Richard Leech is an American tenor, born in Binghamton, California in 1956. At first he sang baritone roles, but, when a student, successfully took on the title r├┤le in Offenbach's Tales from Hoffmann, one of the most challenging tenor roles in the operatic repertoire.
He made his American début in 1980, singing both in opera and concert performances, notably at Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Chicago. In 1987 he made his European début at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, where he sang Raoul in Meyerbeer’s Les Hugenots.
In the same year he sang Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohéme for Chicago Lyric Opera, a rôle which he repeated in 1991 at La Scala, Milan, and, in 1994, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
In 1990 he sang Gounod's Faust at the The Met, having first sung it at San Diego in 1988. His repertoire also includes Pinkerton in PucciniΓÇÖs Madame Butterfly, Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor, and the Duke of Mantua in VerdiΓÇÖs Rigoletto
As a concert performer he has sung in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Verdi's Requiem.
