Baritone Sir Thomas Allen Announces Retirement

The 79-year-old's retirement was announced following a performance of "The Merry Widow" at Glyndebourne

According to a report by Bachtrack, the renowned British baritone Sir Thomas Allen, 79, will retire from the operatic stage. At the conclusion of a Glyndebourne performance of Lehár's The Merry Widow, Assistant Director Stephen Langridge informed the audience that Allen was "hanging up his dancing shoes."

Allen has announced his retirement on other occasions but found the prospect of returning to Glyndebourne to be too tempting to ignore. "I had such a great time doing this part a few years ago at the Metropolitan Opera that I thought, I want to do that again," he told The Times in June 2024. "So here I am!"

Born in the working-class mining village of Seaham Harbour in the north of England, Allen trained at London's Royal College of Music with Hervey Alan. He made his operatic debut with the Welsh National Opera in 1969, singing D'Obigny in Verdi's La Traviata.

In 1971, he first appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Donald in Britten's Billy Budd, and this was the beginning of a fifty-year relationship with the company — during which time he sang more than 50 roles.

He is also an acclaimed recitalist and has appeared alongside many of the world's great orchestras and conductors.

Allen holds the title of Bayerischer Kammersänger (bestowed by the Bayerische Staatsoper) and was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1989. In 1999 he became a Knight Bachelor and was awarded the Queen's Medal for Music in 2013.