Clive Bayley (Old Monk) studied at the Royal Northern College of Music where he was a Peter Moores Scholar. He made his debut with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in the premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain and has since appeared there in many roles, including Colline (La Bohème), Hans Foltz (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Castro (La fanciulla del West), Carbon (Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac), Thoas (Iphigénie en Tauride), Sylvano (La Calisto) and Hunding (Die Walküre). He has had notable successes with Opera North, where roles have included Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Ebn Hakia (Yolanta), Raleigh (Gloriana), the Referee (Benedict Mason’s Playing Away), Ferrando (Il trovatore), Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande), Wurm (Luisa Miller), the title-role in Le nozze di Figaro, the Doctor (Wozzeck), Antinous (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), and Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail).

He has performed with Opera Factory, Grange Park Opera, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Abroad Clive Bayley has sung at the opera houses in Geneva, Amsterdam, Seattle, San Francisco, Lisbon, Lausanne, Toulouse, Munich and Copenhagen, and has sung in concert with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie on tour, and in Munich with the Bayerische Staatsoper. With the Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg, he has sung Fasolt (Das Rheingold) and Hunding, and with Frankfurt Opera Claggart (Billy Budd).

His recordings for Chandos’ Opera in English series include the Bonze (Madam Butterfly), Ferrando (Il trovatore), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Pistol (Falstaff) and Timur (Turandot).