Artist Profile
Richard Greager
The New Zealand-born tenor, Richard Greager, received his early training in Christchurch. After winning three major Australian competitions, including the Sydney and Melbourne Sun-Aria contests, he moved to London in 1972. Subsequently he became a junior principal at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, principal lyric tenor with the Scottish Opera and the Hanover State Opera and later, a principal artist with The Australian Opera.
His roles over these years included Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Tamino in The Magic Flute, Painter in Lulu, Alfredo in La Traviata, Edgardo in Lucia Di Lammermoor with Dame Joan Sutherland, the Duke in Rigoletto, the title role in Peter Grimes, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Don José in Carmen, Peter Quint in Turn Of The Screw, Rodolfo in La bohème, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Ernesto in Don Pasquale and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.
More recent international appearances have included the roles of King Arthur in the world première of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain and Monostatos in The Magic Flute for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Pong in Turandot in Taiwan; Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw for Cologne Opera; Rodolfo in La bohème for the Scottish Opera; Roger in Love in the Age of Therapy, a new work by Paul Grabowsky and Joanna Murray-Smith for OzOpera and the 2002 Melbourne Festival; the title role in Oedipus Rex for the Lyric Opera of Queensland; and the Captain in Barrie Kosky's acclaimed production of Wozzeck for Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne. For this role he won the 2001 Australian Green Room Award for Best Supporting Male Singer.
In New Zealand, Richard Greager has sung the roles of Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier, Herod in Salome, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Tikhon in Katya Kabanova for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Cavaradossi in Tosca, the title role in Peter Grimes, Don José in Carmen and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni for Wellington City Opera, Gustavus in Un Ballo in Maschera for both Wellington City Opera and Canterbury Opera and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for Canterbury Opera. He has also sung Pong in Turandot, Dr Caius in Falstaff, Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Guillot de Morfontaine in Manon, Torquemada in L'Heure Espagnol, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi and Macduff in Macbeth for NBR New Zealand Opera.
Throughout his career, Richard Greager has been a popular guest artist for symphony orchestras in New Zealand and Australia. He has sung Rachmaninov's The Bells with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Froh in Das Rheingold with Sydney Symphony. Concerts in New Zealand include Britten's War Requiem and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Auckland Philharmonia, and Froh in Das Rheingold, Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet and Stravinsky's Pulcinella with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, a Three Tenors Concert in Lombardi Amphitheatre at Hawkes Bay, Schubert's Schwanengesang and Messiah in Wellington, Britten's Les Illuminations with Dunedin Sinfonia and Verdi Requiem and The Tower Concerts for Opera New Zealand. Additional concerts include Beethoven Symphony No 9 with Sydney Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade To Music with Wellington Sinfonia, Opera in the Paddock and The Bells for Royal Melbourne Philharmonic.
More recent engagements include Roger in Love in the Age of Therapy for OzOpera at the Sydney Festival, Prince Shuisky in Boris Godunov for New Zealand Opera, Herod in Salome in the Sydney Winter and Melbourne Spring seasons for Opera Australia and Mime in State Opera of South Australia’s 2004 production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.
In 2006 he sang the roles of Vanderdendur, Governor and Ragotski in a semi-staged concert of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide for Perth Festival, Herod in Salome in concert under the baton of Simone Young for Brisbane Festival and Herr Vogelsang in a concert performance of Der Schauspieldirektor with Auckland Philharmonia. Forthcoming engagements include The Creation for Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Pulcinella for Vector Wellington Orchestra and Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier in concert with Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Richard Greager has appeared in many video recordings, including Gawain, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Turn of the Screw and Dialogue of the Carmelites. He has also recorded the Berlioz Requiem and Schubert - 6 Masses.
Richard Greager has appeared in: