Richard Berkeley Steele

Tenor

Highly regarded in the heldentenor repertoire, Richard Berkeley-Steele performs at some of the world’s most important opera houses, working with distinguished conductors and directors.  Known for roles in operas by Wagner, Richard Strauss and Britten, his recent performances include Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Sir Antonio Pappano.

Recent highlights include concert performances of Tristan und Isolde for Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (under Myung-Whun Chung) and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (under Vasily Petrenko), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) for Korea National Opera and Loge in Der Ring des Nibelungen for Opera Australia.  Upcoming engagements include Sir Philip Wingrave (Owen Wingrave) at the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International festivals and for Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse.

He has sung Tristan (Tristan und Isolde) with Grange Park Opera; the title roles in Tannhäuser (with the Chinese National Opera Company in Beijing and for Opera Australia with Richard Hickox) and Lohengrin (for Teatro Massimo in Palermo under Günter Neuhold); Herod (Salome) with Deborah Voigt for Washington National Opera; Samson (Samson et Delilah) at the Teatro Municipal Sao Paulo; Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) at Opera Australia under Sir Richard Armstrong; Sir Philip Wingrave at the Royal Opera House; Laca (Jenůfa) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and at Opéra Angers Nantes; a double bill of rarely-performed works – Sibelius’ The Maiden in the Tower and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchey the Immortal at the Buxton Festival and The Prince (Rusalka) for Opera North.

Richard Berkeley-Steele has worked with some of the most experienced opera conductors, including Robert Spano, Sir Mark Elder, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Jurowski and Bertrand de Billy at opera houses such as Gran Teatre del Liceu; the Metropolitan Opera, New York; San Francisco Opera; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; English National Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival. His wide repertoire has seen him perform Siegfried – notably in the 2001 Seattle Ring Cycle and at English National Opera in 2004 under Paul Daniel; 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; Drum Major (Wozzeck), Peter Grimes, Don José (Carmen) and Jimmy Mahoney (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny).

A consummate concert artist, Richard Berkeley-Steele performs throughout Europe singing a wide repertoire, including Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The KingdomRequiemDas Lied von der Erde, Britten’s Les illuminations and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis – most recently performed under Xian Zhang with La Verdi in Milan.