Jonathan Finney, musician, founder of New Palace Opera

Finney is fortunate that his life-chances have given him great opportunities in his musical career – the composition of an opera extends his range that includes singing, conducting and arranging.

Finney has reorchestrated operas for New Palace Opera, including The Marriage of Figaro, Hansel and Gretel, Massenet’s La Navaraisse, Oedipus Rex. For Fulham Opera, he reorchestrated Die fliegende Holländer and Die Meistersinger; he also shared conducting honours for Holländer. In 2020 he completed a commission for a chamber version of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

As a singer, Finney began, as many do, as a baritone, before graduating to singing as a tenor. His performed roles include Parsifal (2005/06/12), Loge Das Rheingold (2004/05/08/14/19/21), Tristan (2005/10/13), Siegmund Die Walküre (2006/09/12/13), Siegfried (2007/08/10/11/13/14), Tannhäuser (2011/16), Walther von Stolzing Die Meistersinger (2007/14), Apollo Daphne (2006), Der Kaiser Die Frau ohne Schatten (2015/19), Herod Salome (2014/18), Levko May Night (Rimsky-Korsakov) (2006), Boris and Tikhon Katya Kabanova (2009/10), Luka From the House of the Dead (2104), Aeneas Dido & Aeneas (2008), Quint The Turn of the Screw (2018/19), Male Chorus The Rape of Lucretia (2021) and Eisenstein Die Fledermaus (2016). He has appeared with Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Fulham Opera, Northern Wagner Orchestra, Skipton Camerata, Childwickbury Arts Fair and Edinburgh Opera Players.

In concert and recital, he has appeared at St George’s Bristol, St John’s Smith Square, Adrian Boult Hall Birmingham, Royal Albert Hall, Corpus Christi College Cambridge and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Concert repertoire includes: the masses of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn; The Creation and The Seasons; Elijah and St Paul; the major choral works of Elgar, Britten’s War Requiem and St Nicholas; Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.