Robin Leggate

Robin Leggate's operatic career has spanned many styles from singing most of the Mozart roles in his early years, achieving great success with the roles of Cassio and Narraboth, through some of the 'character' roles ranging in size from Spoletta to Herodes and now adding the roles of Captain Vere, Peter Quint and Von Aschenbach to his repertoire together with the Wagnerian roles of Siegmund, Loge and Parsifal. He joined the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1976 and was company principal from then until 2001. Highlights in his early career included Tamino at the Royal Opera House in a new production of Die Zauberflöte conducted by Sir Colin Davis. He also sang Ottavio in Don Giovanni at Covent Garden and most of the Mozart roles with the British regional companies and abroad. He was for many years 'the' Cassio (Otello) at the Royal Opera House (a role he also sang in Hamburg and Munich) and also had many successes as Narraboth (Salome), managing to combine it in performance with the role of second Jew in the celebrated Luc Bondy production in Florence, Paris and London. More recently, he had great success with the role of Herodes in the Spier Festival's production of Salome in South Africa and in 2002 with Welsh National Opera, a performance that was televised for S4C. As a company member at Covent Garden he sang many roles including Der Maler/Der Neger in Lulu, Raffaele in Stiffelio, conducted by Sir Edward Downes, Cassio with Carlos Kleiber and Placido Domingo, Count Elemer with Kiri Te Kanawa as Arabella, and Dr. Caius in the opening production of Falstaff in the newly refurbished Opera House.