Wade Kernot was engaged in a full-time principal position at Theater St Gallen, Switzerland, from 2010-2015, where his roles included Monterone (Rigoletto), the Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Zuniga (Carmen), Père Laurent (Roméo et Juliette), Gubetta (Lucrezia Borgia), Jacopo Loredano (I due Foscari), Wotan (Siegfried), Truffaldino (Ariadne auf Naxos), Il Pedone di Schnals (La Wally), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Melisso (Alcina), Méphistophélès (La Damnation de Faust), Sarastro, Sprecher, Erster Priester and Zweiter Geharnischter (Die Zauberflöte), Sam (Un Ballo in Maschera), the main bass roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Frank (Die Fledermaus), Comte des Grieux (Manon), 1^st Nazarene (Salome) and Handwerkbursche (Wozzeck). He has also sung Pogner and the role of Nachtwächter (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) at the Tirolean Festspiele in Erl.

In recent seasons, Wade has performed Nettuno, Tempo, Antinoo in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse for Pinchgut Opera, Zuniga for New Zealand Opera and State Opera South Australia; Zuniga for New Zealand Opera; Masetto (Don Giovanni), Angelotti (Tosca), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Arthur (The Riders) and Nourabad (The Pearl Fishers) for West Australian Opera; Mother (Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins) at Sydney Conservatorium, Fred (Ross Harris’ Brass Poppies) for New Zealand Festival, Stravinsky Pulcinella for Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the bass roles in the IFANZ/Opera de Lyon season of a Kurt Weill double bill, Lorenzo (I Capuleti e I Montecchi) for Auckland Opera Studio, as bass soloist in Christopher Bowen’s An Australian War Requiem with Sydney University Graduate Choir, Verdi Requiem and Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony with Napier Civic Choir,a solo recital in Auckland and Verdi Requiem with Aorangi Symphony Orchestra.

Wade was a PwC Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist at New Zealand Opera, a semi-finalist representing New Zealand in both the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the Neue Stimmen in Germany, and a runner-up in the Lexus Song Quest.

He was also a founding member of Opera Factory, New Zealand, undertaking further studies at the Australian Opera Studio in Perth, the National Opera Studio in London, the Solti/Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto and the Verbier Festival Opera Studio. Wade is now Lecturer in Voice at the New Zealand School of Music, Victoria University, Wellington.

Wade sang the roles of Nettuno, Tempo and Antinoo in our production of Return of Ulysses in 2019 and will sing the role of Argante in Rinaldo in 2020.