Anthony Smith was born in Newcastle and moved to Manchester (living on Burton Road) in order to study singing at the Royal Manchester College of Music with Otakar Kraus and Eva Turner. As well as performing in Eugene Onegin, Capriccio, and Le Nozze Di Figaro at Glyndebourne, his career also took him to Covent Garden and Opera North. In the early 1990s, he spent time with the Nice Opera and debuted for the Paris Opéra-Comique, which prepared him for the Opéra Bastille in Paris.