Irish baritone Benjamin Russell studied in Dublin and was a member of the Zurich Opera studio. He sang his first roles at the Royal Opera House in Dublin and performed at the Aldeburgh Festival as a scholarship holder of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (Junius in “The Rape of Lucretia”, amongst others). He is a prize-winner of the s‘Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition and the Veronica Dunne Competition. In 2017, he sang the title role in Benjamin Britten's "Owen Wingrave" at the Opera Collective in Ireland. Since 2014, his roles in Wiesbaden have included Malatesta (“Don Pasquale”), Schaunard (“La Bohème”), Maximilian (“Candide”) and Haudy ("Die Soldaten"). He made his concert debut with the Hessian State Orchestra in 2016 as soloist in Mahler's "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen". This was followed by role debuts as Falke ("Die Fledermaus"), Papageno ("Die Zauberflöte"), Donner ("Das Rheingold"), Swallow ("Peter Grimes"), Figaro ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Mesner ("Tosca"), Brétigny ("Manon"), Wolfram von Eschenbach ("Tannhäuser"), Peter Besenbinder ("Hänsel und Gretel"), Count Dominik ("Arabella"), Silvano ("Un ballo in maschera") and Masetto ("Don Giovanni"). During the 2018/19 season, he sang Kothner in the new production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" and Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly". In 2019/20, his roles included Police Inspector / Notary in "Der Rosenkavalier", as well as Judas and Pontius Pilate in a staged version of Bach's "St Matthew Passion".Last season, he made his debut as Figaro ("Il barbiere di Siviglia") and Count Almaviva ("Le nozze di Figaro"). This season, he graces the stage as Prince Yeletsky / Plutus in "Pique Dame", and will reprise the roles of Betto, Count Almaviva, Papageno and Peter Besenbinder.