Leigh Melrose

Melrose is one of the great character singers of his voice type...

Opera Today

News & Plans

Upcoming plans include three house debuts:

Firstly with Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as Ruprecht in Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, then with Opera Australia as Brett Whiteley in the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Whiteley and then with the Wiener Staatsoper in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando and as Alberich in their Ring cycle.

There will also be more performances of Fin de Partie, a return to Opera Vlaanderen as Smee in Schrecker’s Der Schmied von Gent and some exciting new roles – details to come when I’m allowed to say!

Clov in Fin de Partie

Brett Whiteley

Ruprecht in Rome

Alberich

Debut at La Scala with the world premiere of Fin de Partie

György Kurtág, whose compositions left an indelible mark on the development of twentieth-century music, had never written an opera. At least, not until he had turned ninety. Applying his bare, concentrated, intensely expressive style to Samuel Beckett’s 1957 austere play, the world premiere was conducted in November 2018 by Markus Stenz and directed by Pierre Audi. Further performances were at Dutch National Opera in February.

György Kurtág

"Shuffling around nervously, Clov (the robustly gruff baritone Leigh Melrose) is characterized in jittery blots of music, as if he consists entirely of punctuation marks."
The New York Times, 16 November 2018

"...baritone Leigh Melrose [also deserves high praise] who made Clov's powerless anger truly uncomfortable to behold. Tightly wound and hobbling about savagely, at the end when Clov decides to abandon Hamm, or maybe not, he looked as if he were about to blow up."
bachtrack, 7 March 2019

Nekrotzar - zürich

“As Nekrotzar and with a voice as strong as his acting skills were convincing… Leigh Melrose stood at the pinnacle of an outstandingly gifted cast.“

bachtrack – 4 February 2019

Die Soldaten - Madrid

“Leigh Melrose, que se deja la piel como Stolzius, al que confiere una gran entidad escénica y vocal”

El Pais, 17 May 2018

Golaud - Antwerp

“Een schot in de roos is bariton Leigh Melrose als Golaud, de weduwnaar die Mélisande huwt. Overtuigend doorloopt Melrose het parcours van sympathiekeling tot jaloerse sadist tot gebroken kerel.”

de Volkskrant, February 2018

Publicity Photographs

The colour photos here are taken by Chris Gloag, while the B&W ones are by Rahi Resvani

"Musically, it's astonishing. Melrose, giving the performance of a lifetime, charts Wozzeck's disintegration with unflinching veracity and an extraordinary expressive range that veers from lyrical intensity to snarl or eerie falsetto."

Wozzeck – The Guardian