui soldato' in the Tribunal Scene, and Act 4's 'Come un bel di di maggio
Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine
As Chénier, Gwyn Hughes Jones impressed with a strong, ringing, ardent tenor. [...] He has a heroic voice which suits this music well, as his ardent ‘Un dì all’azzurro spazio’ revealed.
Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International
To bring Andrea Chénier convincingly ‘to life’ requires a big, outgoing personality. Step forward Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones whose voice is powered by inner strength and colour, not simply by weight and heft, and who consequently was able to embody the French revolutionary poet’s ardour, self-belief and stamina with relaxed poise. It’s one verismo peak after another for the singer in the title role, and Jones assailed them all with thrilling panache, riding the crests with a dramatically fitting fearlessness. He shaped the slightly breathy, angry exhortations of Act 1’s pontification on love, art and beauty, ‘Un dì all’azzurro spazio’, with a belying lyricism. [...] There was a brilliant ping to his ringing high notes throughout – and no sign that they would ever flag or sag.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Cavaradossi, Tosca
Scottish Opera, October 2019
As Cavaradossi, Hughes Jones came into his own in the final act, his farewell impassioned and noble.
Rowena Smith, The Guardian, 17 October 2019
Gwyn Hughes Jones’ Cavaradossi is quite the rebel and the romantic. His impetuous running off with the escaped prisoner Angelotti in Act I feels less an act of folly, as it can do, but quite consistent with his utterly glorious Act III aria, as he loses all composure while attempting to write his final letter to Tosca.
Thom Dibdin, The Stage, 17 October 2019
As Cavaradossi, Gwyn Hughes Jones’s tenor is light rather than powerful, but he hits the notes with a ping and ease that few tenors in this production’s history have managed, and he’s fantastic in the love duets.
Simon Thomson, The Times, 17 October 2019
Gwyn Hughes Jones’ Cavaradossi is exhilarating vocally, evocative of the character’s vying sensitivities.
Ken Walton, The Scotsman, 18 October 2019
Cavaradossi is given great, tragic voice by superb Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones, not least in the despairing aria of the condemned man in Act 3. It is a performance that is entirely worthy of its ultimate, Goya-esque imagery.
Mark Brown, The Herald, 20 October 2019
Florestan, Fidelio
Welsh National Opera, June 2019
...Beethoven’s political prisoner, Florestan, the impassioned Gwyn Hughes Jones.
Rian Evans, The Guardian, 16 June 2019
Riccardo, Un ballo in maschera
Welsh National Opera, February 2019
Jones, whose voice seems to gain new layers of beauty and power every time I hear him, has never sounded more resplendent than here as the Governor, Riccardo
Mark Valencia, Bachtrack, 11 February 2019
tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones and soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams reinforce the successful pairing of last year’s La Forza del Destino, their singing as distinguished as it is moving... Hughes Jones is in excellent voice throughout as Riccardo
Rian Evans, The Guardian, 10 February 2019
Sung with sterling authority by Gwyn Hughes Jones
George Hall, Financial Times, 11 February 2019
Gwyn Hughes Jones’ Riccardo is generously voiced
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 10 February 2019
Audiences have been able to enjoy and appreciate the wonderful voice of Gwyn Hughes Jones at the Welsh National Opera, where he began his career, since 1995. The lead male role, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera is a big one. From the outset, Jones gives us a wonderful, big performance... He expresses his delight in his opening aria and his ringing tenor voice wraps itself around the large Donald Gordon auditorium and our spines start to tingle.
Michael Kelligan, Theatre in Wales, 9 February 2019
She never puts a foot wrong; this is wonderful Verdi singing. The Riccardo, Gwyn Hughes Jones, is likewise completely on top of his more vivid part
Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk, 11 February 2019
In his performance as Riccardo, Gwyn Hughes Jones united the disparate ideas of the pleasure-loving, theatrical, rather skittish ruler suddenly and seriously in love. Hughes Jones sang with an admirable sense of line and superb focus, and brought out the seriousness which underlay this rather frivolous man. You never doubted Riccardo's love for Amelia, and Hughes Jones duet with Mary Elizabeth Williams was one of the highlights of the evening. Without the need to have a stagey, long drawn-own dying, Hughes Jones was able to make Riccardo's final farewell rather noble and touching.
Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill, 10 February 2019
Mary Elizabeth Williams and Gwyn Hughes Jones appeared in Forza, and up their game as Riccardo and Amelia. Their love duet, lit by pure white, is beautifully judged
Rebecca Franks, The Times, 12 February 2019
Radames, Aida
English National Opera, September 2017
Hughes Jones makes a strong Radamès. There was some finely shaded singing in his duets with Moore, and a real edge of defiance in his confrontation with DeYoung
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, September 2017
Her Radamès was ENO stalwart Gwyn Hughes Jones in vibrant voice. “Celeste Aida” was sung ardently with a lovely diminuendo at the end, while his tone in the tomb was beautifully sweet.
Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack, September 2017
Cavaradossi, Tosca
English National Opera, October 2016
Gwyn Hughes Jones’s Cavaradossi certainly hasn’t dimmed since his last appearance, radiating vocal health and strength in every polished phrase. It’s a delight to hear a singer so utterly in his element.
Alexandra Coughlan, The Independent, October 2016
Gwyn Hughes Jones gave the standout performance as Cavaradossi, resplendent in sweeping trench coat. Working from a fundamentally attractive middle voice, he gave a superb “Recondita armonia”, thick and luscious with a lovely line and ringing, secure high notes. Dramatically he was convincing; a twinkle in his eye in the first act, bloodily angry in the second act and resigned in the third. Diction was sharp and not once was I forced to rely on surtitles when he was singing. A generous performance.
Dominic Lowe, Bachtrack, October 2016
As Cavaradossi, Gwyn Hughes Jones had volume to spare and his ringingly powerful tenor sailed as effortlessly through his cry of "death to tyrants" as the lyrical arias and duets
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, October 2016
Turiddu and Canio, Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci
Welsh National Opera, May 2016
In the twin roles of Turiddu and Canio, tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones sings with hot-blooded intensity, astutely varying his tone: fuller and more expansive to embrace the influence of Wagner on Mascagni
Rian Evans, The Guardian, May 2016
Local hero Gwyn Hughes Jones sang the hot-blooded Turiddu, who's having an affair with Alfio's wife, Lola, inciting the jealousy of Santuzza, the young woman he's seduced. Singing with his trademark Italianate ping and burly tone, he was on thrilling form.
Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack, May 2016
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