Russell Smythe is one of Britain's most experienced artists whose international career has taken him to most important opera houses all over the world. In recent years, his teaching has led to an association with the English National Opera and the Jerwood Young Artists’ Scheme. He lectures and teaches at the Royal College of Music, London, and has given masterclasses and workshops in Belfast, Denmark (Musik Dramatisk Teater) and Spain (the La Caixa course).

Russell Smythe is one of Britain's most experienced artists whose international career has taken him to most important opera houses all over the world. In recent years, his teaching has led to an association with the English National Opera and the Jerwood Young Artists’ Scheme. He lectures and teaches at the Royal College of Music, London, and has given masterclasses and workshops in Belfast, Denmark (Musik Dramatisk Teater) and Spain (the La Caixa course).

Russell studied at the Guildhall School of Music and the Lon­don Opera Centre.  He and was a founding member of the English Music Theatre. In Britain, he has performed with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Garsington Festival, Buxton Festival as well as the English Bach Festival, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Halle Orchestra, and many more. International engagements have taken him to Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra National Paris, Staatsoper Berlin, Volksoper Wien, Wiener Staatsoper, Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Teatro Real Madrid, New Israeli Opera, Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Oper Frankfurt, Opéra de Lausanne, Opéra National du Rhin, and many others, as well as opera houses in the US, Canada, and Japan.

Russell worked with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Silvio Varviso, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, René Jacobs, Bernard Haitink, Marc Minkovsky, John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Andrew Davis and Seiji Ozawa amongst others. He has sung many song recitals both on the concert platform and for the BBC with such accompanists as Geoffrey Parsons, Graham Johnson and Roger Vignoles. Recordings include the Opera Rara series of 19th Century works, Menotti's The Telephone (Decca), REDBURN Billy Budd (Erato), TEUCER in Rameau's Dardanus (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv), FERNANDO La Gazza Ladra (Chandos) as well as THÉSÉE Hippolyte et Aricie and TEUCER Dardanus (Deutsche Grammophon). He also recorded exten­sively for Radio 3.

His repertoire includes roles such as PELLÉAS, PAPAGENO Die Zauberflöte, FIGARO Il Barbiere di Siviglia, MALATESTA Don Pasquale, COUNT ALMAVIVA Le Nozze di Figaro, TARQUINIUS The Rape of Lucretia, GUGLIELMO Così fan tutte, EUGENE ONEGIN, DON GIOVANNI, ORESTE Iphigénie en Tauride, BALSTRODE Peter Grimes, GERMONT La Traviata, PETER Hänsel und Gretel , Barber Die Schweigsame Frau, STAREK Jenufa, MUSIKLEHRER Ariadne auf Naxos,  MAYOR Jenufa, SHARPLESS Madama Butterfly, ORESTE Iphigenie en Tauride, NED KEENE Peter Grimes and many more.