Honoured Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Grammy award winner,  French bass-baritone Paul Gay is known internationally  for his portrayals of leading roles in the French repertoire.  He collaborates with conductors such as Ivan Fischer, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Semyon Bychkov, Philippe Jordan, Alain Altinoglu, Vladimir Jurowsky, William Christie, Emmanuelle Haïm and has been invited for new productions by Willy Decker, Luc Bondy, Peter Stein, Richard Jones, Claus Guth, Laurent Pelly, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Tobias Kratzer, Barrie Kosky, Robert Carsen….

His principle repertoire includes Golaud (Pelléas et Melisande), a role he has sung at the Paris Opera, at La Monnaie Brussels, in Frankfurt, Oslo, Shanghaï, Torino and in Lyon, Mephisto (Faust), which he has been invited to sing at the Paris Opera, the Maggio Musicale Firenze, Cologne, Monte-Carlo and at the Bordeaux Opera. Other signature roles include Saint François, at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich conducted by Kent Nagano, where he has also appeared in productions of Der Zwerg, I Capuletti e i Montecchi,  L’enfant et les sortilèges. He recently added the most demanding role of Œdipe from Enescu to his repertoire in London and Bucarest under the baton of Vladimir Jurowsky. Paul also successfully portrayed several Verdi bass roles including Philippe II ( in French and Italian ) , Sparafucile, Walter, and Ramfis,

Paul is a regular guest at the Paris Opera where his roles have included Mephisto, Golaud, Harasta (The Cunning little Vixen), Achilla (Giulio Cesare), Don Diègue (Le Cid), Saint-Bris ( Les Huguenots) and Le Comte des Grieux (Manon). He also appears regularly in Brussels, Frankfurt and Lyon and he made his North American debut as Escamillo (Carmen) at the Canadian Opera Company.

He has taken part is several contemporary creations including ‘L’Ecole des Femmes’ by Rolf Liebermann at Bordeaux Opera. Quai Ouest by Régis Campo at the Opera du Rhin and Philippe Boesman’s opera, Yvonne Princesse de Bourgogne, a production seen in Paris, Brussels and Vienna.

Paul recently returned to the Glyndebourne festival for the most acclaimed Barrie Kosky production of Le dialogue des Carmelites, and debuted Wotan’s farewell scene conducted by Marcus Bosch.

Among future projects , Paul will return to the Staatsoper unter den Linden for Les Pêcheurs de Perles and at the Paris opera for a new production of Thomas Adès’s The exterminating angel. He will also sing Frère Laurent at the Hong Kong Opera, he will also record for the Berlin Rundfunk the orchestral Don Quichotte songs of Ravel and Ibert conducted by Vladimir Jurowsky.