Sir Thomas Allen CBE

Patron of Samling

Thomas Allen is an established star of all the great opera houses. He has been particularly acclaimed for his Billy Budd, Pelléas, Eugene Onegin, Ulisse and Beckmesser, as well as the great Mozart roles of Count Almaviva, Don Alfonso, Papageno and, of course, Don Giovanni. 

His recent engagements have included the title role in Gianni Schicchi at the Los Angeles opera, at the Spoleto Festival and at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  Other recent roles have included Music Master Ariadne auf Naxos, the title role in Sweeney Todd, Peter Hänsel und Gretel, Faninal Der Rosenkavalier, Prosdocimo Il turco in Italia, and Don Alfonso at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Eisenstein Die Fledermaus, Don Alfonso and Ulisse at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Eisenstein at the Glyndebourne Festival; Don Alfonso at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, at the Dallas Opera, and at the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festivals; and Beckmesser Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Alfonso, Music Master and Faninal at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. 

Engagements this season and beyond include Don Alfonso at the Royal Opera House, for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Hong Kong, and at the Boston Lyric Opera; his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as Faninal; a return to the Glyndebourne Festival, and directing engagements with Scottish Opera,  Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Boston Lyric Opera.  

Equally renowned on the concert platform, he appears in recital in the United Kingdom, throughout Europe, in Australia and America, and has appeared with the world's great orchestras and conductors. The greatest part of his repertoire has been extensively recorded with such distinguished names as Solti, Levine, Marriner, Haitink, Rattle, Sawallisch and Muti.

In the New Year's Honours of 1989 he was created a Commander of the British Empire and, in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made a Knight Bachelor. He was recently appointed Chancellor of Durham University.