About David

American bass David Leigh, a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, has been described by Opera News as “a bass of unusual agility, depth and darkness,” and is already internationally known for his visceral and intelligent singing. At a young age, he’s been entrusted with many of the pinnacle roles in the canon including Hagen in a new Ring Cycle at Opernhaus Zürich in the 2023-24 season, as well as König Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Santa Fe Opera, and pandemic related cancelations of Filippo in Don Carlo at Dallas Opera and Gurnemanz in Parsifal at the Canadian Opera Company.

Mr. Leigh opens the 2023-2024 season with the aforementioned Hagen in a much anticipated new Götterdämmerung at Opernhaus Zürich; he will reprise both Hagen and Fafner (Siegfried) there in two full cycles at Opernhaus Zürich in May. He will also make a return to the Canadian Opera Company as the Commendatore in Kasper Holton’s Don Giovanni. On the concert stage, he will make debuts with Semyon Bychkov the Czech Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg in Mahler’s Symphony #8, and with the Richmond Symphony for the Verdi Requiem.

In the 2022-2023 season, Mr. Leigh made debuts with the Bayerische Staatsoper as Colline in La bohème along with returns to the Metropolitan Opera in a new production of Die Zauberflöte and to Opernhaus Zürich as Fafner in a new production of Wagner’s Siegfried. On the concert stage, he made his debut with the Duisburg Philharmonic for a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony #9, in recital with the Sag Harbor Song Festival, and with Jacaranda Music in Los Angeles for the world-premiere of Peter Knell and Stephanie Fleischman’s Arkhipov.

In the 2021-2022 season, in addition to his role debut as König Marke at Santa Fe Opera, Mr. Leigh made his debut at Opernhaus Zürich as the Commendatore, was heard in the eponymous role in The Snow Queen in the French premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen with Opéra national du Rhin and performed Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with Opéra national de Lorraine, a role he later reprised with the Canadian Opera Company. In concert, he sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Mozart’s Requiem with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi.