David Leigh

American bass David Leigh, a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and is already internationally known for his visceral and intelligent singing. At a young age, he has 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 cancellations of Filippo in Don Carlos at Dallas Opera and Gurnemanz in Parsifal at the Canadian Opera Company.

In the 2022-23 season, Leigh made debuts with the Bayerische Staatsoper as Colline in La Bohème and in Kyoto as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Hyōgo Performing Arts Center. He also returned 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 Jacaranda Music in Los Angeles for the world premiere of Peter Knell and Stephanie Fleischman’s Arkhipov.

Recent career highlights include a company and role debut with the Bolshoi Theatre as Colline, as well as company debuts with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opéra National de Lorraine, and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg as the Commendatore. At the Metropolitan Opera, he performed the Surintendant des Plaisirs in Laurent Pelly’s production of Massenet’s Cendrillon under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, and was presented in a joint recital at the Park Avenue Armory with mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo. Other engagements included the Commendatore with Florentine Opera and the Festival d’Opéra Baroque de Beaune, Fafner in Siegfried with Cincinnati’s Queen City Opera, and Verdi’s Requiem with the Choral Society of Northeast Pennsylvania.

Leigh comes from a family of artists: His father Mitch Leigh was the Tony Award-winning composer of Man of La Mancha; his mother, Abby Leigh, is an American painter whose work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney, among others; and his sister Eve Leigh is a multiple award-winning playwright. He studied music composition at Yale University and holds master’s degrees in voice and opera, respectively, from Mannes College and the Yale School of Music, from which he received the Harriet Gibbs Fox Prize. He has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the McCammon Competition at Fort Worth Opera, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a 2017 top prize from the Wagner Society of New York.