Conny Thimander is a Swedish tenor specializing in the creation of eccentric characters on stage. He received his Master of Arts degree from the Opera Academy in Stockholm and was awarded second prize in the Gösta Winbergh Award competition as well as the Bayreuth Scholarship from the Swedish Wagner Society.
The 2025/2026 season opens with a revival of Rufus Wainwright’s nostalgic and hypnotic opera Prima Donna at the Royal Swedish Opera, where Conny returns as the journalist André, a character with ambiguous motives. At the same house he will also appear in the celebration concert Nicolai Gedda 100 år, marking the centenary of the legendary Swedish tenor.
Conny is then reinvited to the Finnish National Opera to sing the role of Lars in Marc-Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall’s adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg’s haunting, Oscar-winning film Festen. Over Easter, Conny joins the Gulbenkian Foundation and its ensembles to perform the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion. The season concludes with an opera adaptation of the Challenger catastrophe by composer Joel Thoor Engström and librettist Sigrid Herrault, in which he portrays the troubled manager of the rocket company Thiokol. The summer will be spent as Spoletta in Tosca at the enormous outdoor stage of Hedeland, south of Copenhagen.
His unusual scenic presence has lent itself to characters such as Flute in Peter Hall’s legendary production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Malmö Opera (2021); the Police Inspector, the extreme role in Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Royal Danish Opera (2022); Orfeo in a performance version of Orfeo, Lollike’s final production as director of Sort/Hvid (2023); Pong in Turandot at Malmö Opera (2024) and the Royal Swedish Opera (2013); Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld at Malmö Opera (2020); Philipp von Hessen in the Luther opera Schlagt sie tot! at Malmö Opera (2019); the Holy Fool in Boris Godunov, directed by Peter Konwitschny at Gothenburg Opera (2018); Tanzmeister and Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos at Gothenburg Opera (2018); Remendado in Carmen at Malmö Opera (2018) and the Royal Swedish Opera (2012); Sandon in the Swedish national opera Aniara at Malmö Opera (2017); Trotteltroll in Die Schneekönigin at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2016); Niko and Hüseyin in Gegen die Wand at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2014); Mond in Vom Mädchen, das nicht schlafen wollte at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2014) and later again at Theater Bonn (2016); and Demo – the stuttering hunchback – in Il Giasone at Drottningholm Palace Theatre (2012).
The lyrical quality of his voice and his exquisite musicality have shaped roles such as Tamino in The Magic Flute at the Royal Swedish Opera (2013–2014) and Piccolo Regio (2010); Ferrando in Così fan tutte at Jyske Opera (2015); Lindoro in a youth adaptation of L’italiana in Algeri at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus (2017); André in Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna at the Royal Swedish Opera (2021); and Ramiro in La Cenerentola at Folkoperan (2024) and Opera Hedeland (2024).
On the concert stage he has performed most of the major oratorios, with the role of the Evangelist in the Passions by J.S. Bach becoming one of his specialties. He has appeared at the Berliner Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, together with Staatskapelle Berlin, the Swedish Radio Choir and Orchestra, the Orchestra and Choir of the Gulbenkian Foundation, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Phil, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the Copenhagen Boys Choir.
The Nose, Royal Opera Copenhagen
The Police Inspector with particularly violent tendencies was given strong exposure by Swedish Conny Thimander, a high, piercing tenor in the Russian tradition.
- Information
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Malmö Opera
The interplay is physical and well-oiled, thanks in part to Conny Thimander's rock-solid comic timing in the role of Francis Flute. His tenor sounds nicely focused.
- Tidskriften Opera
Conny Thimander's parody of Lucia di Lammermoor (...) would almost be worth a review of its´ own.
- DN
There are many talented singers here, but I would especially like to mention Conny Thimander in the drag role as Francis Flute.
- Sydsvenskan
Tosca, Malmö Opera
However none of them displays good acting, except for Conny Thimander as Spoletta. A dribbling and disturbing turncoat who does everything that Scarpia says. A great pleasure to see his acting despite, him being an uncanny slimeball. He is also equipped with a dramatic tenor voice that one can help noticing. It is not very often that you see opera singers who can act as good as this.
- Månssonkultur.se
Boris Godunov, Göteborgs Operan
And last but not least Conny Thimander shines in the two roles as Misail and The Holy Fool. Thimander´s scene with the children's choir, the shopping trolley and Tsar Boris is one of the best in the whole show. Great acting by the opera's Holy Fool, the only one who actually dares to tell Boris the truth...
- Göteborgsposten
Conny Thimander with his dramatic tenor voice delivers a memorable interpretation, in reminiscence of the famous Russian tenor Georgii Nelepp. Here the music of Mussorgsky pierces deeply into the soul.
- Borås tidning
Salome, Malmö Opera
The singers in the larger roles also acquit themselves relatively well, beginning with Conny Thimander (Narraboth), whose tones are the only ones that shine with true tenor brilliance this evening.
- Opera Point
Don Giovanni, Confidencen
Conny Thimander took the evening’s prize for characterization with his Don Ottavio. His portrayal of Ottavio as an entirely ordinary and kind man, forced into a heroic role for which he was wholly unsuited—and therefore constantly tormented by an anxiety he desperately tried to conceal—was priceless throughout. Thimander also enriched the audience with meltingly beautiful singing, including sublime pianissimi in ‘Dalla sua pace.’
- Epoch Times
Conny Thimander, with a voice as smooth as pannacotta.
- Aftonbladet
Gegen die Wand, Deutsche Oper am Rhein
In the supporting roles, Conny Thimander is particularly striking as the provocatively dissolute Niko
- Rheinische Post
The Swedish tenor Conny Thimander impresses with his finely crafted acting.
- Online Merker
Passions by J.S. Bach, Evangelist
Who impressed me the most was the tenor soloist and evangelist Conny Thimander … vocal and dynamic range paired with indisputable pitch control and expression was amazingly outstanding.
- UNT
Conny Thimander is evangelist-journalist with backslick, fiery and thrilling and good.
- DN
As the Evangelist, Thimander explored both the spatial and dramatic dimensions of the role of recitative narrator. He sang with his whole body, sending the words out so they resonated—at times softly and with great gravity, at others with powerful intensity.
- Corren
Conny Thimander is brilliant… He is completely in his character and pictures what he sings not just through the words but also through body and soul.
- Dalarnas Tidning
Oratorio Mors Saulis et Jonathae by Charpentier
Here, Conny Thimander in particular deserves mention. In the conjuration scene between Saul and Maga, the Witch of Endor, he conjured before the listener’s inner eye—with a snarling voice, incisive glissandi, darkly coloured vowels and hissing consonants—the image of a toothless crone with a black tomcat on her back.
- Schreibwolff-Magazine
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