Leigh Melrose studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, and at the Royal Academy of Music and in 2001 he represented Scotland in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
His opera engagements have taken him to companies in the UK, Europe and the USA where he has sung roles including Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream for La Monnaie, Escamillo Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall and with CBSO/Sakari Oramo, Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia at New York City Opera, Silvio I Pagliacci for Welsh National Opera, Britten’s Death in Venice, Liceu Barcelona under Sebastian Weigle, Papageno The Magic Flute and Marcello La bohème for Opera Zuid, Sid, Albert Herring, Salzburger Landestheater under Ivor Bolton, Lubano in The Philosopher’s Stone (by Mozart and others) with Garsington Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin, Longborough Festival Opera and Ned Keene Peter Grimes, Papageno The Magic Flute, The Count Marriage of Figaro, Rodolfo Leoncavallo’s La Boheme and Junius The Rape of Lucretia for English National Opera.
Leigh also excels in the contemporary opera repertoire. He has sung Punch in Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy in Porto and Rambo in the Channel Four film of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer. He created roles in the world-première of Jonathan Dove’s TV Opera, Man on the Moon for Channel 4 and in the Kombat Opera series of short films commissioned and shown by BBC 2. He has recently premiered the role of Evan in James MacMillan’s new opera The Sacrifice for Welsh National Opera to critical acclaim and performed a new commission with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 2008 Leigh sang Peter Maxwell Davies The Martyrdom of St Magnus at the composer’s St Magnus Festival, Orkney, in Edinburgh and Inverness.
Concert performances include Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Friar Lawrence in Berlioz’ Symphony No.3, Rambo in The Death of Klinghoffer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the composer conducting, Les Troyens with LSO/Colin Davis (also recorded), Britten Canticles at the Liceu Barcelona and with Roger Vignoles at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Wigmore Hall in London, De Falla’s La Vida Breve at the BBC Proms, works by Mozart and Salieri with the City of London Sinfonia/Richard Hickox at the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Barbican, and Carmina Burana in Birmingham Symphony Hall, at Usher Hall and with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland.
Future plans include Bartley in a new production of Vaughan Williams Riders to the Sea, English National Opera, Sid Albert Herring for the Opéra Comique and Opéra de Rouen, Ned Keane Peter Grimes in a new production for English National Opera, Papageno Die Zauberflöte for Seattle Opera, the title role in Billy Budd at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires and the Fauré Requiem with the Northern Sinfonia and Thierry Fischer.
Leigh Melrose is represented by Intermusica.
August 2008 / 459 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.