Richard Leech - Profile of the American Tenor / ML Hart's Words & Music

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ML Hart's production photographs featuring Richard Leech in rehearsal and performance:

FROM THE HEART

The debut solo album - Italian opera arias and Neapolitan songs, nicely mixed, and sung with warmth, sensitivity and passion.

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Richard Leech was featured in ML Hart's first book The Art of Making Opera, and is profiled for her upcoming book PASSION & GLORY AT THE OPERA - The Tenor Book.

RICHARD LEECH
1957 -

American tenor Richard Leech has been at the forefront of the world music scene for nearly 20 years. Equally acclaimed for his acting ability and stagecraft as for the beauty of his voice with its varied color, flexibility, and unmistakable ring at the top, this charismatic tenor's story is an all-American one: an artist totally schooled, trained and seasoned in this country. Leech appears at the world's leading opera houses throughout the United States and Europe, and has been a regular at New York's Metropolitan Opera and on the Saturday radio broadcasts, singing many of the classic roles in the Italian and French repertoire.

Born in Hollywood, California, Richard Leech grew up in New York State listening to his father's Mario Lanza records and singing in the church choir (as a bass!); he spent summers performing Gilbert & Sullivan; and received his early operatic training at Tri-Cities Opera, where co-founders Peyton Hibbitt and the late Carmen Savoca were his lifelong music teachers. Starting there at age 15, he sang in the chorus and worked his way through every comprimario tenor role available. In his twenties, he won the first Enrico Caruso Voice Competition; he received the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Award and, like Tucker before him, Leech turned down an entry-level contract for covers with New York City Opera, preferring to "go in the front door." A few months later, they offered him a leading-tenor contract. His European debut came in 1987 with the demanding, unforgiving role of Raoul in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots - and he responded to the challenge with a performance seared on the collective memory of his audiences [reviews, below] and one that served as a springboard for his international career.

"Tall, blond, handsome Richard Leech has a voice that is divided into two parts: a pleasing middle voice and a radiant top register that is a duplicate of that of a greatly beloved Swedish tenor of a generation ago."

- Opera Magazine

"A tenor in the grand tradition" [Octavio Roca, The Washington Times] is how Leech is often described. Richard Leech's voice has a bright Italianate sound with ping to spare, his command of language (any language) is superb, and his personality balances between the sophisticated and the down-to-earth. Offstage, he can be just one of the guys; in the theatre, he's intensely energized, focusing his comprehensive theatricality and musicianship on his job; and when he's on stage, his acting ability and dynamic presence are as highly praised as his vocal achievements and his sense of musical style, be it French or Verdian.

Everywhere, audiences and critics alike respond. They often mention that he "virtually steals the show." His Gustavo in a San Diego Opera production of Un Ballo in Maschera was "commanding," "dashing" and "incandescent." His musically sensitive approach to meaning and phrasing, and his ability to get at the emotion of the work matches his dramatic instinct for presenting the perfect stage moment.

"Richard Leech is simply the best Italian Tenor on discs, not because he outsings such paragons as Nicolai Gedda, Fritz Wunderlich, Luciano Pavarotti, or José Carreras, but because (in addition to his golden top notes) he's the one who seems to recognize that 'Di rigori armato' is a parody."

- Stephanie von Buchau, Seattle Opera Magazine,
reviewing the CD set of Der Rosenkavalier

You can experience much of this by listening to the recordings. Better yet, catch one of his onstage performances in Berlin, Vienna, New York, Washington, Chicago or California - see and hear for yourself. His studio recordings are quite good... but there's an excellent private compilation on CD, Richard Leech Live. Read Ken Meltzer's insightful review for a keen understanding of the value of the being-in-the-theatre experience.

LES HUGUENOTS by Giacomo Meyerbeer
11 May 1987 - Berlin, Germany The morning newspaper Bild had just one headline: "A WORLD STAR IS BORN!"
It was the morning after opening night at the Operhaus. On stage was Die Hugenotten with the veteran Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar... and a young American tenor making his debut in Europe. Sybill Mahlke wrote for Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin): "The audience celebrated with an orgy of 'bravos'..."
"As the young Hugenot Raoul, Richard Leech sang like an Archangel wielding a flaming sword." - Claus B. Maier, Berliner-Zeitung Review	John Dew's staging for Berlin Opera in 1987 was revived in 1991 at Covent Garden (with different sets, another soprano, and not quite the same magic) - available on DVD

"Hardly anyone in the audience of the legendary performance of Die Hugenotten at the Deutsche Oper Berlin will forget the moment when young Richard Leech, until then unknown to European audiences, strolled onto the stage and sang Raoul with such a fabulous, heart-moving, clear and spontaneous voice that people seemed to stop breathing. In the duet with Pilar Lorengar the world appeared to have stopped, the stars seemed to come falling down. Both voices blended into an exciting, loving and intimate unity - her exciting vibrato and shining soprano voice and his bright, youthful tenor voice. It was a feast. It could hardly be believed that this was Richard Leech's European debut: 1987. The ovations went on forever: a tenor star was born."

- Geerd Heinsen, Orpheus Magazine, Germany

A year later, Leech appeared in the same opera - in French, this time - with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier:

"The revelation is the American tenor Richard Leech whose virtuosity, pronunciation and talent leave me speechless, especially when we know that he doesn't speak French and just sang Les Huguenots in German in Berlin. His low and medium notes are velvet, his high notes marvelously placed. Such a quality reminds one of Georges Thill. The final duet with Françoise Pollet made the public delirious. An extraordinary debut in France."

- Jacques Doucelin, Le Figaro (Paris)

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TOP OF PAGE / BIO | LES HUGUENOTS | RECORDINGS | MORE RECORDINGS | EXPLORE MORE

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FEATURING RICHARD LEECH

click on the picture to order the CD

CLASSICS OF THE SILVER SCREEN

Che gelida la manina and a perfectly splendid Nessun' Dorma. Other fun music, too.

LA MARSEILLAISE
Hector Berlioz

All Berlioz - soul-stirring, rousing stuff. Listen to the very end of the Marseillaise to define "ping!" - with Sylvia McNair.

LA DAMNATION DE FAUST
Hector Berlioz

Pollet, Cachemaille / Dutoit

One of my favorite works.

GREAT TENORS OF THE CENTURY

Wide range of selections, with tenors you've heard of... and those you should have.

MORE RECORDINGS

RICHARD LEECH LIVE

selections from Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Martha, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, Faust,
Les Huguenots, Rigoletto, and Madama Butterfly

Richard Leech, tenor - with Pilar Lorengar, soprano [Les Huguenots] and [unidentified], baritone [Madama Butterfly]
Premiere Opera, Ltd.

review by Kenneth Meltzer for Classical CD Review

"At his best Richard Leech is a thrilling singer. The American tenor's attractive, lyric voice ascends to a free and brilliant upper register. His vocal strengths, fine musicianship, sense of style, and obvious enthusiasm for singing have produced many glorious performances, among the best to be heard by tenors in the past decade or so. Fortunately this release from Premiere Opera, Ltd. of in-performance recordings (ca. 1985-95) for the most part captures Leech at the top of his form.

"Several of the selections are from operas that he has also recorded commercially, either complete or excerpts (including La Bohème, Faust, Les Huguenots and Rigoletto). Even if you have those recordings I would urge you investigate this release. For me Richard Leech's voice is one that has always fared best in the opera house. His quick vibrato, which can be somewhat obtrusive when closely miked, spins attractively throughout the expanse of a theater. The more distant microphone placements of the 'live' recordings on this disc offer a more realistic and flattering perspective than do many of Leech's commercial discs.

"This release is also of great value for documenting Leech in operas that he has not recorded. For example, the collection opens with one of his finest roles, Jacques Offenbach's Hoffmann. The three arias contained here are wonderful souvenirs of an artist who has always excelled in French repertoire. Likewise, an English-language version of Lyonel's aria from Flotow's Martha is a lovely example of poised vocalism.*

"The Lucia Tomb Scene is somewhat less exemplary, with the tenor experiencing a bit of vocal fatigue toward its conclusion. Still there is much to enjoy in a performance of another Leech signature role that he has not recorded commercially. Both the Bohème and Faust arias benefit from passionate and stylish renditions, capped by ringing high Cs (a hint of raspiness invades the final phrases of the Bohème).

"Richard Leech's performances of the incredibly demanding role of Raoul in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots were among the first to gain him international attention. The tenor's 1988 Montpelier recording in French, issued by Erato, is one of his finest. Here, his Raoul is ably represented in German-language versions of the first-act aria and the electrifying duet with Valentine, the latter featuring the wonderful Pilar Lorengar (another artist whose timbre was best appreciated in the opera house). The disc concludes with excellent versions of solos from Rigoletto (including a tour-de-force rendition of the Duke's cabaletta, 'Possente amor') and Madama Butterfly.**

"The recorded sound is never less than acceptable, quite often of excellent quality. As is Premiere Opera's custom, the disc is accompanied only by a computer print-out listing the various selections. I believe that these in-performance recordings do greater justice to the artistry of Richard Leech than do many of his commercial efforts. Given the disc's budget price, I recommend it without hesitation."

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS from ML Hart:
* seems to be quite an early performance, possibly a recital, and probably sung in his mid- or early-20s

** Dovunque al mondo - at the end of the "America forever!" toast by Pinkerton echoed by Sharpless, there's quite a bit of laughter from the audience. Since there's nothing inherently funny about this moment, the explanation may be that this was a performance where Leech as Pinkerton tosses his hat high into the air, timing it so he catches it again precisely as the note ends. Suzanna Guzmán, who has sung Suzuki with Leech onstage several times, told me this story while they were in rehearsal for another Butterfly, in Los Angeles 1998-99 - she said it was astonishing, absolutely electrified the audience. While that's a pretty typical reaction to Richard Leech's high-energy performances on stage, he claims to remember neither the particular production nor the bit with the hat... I'm still trying to confirm it for the Tenor Book.