ALEX ALDREN

Alex Aldren is fast gaining a reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile tenors of his generation, equally at home in the soaring lyricism of Romantic and bel canto repertoire and the bold, expressive demands of contemporary opera.

Highlights of 2024/25 include; performing as a soloist in Tang Dynasty Poems (in Mandarin) with Marin Alsop and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the NCPA, Beijing, creating the role of Hugo in the world premiere of Link in my Bio for Théâtre de Luxembourg, making his german debut as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Gut Immling Festival and joining a star-studded line-up of internationally acclaimed chamber musicians at Brundibár and Oxford May Music Festivals.

This summer Alex performed the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème on a UK tour for Opera Brava, while also making his debut at the International Gilbert and Sullivan festival in Buxton as Prince Hilarion in Princess Ida. Since then he has joined the G&S festival again in concert as Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore and The Defendant in Trial by Jury.

In November, at short notice, he learned the roles of Daniel and Omah in Keith Burstein’s 2005 Manifest Destiny, which he performed in concert at St John’s Waterloo.

Last year Alex made four major role debuts from the lyric tenor repertoire: Ruggero in Puccini's La Rondine for Midsummer Opera (“Aldren’s agile, sweet voice hit the emotional buttons with spine-tingling results’ - Opera Magazine”), Rodolfo in La Boheme for Aylesbury Opera, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Gut Immling Festival (German debut), and David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Saffron Opera. He also jumped in as Alfredo in La Traviata for Opera in Oborne Festival.

As well as traditional repertoire, Alex is passionate about continuing the operatic tradition into the 21st century, challenging genre boundaries and collaborating regularly with contemporary composers and pop musicians, including Isabella Summers (Florence and the Machine), Tommy Evans (Outlook Orchestra) and poet laureate Simon Armitage’s band, LYR. His voice can be heard on TV and film soundtracks including the recent Netflix series Kaos, and Undisputed, a documentary about the first heavy-weight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksander Usyk. 

As well as opera, Alex enjoys the intimacy of chamber music, exploring Scandinavian song (due to his Norwegian heritage), and the works of composers oppressed during the holocaust (in a long-running collaboration with Brundibár Festival). In recent years there he has performed Abschiedslieder in a play about the life of Eric Korngold, the world premiere of Fragments of the diary, a piece by Ukranian composer Volodymyr Runchak, which sets diary entries of the father of Josima Feldschuh, a Jewish wunderkind pianist who died escaping the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, and most recently Three Sephardic Jewish songs by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte by Arnold Schoenberg.

Upcoming projects for 2026 include: a return to Brundibár festival, a recording of Elgar’s King Olaf, a role debut as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus in concert for the Hope Foundation, Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Nicola Eimer, a commission for a new opera about the experiences of NHS workers, a collaboration with Laura Bowler and the Solem Quartet to create a contemporary reaction to Ralph Vaughan-Williams On Wenlock Edge, Verdi’s Requiem in Tewkesbury Abbey, and an artistic residency at Britten Days Festival in Cologne.