Singing
I’m a baritone and for over thirty years I’ve been performing in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe. I have sung many principal and title roles, including Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Staatsoper Hannover; Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Nationaltheater Mannheim; Stern (Anna Nicole) at the Staatstheater Nürnberg; Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) at the Staatstheater Mainz; and world premieres such as Tesla (Electric Saint) at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar.
In concert, I have appeared at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall, and my recordings are released on Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics and Naxos. Over the years I have also broadcast on BBC television and radio and on Classic FM on numerous occasions, both as a singer and as a presenter of classical music programmes.
Opera
Singing Lord Morton in Thea Musgrave's Mary Queen of Scots at Oper Leipzig.
Playing Nikola Tesla, in the world premiere production of Electric Saint, written by Stewart Copeland and Jonathan Moore, at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar.
"Richard Morrison takes the role of Nikola Tesla, and he was on stage almost continuously: a huge role that he mastered with incredible stamina." Bayerischer Rundfunk
"Richard Morrison as Tesla sings with a very clearly intoned baritone and in his performance conveys Tesla’s longing, his beliefs and his doubts." Online Merker
At the Edinburgh International Festival, I starred with Danielle de Niese, Kim Criswell, Anna-Jane Casey, Damian Humbley and Musical Director, Wayne Marshall, in the acclaimed Rodgers and Hammerstein Review, A Grand Night for Singing.
"Stylish performance, too, from cool Scots-born operatic baritone Richard Morrison." The Scotsman
Rantin Rovin Robin
The life of Scotland’s favourite son, Robert Burns, in music, song and verse.
Rantin Rovin Robin is a musical show I co-wrote, produced and performed, celebrating the life and work of Scotland’s greatest literary figure, Robert Burns. Burns wrote the world-famous Auld Lang Syne, and this show tells his remarkable story through his own songs, verse and letters — bringing his voice, wit, humanity and contradictions vividly to life.
The photographs above are from a performance at the English Theatre of Hamburg in October 2023. In the same year we also presented Rantin Rovin Robin at the Kurfürstliches Palais in Trier as part of Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz, and at the Scot-t Fest in Mainz, in both cases to great acclaim.
Rantin Rovin Robin is a versatile production. It can be produced in its full theatrical form, or adapted into a 40-minute concert version, making it ideally suited to Burns Suppers and similar events.
For enquiries about booking the show please contact me directly, either through this website or on my social media.
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Scottish CDs
Collaborating with some of the UK's finest Classical and Scottish Traditional musicians, this CD is a collection of songs inspired by Richard's lifelong love of the Island of Arran, off the West Coast of Scotland.
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"Arran is a dear place to me. My family has close ties with the island going back generations and some of my earliest memories are of magical, happy times there. I've fostered this connection for my own sons and every year we're there during the holidays, at our house in Brodick. As I watch the boys playing on Brodick Golf Course, climbing Goat Fell or pottering around on the Lady Rhoda (our wee boat), I can almost see the childhood selves of my father and me there with them - three generations of boys, playing in the same space, separated by the passage of time.
This CD is inspired by the Island of Arran and the things I associate with being there - nature, mountains, glens, rivers, the sea; love, family, friends; memories of loved ones now departed and days gone by. These are the themes that bind this group of songs together."
Richard Morrison
"Richard Morrison has been, from an early age, surrounded by music and song. His father is the distinguished Scottish baritone, Peter Morrison; his mother, Irene, a former professional singer and his sister, Jackie, is an actress and singer. With such an upbringing, it is indeed appropriate that this collection should be entitled, Songs of my Home, as it contains many of the songs of his native Scotland that he would have absorbed in his family environment. Sir Walter Scott wrote, 'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own, my native land!' Richard Morrison may travel far in his occupation as a leading voice in opera but Corban Recordings is proud to have this young man deliver these songs and ballads to the enhancement of Scotland's musical reputation."
Alastair McDonald, Corban Recordings
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"Calling an album, Songs of my Home, immediately suggests a pedigree worth talking about and for Richard Morrison the pedigree comes in spades, as he is the son of the doyen of Scots song, Peter Morrison - 'Peter M's wee boy!', says Alastair McDonald of Corban Records, in a characteristically cheery accompanying note. In these 12 tracks, operatic star Richard goes back to his roots to deliver Scottish standards like, Dark Lochnagar, big ballads like, The Bonnie Earl O' Moray, and more than a wheen of Burns favourites. Though I say Scottish standards, there is nothing standard about this collection at all: it is a superb realisation of songs dear to every Scot, in a splendid voice and with enviable diction. A treat for Scots at home and abroad."
The Scots Magazine
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