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The English bass-baritone, Richard Suart, studied at Sedbergh School (1965-1969) and later studied at St John's College, Cambridge (1971-1974) and the Royal Academy of Music in London (1974-1977).
During the early 1980's, Richard Suart was also a member of the Monteverdi Choir (Director: John Eliot Gardiner). He began his operatic career with the English Music Theatre Company and Opera Factory
Recent and future engagements include Pangloss Candide Toronto Symphony Orchestra‚ title role Gianni Schicchi (Diva Opera)‚ Judge in Trial by Jury (ENO)‚ Doctor Bartolo in The Barber of Seville (Charles Court Opera)‚ Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow (Michigan Opera Theatre)‚ Martin / Pangloss in Leonard Bernstein's Candide (Opera di Firenze)‚ Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance (Scottish Opera)‚ Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd (Reisopera)‚ Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard and Major-General (RTE Concert Orchestra)‚ Pangloss in Candide (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra‚ Hollywood Bowl)‚ Ko-Ko in The Mikado (ENO and Scottish Opera)‚ Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe (San Francisco Symphony Orchestra)‚ The Soldiers’ Tale and Façade (Psappha) and Registrar in Madama Butterfly (Raymond Gubbay). Engagements postponed or cancelled due to Covid include The Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers and Scaphio in Utopia (Scottish Opera) and Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady (The Grange Festival).
Richard Suart has worked for all the major British opera houses and is much sought after in music theatre‚ contemporary opera and as a comedian in the more standard repertoire. Roles include Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance‚ Frank in Die Fledermaus Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow‚ Lesbo in Agrippina and Benoit/Alcindoro in La Bohème (ENO); Jack Point (Welsh National Opera and ROH)‚ French Ambassador in Of thee I Sing‚ Snookfield in Let ’Em Eat Cake and Barabashkin in Paradise Moscow (Opera North and Bregenz)‚ Don Jerome in The Duenna (ETO)‚ Edgar in The Tell-Tale Heart (ROH2)‚ Stan Stock in the premiere of Benedict Mason’s Playing Away (ON‚ Bregenz and St Pölten)‚ Magnifico in La Cenerentola‚ Antonio in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (Garsington)‚ Lord Chancellor‚ Don Inigo Gomez in L’Heure Espagnole (Grange Park)‚ the British première of Dmitri Shostakovich;s Cheryomushki (Pimlico Opera) and King Arthur in Gwyneth and the Green Knight (Premiere‚ Music Theatre Wales).
Richard Suart has enjoyed a long association with Diva Opera for whom he has appeared as Dr. Bartolo‚ Gianni Schicchi and Dulcamara; with whom he has directed (and appeared in) three operettas Trial by Jury‚ Die Fledermaus and Cox and Box in the Channel Islands‚ UK‚ Switzerland and France. He has been a member of the D’Oyly Carte since 1988 with whom he has sung many of the Savoy operas‚ Orpheus in the Underworld and La Vie Parisienne. His involvement with the works of Gilbert and Sullivan has led him to create As a Matter of Patter‚ which he has performed at many venues in the UK‚ South Africa and the Middle East. Generally considered the leading patter man of his generation‚ he has appeared as the Duke of Plaza-Toro‚ Lord Chancellor and Sir Joseph Porter (BBC Proms) and made many other appearances at Gala Concerts in the UK‚ North America and Canada. He has also given performances of The Parson’s Pirates (Opera della Luna‚ Bridewell Theatre‚ London) and took part in the Venetian premiere of The Mikado. He is a regular visitor to the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival‚ held in Buxton each summer‚ and is a Vice President of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.
Productions abroad have included Mr Walter in Afterlife (Melbourne Festival‚ Holland Festival‚ Lyon)‚ Punch in Punch and Judy (Berlin)‚ Donizetti’s L’Ajo nell‘Imbarazzo (Batignano); Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King (Gelsenkirchen‚ Milan‚ Helsinki‚ Strasbourg‚ Stavanger and Paris)‚ Mason’s Chaplinoperas with the Ensemble Modern (Germany‚ Portugal‚ Holland and Austria)‚ world première performances of Param Vir’s Snatched by the gods and Broken Strings (Netherlands Opera‚ Munich‚ Antwerp‚ Rotterdam and Rouen)‚ Arnold Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon (Ensemble Intercontemporain‚ New York and Paris)‚ Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (Salzburg Festival and the Châtelet)‚ Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes‚ Reigen and The Mikado (Reisopera)‚ Dido and Aeneas (Bremen and Turin)‚ Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces (Brussels)‚ Koko The Mikado New York City Opera‚ Vancouver and Penang.
Richard Suart is chiefly known as a stage performer, but his concert work has included baritone leads in B. Britten's Saint Nicolas, and Monteverdi's Vespers, and a song recital of works by Ravel, Ibert and Mussorgsky at the Wigmore Hall in 1979 as well as some concert performances of his operatic roles.
Recordings include Eight Songs for a Mad King (Finnish TV and Channel 4)‚ Turnage’s Greek (BBCTV and Decca)‚ Candide‚ B. Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream‚ The Fairy Queen and Orpheus in the Underworld; The Geisha‚ The Maid of the Mountains and Sullivan’s The Contrabandista (Hyperion)‚ and Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince‚ (BBCTV and Sony CD and DVD). Savoy operas include The Gondoliers and Iolanthe (D’Oyly Carte) and The Mikado‚ The Pirates of Penzance‚ HMS Pinafore‚ The Yeomen of the Guard and Trial by Jury under Sir Charles Mackerras.
Richard Suart is a Vice-President of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, a Patron of the Bristol Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and in 2004 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. |
