Ed Lyon studied at St John’s College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music, and the National Opera Studio. He enjoys an international career spanning baroque to contemporary music, and has appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Netherlands Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, BAM New York, Theater an der Wien, and the BBC Proms, with conductors including Antonio Pappano, William Christie, Valery Gergiev, René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Emmanuelle Haïm, Teodor Currentzis, and Christian Curnyn.
His operatic career encompasses an unusually wide range of repertoire. In the baroque and classical repertoire he has sung the title roles in Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Aix Festival under René Jacobs, Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie and Purcell’s Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne, and Lully’s Atys, Rameau’s Pygmalion, and Charpentier’s Actéon on extensive tours with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. Other notable operatic work includes Lurcanio in Ariodante and Septimius in Theodora for the Royal Opera House, the title role in Candide for Welsh National Opera, the title role in La clemenza di Tito for Opéra de Rouen, Steva in Jenůfa for Opera North, Eduardo in Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel at the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera House, the world premiere of Nicolas Lens’ Shell Shock, and the central role in Denisov’s L’écume des jours for Stuttgart Opera. He has also given acclaimed staged performances of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared in Brussels, London, Brno, Rome, and Beijing.
On the concert platform, Lyon’s repertoire extends from Baroque oratorio to major Romantic and twentieth-century works. He has appeared with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, the Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, among many others. Highlights have included the St Matthew Passion as Evangelist for the Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall, Britten’s War Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles, and the world premiere of The Masque of the Red Death with the SWR Sinfonieorchester.
His recordings include Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Les Troyens on DVD with the Royal Opera House and Antonio Pappano, L’enfance du Christ with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg under Ivor Bolton, and a solo album The 17th Century Playlist on Delphian Records. His recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master with the BBC Concert Orchestra has received wide critical acclaim.
