Richard Conrad

Richard Conrad (1935 – August 26, 2019) was an American singer, voice teacher, and impresario whose voice at times inhabited both the tenor and baritone ranges. He sang in opera, cabaret and musicals. He is perhaps best known for his 1963 recorded collaboration with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, conducted by Richard Bonynge, known as The Age of Bel Canto.

Richard Conrad studied in Boston with Harry Euler Treiber, in Germany with Gisela Rohmert, and had other studies under Felix Wolfes, Aksel Schiøtz and Pierre Bernac. In his early years Conrad was a light baritone. He soon developed the ability to pass easily into the "head" register as well as the technical facility to manage the most intricate florid passages. Treiber and others began to recommend that he might emulate the "baritones" of the 18th and early 19th centuries, many of whom sang as tenors, and He began exploring the bel canto and unusual coloratura tenor repertoire. His operatic debut was in Boston in 1961 singing in the American premiere of Mozart's La finta semplice, and later that year he made his recital debut in Washington, DC. In 1963 he was brought to the attention of Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, with whom he made a series of historic recordings of the florid bel canto repertoire.

In 1966 he settled in Rome, Italy and performed in opera, with orchestra, in recital, and on radio and television in many countries of Europe, England, the United States, Canada, and Africa. He returned to Boston in 1980 and founded the Boston Academy of Music (a reincarnation of a previously defunct organization of the same name). He managed the concert and opera repertory company for 23 years, presenting the American premiere of Sir Arthur Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe and many operas which had never been heard in Boston Richard Strauss's Arabella, the original version of Verdi's La forza del destino, Rossini's La pietra del paragone, and many others). Subsequently he founded and led The Bostonian Opera and Concert Ensemble ("The Bostonians") with which he produced (and sang the role of Golaud) the New England premiere of the original version of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, which was recorded by ARSIS AUDIO.