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Richard Halton

Professorial Staff - Musical Theatre

Musical Theatre

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
King Charles Court
Old Royal Naval College
London SE10 9JF

Email: R.Halton@trinitylaban.ac.uk

Richard Halton Headshot

Biography 

Richard studied at the University of Kent in Canterbury, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with Renato Capecchi in the USA. He has performed with all the major British opera companies, and is equally at home on the West End stage as well as the concert platform.

In London his roles include Ravenal (Showboat) at the London Palladium in the Olivier award winning RSC/Opera North production; Harry Easter (Street Scene also forBBC TV) Novice’s Friend and understudy of Billy Budd (Billy Budd) for English National Opera; Diener, (Capriccio) Paris, (Romeo et Juliette) (also on video) understudy of The Traveller (Death in Venice) and Agravain (Gawain) all for the Royal Opera; The title role and Monsieur Andre in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre; Count Danilo (The Merry Widow) for English Touring Opera at New Sadler’s Wells; Macheath (The Beggar’s Opera) in The Great Hall, Lincoln’s Inn; Mercury/Littore in David Alden’s award winning production of Poppea for WNOat The Shaftesbury Theatre (as seen on BBC2); The title role (The Emperor of Atlantis) QEH; Max (Betly), Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Silvio (Pagliacci) and Silvano (Ballo in Maschera) all at the Holland Park Open Air Theatre; Jean (Miss Julie) and Barabashkin in Shostakovich’s musical Cheryomushki at  The Lyric Hammersmith; The Shrink (Terminatrix) for The RNT; Vox (Bad Times) and Marcello (Exposition of a Picture) both at The Young Vic and Holofernes in the World Premiere of Ian McQueen’s Line of Terror at the Almeida Festival.

Outside London Richard has sung Danny in Girl Crazy, Papageno (Magic Flute), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Counsel (Trial by Jury) and the title role in Eugene Onegin all for Scottish Opera; Jason in Gavin Bryar’s Medea with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at The Tramway; Marcello (La Boheme) and Mercury (Poppea) both for Welsh National Opera; Schaunard (La Boheme) Welko (Arabella) both for Glyndebourne; the title role in Don Giovanni at Aldeburgh; Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Sid (Albert Herring), Perrucchetto (La Fedelta Premiata) and Guglielmo (Cosi) all for Garsington Festival Opera; Tony in West Side Story at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton and finally, Fritz (plus 6 other characters) in Stephen Oliver’s A Man of Feeling (which he also co-directed) and The White Voice in Akin Euba’s Chaka both for The City of Birmingham Touring Opera.

He has recorded the soundtrack for Fakers, a film by Richard Janes music by Kevin Sargent; Inspector Morse for Virgin Records; Collections of Broadway songs and Gilbert and Sullivan arias and duets for Pickwick; The Mill on the Floss for BBCTV; Chaka for MRI Records, The Phantom of the Opera for Warner Bros/Really Useful Films/Sony; The Brothers Grimm, a filmby Terry Gilliam and most recently ‘Writing on Water’ a collaboration by celebrated American composer David Lang and film director Peter Greenaway with the London Sinfonietta at the Q.E.H and Concertegebouw, Bruges(also on DVD).

As an educator, Richard has had experience working with undergraduate and post-graduate students at Guildford School of Acting, Arts Educational Schools and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He also has the ongoing pleasure of teaching industry professionals, many of whom are in current West-End shows. He directs choirs, musicals, workshops and summer schools alongside the esteemed vocal coach, Julie Gossage. Together, they are proud to represent Vocal Balance UK, an exciting clutter-free vocal pedagogy that, according to their students’ testimonials, is “creating waves” within the vocal arts industry!