RICHARD BERKELEY-STEELE
Following his acclaimed debut as Siegfried in the 2001 Seattle Ring Cycle, Richard Berkeley-Steele has established himself on the international stage in the heldentenor repertoire. His performance as Siegfried in Phyllida Lloyd’s Ring Cycle at ENO prompted Edward Seckerson of the The Independent to write “…Richard Berkeley-Steele. What a find. It’s an astonishingly fresh and brave and charismatic performance. A complete knockout.” He went on to sing the role of Siegmund in the 2005 Seattle Ring Cycle under Robert Spano, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim and at Städtische Theater Chemnitz under Oleg Caetani, in Harry Kupfer’s production for the Gran Teatre del Liceu under Bertrand de Billy as well as the role of Tannhäuser for Australian Opera under Richard Hickox.
Other opera performances include: Florestan at Welsh National Opera; Loge with South Australian Opera under Jeffrey Tate and at Canadian Opera Company under Richard Bradshaw; Macduff (Macbeth) and Vitek (The Makropoulos Case) for Scottish Opera; Lohengrin for English National Opera conducted by Mark Elder; Albert (The Miserly Knight) at Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Vladimir Jurowsky; Drum Major (Wozzeck) at the Canadian Opera Company under Richard Bradshaw; Don José (Carmen) at San Francisco Opera under Marcello Viotti; Laca (Jenufa) at the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera; Jimmy Mahoney (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) and
Herod (Salome) at Staatstheater Stuttgart; Peter Grimes at the Gran Teatre del Liceu; and General Sir Philip Wingrave (Owen Wingrave) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
A consummate concert artist, Richard Berkeley-Steele performs throughout Europe singing diverse repertoire including Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom, Verdi’s Requiem, Das Lied von der Erde, Les illuminations and Beethoven Symphony No 9. He performed an all Wagner programme with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vassily Sinaisky.
Recent engagements include Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) at Opera Australia, Samson et Delilah in Palermo, Lohengrin at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires and Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has also sung Samson et Delilah at the Teatro Municipal Sao Paulo, Salome at Washington National Opera and The Prince (Rusalka) for Opera North.
Other highlights during 2010/11 included the title role in Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park and Schoenberg’s Gürrelieder at de Doelen in Rotterdam. In 2011/2012, Richard Berkeley-Steele will sing Tannhäuser with the Chinese National Opera Company in Beijing and a double bill of rarely performed works - Sibelius’ The Maiden in the Tower and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchey the Immortal - at the Buxton Festival.
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