Richard Greagar (born 5 November 1946) is an operatic tenor from New Zealand.

History

Greager was born in

Christchurch, New Zealand Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, where he received his first training as a singer. He moved to Australia, where he successfully competed in several vocal competitions, including the

Sun Aria The Herald Sun Aria, formerly known as The Sun Aria (because it was sponsored by '' The Sun News-Pictorial'') is a vocal competition for emerging opera singers held in Victoria, Australia, each year. The competition offers nearly $60,000 in cas ...

contest. In 1972 he moved to London, where in 1975 he was accepted as junior principal at

The Royal Opera The Royal Opera is a British opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Cov ...

, Covent Garden. He was principal tenor with the

Scottish Opera Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. History Scottish O ...

and with the

Hanover State Opera Hanover State Opera (german: Staatsoper Hannover) is an opera company in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The company is resident in the Hanover Opera House (), and is part of a publicly-funded umbrella performing arts orga ...

. In 1980 he became a principal soloist with the

Australian Opera Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder o ...

(later Opera Australia), and played Edgardo in ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. ...

'', opposite

Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed ...

, and opposite Jennifer McGregor in 1985. He returned to New Zealand for several concert seasons. His ''

Peter Grimes ''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fiction ...

'' was praised :"Richard Greager's portrait of Grimes must be one of the finest of an illustrious career, beautifully catching the complexity of the tormented fisherman...powerfully lyrical in moments like the Great Bear and Pleiades aria, and wrenching in the final mad scene: one felt the expressive weight of every note of Britten's line" (William Dart ''Music in New Zealand'' of September 1995)

Recognition

*He won the 2001 Australian

Green Room Award The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne. The awards were started in 1982 when Blair Edgar and Steven Tandy formed the Green Room Awards A ...

for Best Supporting Male Singer in ''

Wozzeck ''Wozzeck'' () is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama ''Woyzeck'', which the German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at h ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greagar, Richard 1946 births Living people New Zealand operatic tenors Australian operatic tenors