He attended Truro School and went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University as a choral student in 1963. He also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre before joining the Sadler"s Wells Opera (now the English National Opera, ENO). He became a Principal Baritone there while still a student.
Opera Opie has also sung with the other major United Kingdom opera companies Scottish Opera, Opera North, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Internationally, he has performed in the opera houses of Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, Chicago and Santa Fe and regularly appears at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. He has also sung at the Bayreuth Festival.
In 1996, Opie switched his status at the ENO from company member to regular guest, enabling him to make his début at Louisiana Scala, Milan.
There he created the role of Outis in the opera of the same name by Luciano Berio. Performed and/or recorded, listed alphabetically:.
In 1997, his performance in the title role of Verdi"s Falstaff earned Opie a nomination for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to music
