RICHARD BLACK - OPERATIC REPERTOIRE as at November 2024.
Operas rehearsed and/or coached complete or in slightly cut versions (* denotes operas performed in piano-accompanied public performance). 84 operas at last count.
Argento: Miss Havisham's Wedding Night
Beethoven: Fidelio
Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de Perles; Carmen
Boito: Mefistofele
Max Brand: Maschinist Hopkins
Britten: Albert Herring; The Little Sweep*; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Turn of the Screw*
Katarzyna Brochocka: The Young Wife
Cimarosa: Il matrimonio segreto
James Cook: Dorothy*
Donizetti: Don Pasquale*; L’elisir d’amore*; Lucia di Lammermoor
Dove: Mansfield Park
Giordano: Andrea Chenier
Handel: Acis and Galatea
Robert Hugill: When a Man Knows
Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel*
Janacek: The Cunning Little Vixen; Katya Kabanova; Jenufa
Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci
Steve McNeff: Clockwork; Gentle Giant
Martín y Soler: Una cosa rara
Massenet: Werther
Menotti: The Telephone*
Douglas Moore: Gallantry*
Mossolov: The Hero
Mozart: Così fan tutte*; Don Giovanni*; Le Nozze di Figaro*; Die Zauberflöte*; La Finta Giardiniera*; La clemenza di Tito*
Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann
Ponchielli: La Gioconda
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites; La voix humaine*
Puccini: La Bohème*; Madama Butterfly*; Tosca*; Turandot; La fanciulla del West; Il Tabarro; Suor Angelica; La Rondine
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Jenni Roditi: Spirit Child
Rossini: Cenerentola*; L’occasione fa il ladro; Il barbiere di Siviglia
Smetana: The Bartered Bride
Sondheim: Sweeney Todd
Haro Stepanian: Kaj Nazar
J. Strauss: Die Fledermaus
R. Strauss: Elektra; Intermezzo; Ariadne auf Naxos*; Der Rosenkavalier
Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress
(Gilbert &) Sullivan: Iolanthe
Tchaikovsky: Evgenii Onegin
Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea
Verdi: Aïda; La Traviata*; Rigoletto; Falstaff; Otello; Un ballo in maschera; Macbeth*; Luisa Miller; Don Carlo
Wagner: Das Rheingold*; Die Walküre*; Siegfried; Götterdämmerung; Tristan und Isolde; Parsifal; Der Fliegende Holländer; Die Meistersinger; Tannhäuser
Judith Weir: Blond Eckbert
- plus several more rehearsed and/or coached in more or less substantial part.
In addition, familiarity with most of the standard ‘opera gala’ programme material (including a fair amount of material from West End/Broadway musicals) and the majority of the standard audition repertoire for all voices (over 600 arias), including practically every ‘aria’ from Wagner’s operas.
A substantial list of audition repertoire for all voices is maintained by Wolf Trap Opera (USA) at
Apart from quite a few arias from American operas (used much more frequently for audition in the USA than in the UK, not surprisingly), I can honestly say I know the great majority of repertoire listed there.