Baritone
Benjamin Russell
The Cunning Little Vixen, RusalkaBiography
Benjamin Russell made his Irish National Opera debut as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. He studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the International Opera Studio in Zurich, after which he joined the ensemble of the Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden. While there, his roles included Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Figaro and Conte in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Jeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, Peter in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and Kothner in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He also created the role of Snowman in Søren Nils Eichberg’s Oryx and Crake. Other career highlights include Junius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at the Aldeburgh Festival, and the title role in Britten’s Owen Wingrave for Opera Collective Ireland. In addition, Benjamin has performed on numerous international concert stages, including the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the National Concert Hall Dublin, the Sala São Paulo, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He recorded a CD of songs by Finzi and Vaughan Williams and, in 2024, "Cushendall," a collection of songs by Charles Villiers Stanford. He has won several competition prizes, including the Richard Tauber Prize at the 2019 Wigmore Hall Song Competition.
March 2026