"Adrian Dwyer is simply a superb Mime in every way, vocally and dramatically, virtually a comic mime in his physicality. He is a tall, good-looking, and lanky man with a lovely voice and yet you believe it when Siegfried refers to him as an ugly dwarf."
- Playstosee
Born in Melbourne, the British-Australian tenor Adrian Dwyer has appeared at many of the world's greatest Opera Houses, gaining international recognition for his wide-ranging vocal ability and vivid theatrical presence in works spanning from the 19th Century to the present day. Engagements have taken him to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real (Madrid), Teatro Massimo (Palermo), Opernhaus Zürich, Dutch National Opera (Amsterdam), Welsh National Opera, the Israeli Opera, English National Opera, Opéra de Toulon, Scottish Opera, Irish National Opera, Cape Town Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera North, Birmingham Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, the State Opera of South Australia, as well as the Amsterdam, Edinburgh International and Aldeburgh Festivals.
An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, recent engagements have included Gerald Barry's The Intelligence Park for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, John Adams’ The Flowering Tree for Opera Queensland, Thomas Adés’ Powder Her Face for the inaugural production of Irish National Opera, as well as the World Premieres of Michael Gallen's Elsewhere with Ensemble Miroirs Étendus at the Abbey Theatre (Dublin) and Antony Bolton's The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko (title role) for Grange Park Opera.
On the Concert platform he has appeared in the BBC Proms, with Orchestra de Paris at the Opéra Comique and Theatre Mogador (Paris), with München Runfunkorchester at the Prinzregententheater (Munich), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and Concert Orchestras, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the RTE Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestras of Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide.
A prizewinner in the Australian Singing Competition, he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio London, with additional scholarships to the Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and the Bayreuth Festival. He made his professional debut in Los Angeles as Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème (winning an “Ovation” Award for Outstanding Performance).
Engagements for the 2022-23 season included his role debut as the Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel in Magdeburg, returning later in the season for the german language premiere of Gerald Barry's Alice's Adventures Under Ground, Mime in das Rheingold in Singapore, and Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos for Opera North.
In the 2023-24 season he reprised his highly-acclaimed Mime for Longborough Festival Opera's complete der Ring des Nibelungen (Lane/Negus), returned to the Royal Albert Hall as Alméric in Iolanta with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, as well as completing an Irish tour as the Inspector of Lunatics in Michael Gallen's Elsewhere with Ensemble Miroirs Étendus, a role which was written for him.
Engagements for season 24/45 include debuts at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf) as Sandy/1st Officer in Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse, at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Gerald Barry's Alice's Adventures Under Ground, as well as returning to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
In 2026 he will make his debut in a major new role at Opéra de Lausanne.