Jason Barry-Smith

Baritone

A graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium, baritone Jason Barry-Smith studied also at the Musikhochschule in Munich in 1990. He subsequently won the 1992 MathyScholarship (Australian singing competition) and the 2001 Italian Opera Award.

His professional experience embraces opera, concertsand musical comedy. As a concert soloist, he has performed with the Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, in repertoire ranging from Fauré, Haydn, Purcell, Bach and the Centenaryof Federation concerts in Brisbane, to Bernstein, Glorious Vienna and Pops Concerts, both as soloist and compère.

Jason appeared as Major General Stanley/The Pirates of Penzance,The Boatswain/HMS Pinafore, and as Count Danilo/The Merry Widow. He appeared in Kiss Me Kate at the Brisbane Festival, and sang Tony in West Side Story/Brisbane River Festival.

Following his debut for the State Opera of South Australia as Matthieu in Andrea Chenier, he returned in 2007 as Belcore in LʼElisir dʼAmore. He sang the title role in Rossiniʼs The Barber of Seville for Opera NZ Tour, premieres of modern operas Quartet 2004, and John Adamsʼ Klinghoffer 2005 for New Zealand International Arts Festivals, and Electric Lenin for NORPA (NSW), for which he won critical acclaim.

His roles for Opera Queensland include Don Giovanni, which opened the new ConservatoriumTheatre. Also Falke and Eisenstein/Die Fledermaus, Yamadori/Madama Butterfly, Guglielmo/Cosi fan tutte, Papageno/The Magic Flute, Marullo/Rigoletto, Dandini/La Cenerentola, Shaunard/La Boheme, Matthieu/Andrea Chenier, and Mercutio/Romeo et Juliette.

In recent years for Opera Qld, Jason has appeared in Fanciulla del West and Waltzing Our Matilda, as Pish Tush in Mikado, compered Sunset Opera and directed a schools production of Hansel and Gretel. He covered Starveling/Midsummernightʼs Dream for Opera Australia and isco-ordinator of Opera Qldʼs Young Artist Program.

In 2013 Jason performed Dandini in Lindy Humeʼs new production of LaCenerentola, and tours with Waltzing Our Matilda for Opera Queensland.

Jason will play the role of Papageno in Opera Australia’s unique Queensland production of The Magic Flute