Reviews
As Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Days Bay Opera
February 2026
“Baritone Kieran Rayner was a consistently sonorous Zurga, splendidly conveying the character’s plethora of conflicting emotions … [in] the opera’s great Act One tenor/ baritone duet, Au fond du temple saint, both singers here were ideally-matched in individual timbres and intensities.”
Peter Mechen – Middle C
“The voices of Kieran Rayner (as Zurga) and Zachary McCulloch (as Nadir) are warm and well matched … Rayner comes into his own in the third act as Zurga wrestles with sorrow and rage”
As Junius in The Rape of Lucretia
Royal Opera House / BPA
Directed by Oliver Mears
November 2022
“Junius – a character as malicious as they come – was given a flawless performance by Kieran Rayner, who conveyed the character’s profoundly negative qualities through his steely baritone.”
George Hall – Opera News
“Kieran Rayner sings particularly well in this strong young cast”
Culture Whisper
“Rayner gives a strong account of the scheming character who wants to use Lucretia’s demise as a vehicle to promote his own power grab”
London Unattached
“Kieran Rayner was a fine, strong Junius”
Seen and Heard International
“Rayner’s Junius is all shifty elegance and duplicitous charm”
WOHIN – WHERE TO?
Aldeburgh Festival
June 2022
Review in major German Newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
“In these opening days of the festival, the curators’ desire to experiment with new concert forms was striking.
The singing duo Kieran Rayner and Lotte Betts-Dean hit the nail on the head.
The starting point of their duo-recital on the subject of travel was the song “Wohin?” (“Where To?”) From Franz Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin”. It was however the audience that voted on the itinerary. We were surprised by an exquisite selection of songs, ranging from Schubert to Pauline Viardot-García, Johannes Brahms, Karol Szymanowski and Stephen Sondheim to songs of today. Theatrical interludes created a thread of action between the songs.
The experiment showed what new forms of performance are possible when musical and acting skills are combined with an enterprising spirit and the joy of communicating with the audience. The song recital is far from dead, as culture sceptics would have us believe.”
As The Forester in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Longborough Festival Opera August 2021
“Kieran Rayner gives a finely sung, skilfully rounded portrait of the Forester”
– Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk
“Kieran Rayner (the Forester), is clearly a talent to watch, combining a refined technique with natural musicality.”
– Edward Bhesania, thestage.co.uk
“Kieran Rayner uses exuberantly energetic baritone outbursts to fulfil his role as the worldly-wise Forester capable of laughing at himself … his performance was a memorable Longborough debut, a very fortunate find.
Clive Peacock, Seen and Heard International
“Kieran Rayner drew on his three previous productions in his role to present the Forester with vocal authority and stage presence.”
– Roy Westbrook, Bachtrack
“Kieran Rayner produces a tremendous sound as the Forester”
– Sam Smith, Music OMH
“A production which bustles with energy but which also allows moments of sad reflection … Kieran Rayner [was] a sympathetic Forester”
– Christopher Morley, Midlands Music Reviews
“On great form [was] the New Zealand-born baritone Kieran Rayner as The Forester”
– Gill Sutherland, Stratford-Upon-Avon Herald
“Kieran Rayner brings a degree of warmth and gentleness to the role of the Forester”
Curtis Rogers, Classical Source
“The Forester [was] sung with strong musical and dramatic expression by Kieran Rayner. He has both an appealing, well-modulated voice and a very strong stage presence. Like [the Vixen, Julieth] Lozano, he is a convincing actor.”
As Le Mari in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias, RCMIOS French Double Bill 2017
“In a cast that had no weak links at all Louise Fuller and Kieran Rayner stood out in the leads … [their roles] are technically very demanding, quite apart from the need to coordinate vocal bravura with considerable acting skills. In these respects they were outstanding and full of the required panache.”As Gustavo in Handel’s Faramondo, RCMIOS 2017
“Kieran Rayner blustered brilliantly as the monomaniacal Gustavo, focused on revenge on his son’s killer”Robert Hugill Planet Hugill “Kieran Rayner [was an] imperious Gustavo”As Nardo (Roberto) in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, RCMIOS 2016
“Kieran Rayner and Louise Fuller, as Roberto and Serpetta respectively, gave sparkling and intelligent voice to the servants’ plight”Amanda-Jane Doran Classical Source “I really enjoyed the concept, it felt fresh and unforced … The acting ranged from all right to the very funny Rayner as Nardo”– Opera, Innit? “Kieran Rayner was an ardent and loyal Roberto”As Eisenstein in J. Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, Royal College of Music International Opera School, 2015
“Following on from his fine Forester in British Youth Opera’ s The Cunning Little Vixen, Kieran Rayner made an excellent, funny Von Eisenstein. His baritone has rounded up considerably … just as accomplished in the broader comedy.”As Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Park Opera 2015
“Threaded right through it was Kieran Rayner as Figaro who brought enormous presence, energy and maturity to his central role in the plot …his singing effortless and powerful; diction wonderful. He fully occupied this larger-than-life, supremely confident character with apparent ease, zest and enjoyment, connecting directly with the audience, who responded to him with the most warm, loud and energetic applause all the way through.”As Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Days Bay Garden Opera, 2013
“A vivid and mellifluous-toned characterisation was Kieran Rayner’s Guglielmo, with his ardent Act One declarations of love and gently-mocking anatomical self-descriptions, more confident on the surface than his friend, but beneath more vulnerable and volatile. His encompassing of the character’s range of moods brought us great delight, from the irony of his admonition of women for their deceptions, to his anguish and bitterness at his belated betrayal by Fiordiligi.”As Melisso in Handel’s Alcina, Days Bay Garden Opera, 2012
“Baritone Kieran Rayner as the hard-bitten soldier Melisso … brought a lighter, more than usually agile and flexible baritonal voice to the part, though he generated plenty of authority when needed. He was thus able to make something both strong and elegant of his aria, Think of her who mourns.”As Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the New Zealand School of Music, 2011
“I found so much to admire in the performance, securely sung and characterfully acted. I liked … Kieran Rayner’s worldly Demetrius, [his] voice ever-sonorous and expressive”As Lord Sidney in Rossini’s Journey to Rheims, Days Bay Garden Opera, 2010
“Englishman Lord Sidney, sung by baritone Kieran Rayner, is garbed with a Union Jack, caricatured punk-style as an eccentric under-cover agent, delivering cryptic reports into his wrist … Rayner’s performance, vocally and histrionically, was one of the best of the evening.”As Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia
English Touring Opera
September 2025
“Kieran Rayner’s Tarquinius, Edmund Danon’s Junius and Trevor Eliot Bowes’ Collatinus – were strongly contrasted and well delineated… Rayner made Tarquinius plausibly engaging, sexually attractive even alongside a sense of entitlement”
Planet Hugill
“As Tarquinius, Kieran Rayner gave a fine vocal performance”
Plays to See
“The whole production is finely cast”
Reviews Gate
“Edmund Danon (Junius), Kieran Rayner (Tarquinius) and Trevor Eliot Bowes (Collatinus) each carried a separate gravitas… Kieran Rayner wielded his authority with subtlety, creating a more genuine feeling of terror and threat than if he were to be solely a brute. Both him and Lucretia, played by Clare Presland, were brave in their artistry during the eponymous scene, which was not gratuitous, and was more effective for it.”
Rayner’s unfeeling exit and Presland’s hollowed expression and harrowing ‘Give Him This Orchid’ conveyed enough.”
As The Sorcerer in Dido & Aeneas
Waterperry Festival Opera
August 2023
“Kieran Rayner is powerful and sinister as the sorcerer as he directs Dido’s doom, motivated ultimately as a sinister power-grab.”
Robin Burfield – Operascene.co.uk
“Purcell’s startling modernity is underlined with strong singing, not least Kieran Rayner who re-genders the sorceress with commanding presence.”
As Escamillo in Carmen
Norwich Into Opera Festival
July 2023
“Perhaps Kieran Rayner, as Escamillo has the most sheerly beautiful voice all around – and he can hold his own with Carmen in terms of charisma.”
WOHIN – WHERE TO?
Aldeburgh Festival
Written and performed by Kieran Rayner, with Lotte Betts-Dean and Bradley Wood
June 2022
Audience Feedback:
“I think the format is absolutely brilliant… the fact that the audience are involved in choosing really brings it to life for them, and the fact that it fits together whichever order choices are made is a lovely twist, which I enjoyed enormously.”
“The show felt very relaxed because we all were invited to be part of it.”
“I thought it was absolutely fabulous… It really did bring tears to my eyes, it was very moving.” (From an audience member in a wheelchair)
“Really interesting! As someone who’s grown up playing pick-a-path books and video games … I loved the moments where it was clear how our choices impacted the story.”
“I’d never been to anything like this before … My favourite moment was when, at the end of the show, you revealed how things might have gone differently. It gives a sense of how the show exists in more ways than we could have possibly seen in one go.”
“It was magical, joyful and had a lovely buzzing atmosphere about it. It was entertaining, it was witty, and really thoughtfully and carefully put together, both in terms of what [music] was programmed, how the choices were put together, and also the dialogue. It showcased so many different things, and was a very rich experience.”
Opera Live @ Home: Lockdown Concert
November 2020
“To begin Kieran literally leapt onto our screens with the Largo from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a thrilling opening packed with joie de vivre … Highlights were a masterly Tu sei il cor di questo core from Handel’s Giulio Cesare, featuring a slightly threatening atmosphere with an expressive tour de force, while in Onegin’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin he gave full rein to a rich and sonorous sound that superbly embraced the complexity of the Russian language as well as the passions of the human condition. Bizet’s famous Toreador Song from Carmen, a firm opera favourite, was performed effortlessly. By way of encore, Gershwin’s less well-known Just Another Rhumba, was a showstopper: Kieran’s extravagant toreador tunic (henceforth known as a ‘Strictly jacket’) demonstrated his humour and formidable dancing skills. An exciting evening’s entertainment with a brilliant finish.”