Richard Bernstein

Richard Bernstein (born July 30, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American bass. He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera; 2023–24 is his 28th consecutive season with the company; he has sung over 500 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, and has been a part of more than 125 international live broadcasts with the company.Mr. Bernstein continues his long association with the Metropolitan Opera in the 2023-24 season, which is his 28th consecutive season with the company. Richard makes his role debut as the Duke of Verona in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. This will also be broadcast Live in HD on March 23, 2024. Richard will also be covering roles in La rondine, La forza del destino, and Carmen.

The 2022-23 season saw him celebrate his 500th performance at the Met – on New Year’s Eve – as Boroff in Fedora, along with performances of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Dialogues des Carmélites. He concluded the 2022-23 season singing Lodovico in Act III of Verdi’s Otello with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He then joined the same forces on a European tour (June-July 2023) that kicked off at the Philharmonie de Paris, followed by performances at the Barbican Centre in London and at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Highlights of recent seasons include celebrating his silver anniversary with the Met in 2019-20; role debuts as Pistola in Falstaff and as Foltz in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Met, along with a return in 2021-22 to the role of Aye in the sensational, Grammy Award-winning Met production of Akhnaten; Tosca at the prestigious Bravo! Vail Festival; the bass soloist part in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the New Jersey Choral Society; a return to his touchstone role of Leporello in Don Giovanni at Chautauqua Opera; and his Opera Maine debut as Daland in Der fliegende Holländer in July 2022.