How Opera singer became owner of busy Perth fish & chip shop

Perth Now

18-06-2025

When WA Opera tenor Paul O'Neill isn't working on his scales, the classically trained singer is working with scales of a different kind.
The WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate can often be found singing an aria at the deep fryer of High C's Fish and Chips, the takeaway diner he opened in Coolbellup last year.
'Occasionally, I've cracked out a note or two for people and they've been impressed,' O'Neill laughed, adding that he usually reins in his powerhouse voice when singing in his shop.
'It's quite boomy in here and I'll take someone's ears off.'
O'Neill said a friend suggested he open the family business when the COVID pandemic shut down theatres and opera houses around the world. WA Opera singer Paul O'Neill has opened a fish 'n' chips shop in Coolbellup called High C's. Credit: Jackson Flindell / Jackson Flindell / The West Aust
'We were sort of sidelined and there wasn't anything for us to do,' he explained.
'I didn't really know what I wanted to do if (COVID) happened again — what would my side hustle be? — and somebody suggested a fish and chips shop.'
The Melbourne-born singer, who performed with top companies in Wales and Germany before returning to Perth in 2017, enjoys cooking — mainly because he's got to feed five kids, aged 18 to three-year-old Anna.
His sons Thomas, 18, and Joseph, 17, can often be found working in High C's, while Matthew, 13, and Sophia, 12 have also pitched in.
The O'Neills are a musical family: Paul's wife Aleisha is a piano teacher, while Thomas has joined his father on stage in WA Opera productions. Tenor Paul O'Neill will star as Pinkerton in WA Opera's production of Madame Butterfly, opening at His Majesty's Theatre on July 26. Credit: Jackson Flindell / Jackson Flindell / The West Aust
Opera-themed dishes at High C's include the seafood serenade, quartet and duet, while 'the orchestra' section of the menu stars crab sticks, dim sims, squid rings and other staples of Australian fish 'n' chips.
The shop's cartoon fish mascot is Snapperoti, in tribute to legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
In July, O'Neill will go from pink snapper to Pinkerton, the callous US Navy lieutenant in WA Opera's production of Puccini's famous opera Madame Butterfly.
The busy tenor, who has sung Pinkerton with Opera Australia in China and on Sydney Harbour, is confident he'll be able to juggle playing a cad with grilling cod and other fish.
O'Neill said that, since opening in August, he's turned a few customers into opera fans.
'They've never been to the opera but they're going to start coming,' he laughed. Acclaimed WA tenor Paul O'Neill runs High C's Fish and Chips in Coolbellup with his family. Credit: Jackson Flindell / Jackson Flindell / The West Aust
O'Neill recently pushed back the launch of his chilli con carne loaded chips when he had to rush over to New Zealand as a last-minute replacement in a production of Puccini's La Boheme.
'I basically had to come in here, change the oil, go home, pack my bag and go,' he said. 'If you want something done, ask someone busy.'
The secret to his chips is cooking them in beef tallow rather than seed oil, while his favourite fish is tropical snapper.
'We're not reinventing the wheel, but we're getting good quality fish and sending it out to people,' O'Neill said.
High C's is open five days a week, from 4pm to 8pm.