Born in South Wales, Richard Wiegold trained at the RNCM 1999-2003 and is continuing his studies with Anthony Roden. He has also received coaching from Adele Leigh, Paul Griffiths and Christopher Squires and sang in masterclasses with Donald Maxwell, Anna Sweeney, Paul Whelan and Ian Partridge. He won several prizes and scholarships at the RNCM and sang Leone Tamerlano, Surin Queen of Spades and Commendatore Don Giovanni. Richard made his professional opera debut as the Gardener Un Giorno di Regno at the 2001 Buxton Festival.
The highlight of 2008 so far has been singing Arkel Pelléas et Mélisande for the Canadian Opera Company, where he will return later in the year to sing Commendatore Don Giovanni. During the summer Richard will sing Superintendant Budd (cover) Albert Herring and Don Toribio (cover) Love and Other Demons for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. 2007 operatic highlights included Bonze Madama Butterfly for Scottish Opera and Pfarrer/Dachs Das Schlaue Füchslein for Wiener Kammeroper and, in 2006, Leporello (cover) Don Giovanni for Scottish Opera, major roles at the Montepulciano Festival and Commendatore Don Giovanni and Pistola Falstaff at the Festival de Belle-Ile, Lyrique-en-Mer and Commissar (cover) Der Rosenkavalier for Scottish Opera.
In 2005 Richard’s operatic performances included the cover of Rocco Fidelio - Scottish Opera; Banquo Macbeth – Scottish Opera-Go-Round; Sarastro The Magic Flute Longborough Festival Opera; Death Emperor of Atlantis for Upfront Opera; Almeida Opera workshops; a newly conceived Music Theatre piece for the Meridian Theatre Company in Cork, – Madame T by Johnny Hanrahan and Talbot Giovanna D’Arco and Rocco Leonore for Chelsea Opera Group. In 2004 his engagements included Snug A Midsummer Night’s Dream and understudy Dr. Bartolo The Marriage of Figaro with English Touring Opera, Macrobio in Rossini’s La Pietra del Paragone - Stanley Hall Opera and The High Commissioner Madam Butterfly - Opera Project at the Longborough Opera Festival, Ferrando Il Trovatore at the Canterbury Festival, his debut with Chelsea Opera Group as the Polish Officer and Russian Commander in Glinka’s Life for a Tsar, as well as his Asian debut with the Macao Orchestra and En Shao. Other roles have included: The Green Knight (Lynne Plowman’s Gwyneth and the Green Knight) in a Royal Opera House/Music Theatre Wales joint production at the Linbury and on tour; Second Mercenary Svanda Dudak and Crespel Les Contes d’Hoffmann (opera scenes) - Wexford Festival; The Commendatore Don Giovanni - Ryedale Festival; Sarastro Die Zauberflöte - Opera by Definition; Grand Inquisitor Don Carlos - Stowe Opera, Death The Emperor of Atlantis (Ullmann) and Carpenter’s Mate HMS Pinafore with the Hallé Orchestra; Mustafa L’Italiana in Algeri, Mananan Festival; Gremin Yevgeny Onegin - Lakeland Opera; Fasolt Rheingold - Napier University. Professional covers include: Hunding, Die Walküre - Scottish Opera; Baron Un Giorno di Regno, - Buxton Festival; Fafner Rheingold and Siegfried - Longborough Festival.
Richard has sung much of the standard bass concert and oratorio repertoire at engagements including Wexford Festival; Fairfield Halls, Croydon; Mananan Festival; Buxton Festival; Bridgewater Hall, Manchester; Liverpool Anglican Cathedral; Manchester Cathedral and Derby Assembly Rooms. He has performed Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death with the Grimethorpe Band, Schoenberg’s Serenade at the RNCM Dancing on the Volcano Festival and Peter and the Wolf at Manchester University. Premieres include Mervyn Burtch’s songcycle Light and Dark (Lower Machen Festival), Mervyn Burtch Ozymandias and Panos Demopoulos Three Songs for Bass. In May 2003 Richard Wiegold received a commendation in the final of the Wagner Society’s Meistersinger Prize for young male Wagner singers and in 2004 was a finalist and reserve winner of their Bayreuth Bursary competition. Richard’s recordings include Sullivan The Light of the World and the Second Mercenary in the Wexford Festival CD of Weinberger Svanda Dudak
