Richard Anderson studied at the Sydney Conservatorium and at the Canberra School of Music, before joining the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program at Opera Australia in 2003.

He has since joined the company as a principal bass.

His roles for Opera Australia have included Cascada (The Merry Widow), Count Ceprano (Rigoletto), Manservant (Lulu), Imperial Commissioner (Madama Buttery), Araldo (Otello), First Soldier (Salome), Sciarrone and Gaoler (Tosca), Fourth Nobleman (Lohengrin), Eighth Servant (Capriccio), Ofcer (Madeline Lee), High Priest (Nabucco), Christian Magician (Rinaldo), Publio (La clemenza di Tito) and Curio and Achilla (Julius Caesar).

Richard’s concert repertoire includes Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Requiem and C minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, and Bach’s St John Passion and Mass in Bminor.

Recent highlights have included Dr Grenvil (La traviata), Schlémil/Hermann (The Tales of Hoffmann), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Biterolf (Tannhäuser), Ribbing (A Masked Ball), Colline (La bohème), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Lieutenant Ratcliffe (Billy Budd), Second Armed Man (The Magic Flute), Steward and Sentry (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Swallow (Peter Grimes) and Apollyon, Mistrust and Envy (The Pilgrim’s Progress) for Opera Australia; Ashby (The Girl of the Golden West) for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; and Achis in David et Jonathas for Pinchgut Opera. In 2009 he made his debut with Opera Queens-land as Rocco (Fidelio), with State Opera of South Australia as Ashby and with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Verdi’s Requiem.

In 2010 his roles for Opera Australia will include Ashby, De Brétigny (Manon), Quince (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Sparafucile (Rigoletto) and the title role in The Marriage of Figaro.

Richard was Achis in David & Jonathan (2008), Ariadeno in Ormindo (2009) and as Anacréon and Don Chilone in The Triple Bill (2017) for Pinchgut Opera.