Richard Leech - Rigoletto - Parmi veder le lagrime

American tenor Richard Leech sings the Duke of Mantua from Verdi's Rigoletto.

NYCO, 1988.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gabba01
• tenor
• aria
• opera
• Richard
• Leech
• Verdi
• Rigoletto

[diarci]

I first became aware of Leech when this performance was broadcast on PBS and I thought what a wonderful future he had ahead of him. Such plangent tones - almost Bjorling-like. And then soehow it all went awry.

[jojojo943]

For a pretty good Duke, winning the Met auditions in 1963

go listen to Michael Trimble singing La donna e mobile

[ah332]

who is the conductor?

[opera888able]

Your right about that over-emotional little inflection he puts in at the upper rego.

Gigli used to do it a lot, Much to the annoyace of di Stefano and others.Never the less

a sincere performance by Mr Leech.

[acitipo]

Linda voz ....pero prefiero el Pavarotti de los años 70 80 90 el bellisimo timbre y la interpretacion de un latino es importante para esta aria.

[bigus]

@colino72 leeches technique was rather poor. he is too open. i saw him live in tosca and he was marvelous but there was still too much air coming through the tone and with all the sobbing and open singing he developed a pretty decent wobble. great voice just lazy production in my opinion.

[bassfanne45]

@operaandskates I saw this production also. I don't know what Leech has done to his voice. He started out so very well with such a beautiful sound. perhaps he didn't pace himself very well. The odd thing is that I still enjoy him as a performer. There's just something about his personality that shines through onstage.

[colino72]

Yep, I would agree. Very open and full high notes. Full effort - whereas with Pavarotti and Sutherland you always felt they were at 70 to 80%. And they had much longer careers than it looks like Richard Leech will have. Shame - great, rare sound here.

[operaandskates]

I saw him and Fabiana Bravo at San Diego Opera in La Bohème (May 2005). In "O soave fanciulla", it was a competition to see who had the biggest wobble. Bravo's vibrato lessened as the opera progressed, but Leech's wobble remained throughout and badly marred his performance. His high notes were still loud and ringing, though.

[thehix]

I agree, the acuti's are a bit too open. Exciting and sparkling voice though :).