Swiss-born Bernard Richter is one of the most sought-after tenors of his generation.

He appears at the world’s leading international opera houses, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris National Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Zurich Opera House, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the New National Theatre Tokyo and the Salzburg Festival.

His most important roles include the title roles in Pelléas et Mélisande, Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito, as well as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Lurciano (Ariodante) and Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites).

In the 2026/27 season, he will appear in several performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, including with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Daniele Gatti, the Israel Philharmonic under Lahav Shani and the Copenhagen Philharmonic under Marc Minkowski. Another highlight will be his planned recording of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Kent Nagano. In August 2027, he will appear at the Vienna State Opera as Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

His 2025/26 season included engagements such as the title role in Pelléas et Mélisande at Teatro alla Scala, as well as the title role in Idomeneo in Luxembourg and at the Vienna State Opera. He also performed Don Ottavio with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Budapest, Vicenza and Baden-Baden. On the concert platform, he appeared in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Schumann’s Der Rose Pilgerfahrt in Basel and Handel’s Messiah at Neuchâtel Cathedral. He also sang the role of Haman in a recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s opera Esther for the Pentatone label.

During the 2024/25 season, he performed, among other engagements, the title role in La clemenza di Tito under Tomáš Netopil in Geneva and the title role in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Paris National Opera. On the concert platform, he appeared in Schoenberg’s Jakobsleiter under Ingo Metzmacher at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and in Berlioz’s Messe solennelle in Bern. He also performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Sir John Eliot Gardiner on tour in Ferrara, Bologna and Milan, as well as Bach’s Mass in B minor at the Verbier Festival. For the jpc label, he recorded the tenor part in Hugo Alfvén’s Symphony No. 4 under the musical direction of Lukasz Borowicz.

His 2023/24 season began with the continuation of a tour by the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the direction of Iván Fischer, with performances in several Italian cities, Budapest and at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, where Bernard Richter appeared in the title role of Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande. Following the great success of the new production of Les Dialogues des Carmélites at the Vienna State Opera in the previous season, in which Bernard Richter performed the role of Chevalier de la Force, he was invited back for the revival in January 2024. Another highlight was a new production of La clemenza di Tito under the musical direction of Ádám Fischer at the Hamburg State Opera, in which he appeared as the Roman emperor Tito.

Among the major successes of his career are engagements as Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Tokyo; Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Idomeneo and the title role of Schubert’s Fierrabras at Teatro alla Scala in Milan; his debut at the Royal Opera House in London as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte); a new production of Ariodante at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, in which he performed the role of Lurciano; and his debut at Teatro Real Madrid in the title role of La clemenza di Tito.

Pelléas is one of the most important roles in his repertoire. Bernard Richter has performed the role at the Vienna State Opera, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, the Opéra de Lyon and with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. His repertoire also includes roles such as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Des Grieux (Manon), Hylas (Les Troyens), Bénédict (Béatrice et Bénédict), Erik (Der fliegende Holländer), Froh (Das Rheingold), Camille de Rossillon (Die lustige Witwe), Fritz (La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein), Paris (La Belle Hélène), Alphonse de Monza in Ferdinand Hérold’s Zampa, as well as the title roles in Lully’s Atys, Lucio Silla and Mitridate.

In addition to his work on the world’s leading opera stages, Bernard Richter is also a sought-after concert singer. In 2023, he gave several concerts in Rome and Turin under the direction of Daniele Gatti, performing Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Lobgesang. Most recently, he appeared at the Brucknerhaus Linz in Frank Martin’s oratorio Golgotha under the musical direction of Markus Poschner. Other highlights of his extensive concert career include Haydn’s The Creation under Zubin Mehta at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence, Beethoven’s Mass in C major under William Christie in Madrid, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in St Petersburg under Teodor Currentzis and with the Vienna Symphony under Philippe Jordan, as well as performances with Les Musiciens du Louvre at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival.

He regularly collaborates with orchestras including the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and the Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester in Stockholm. He has also appeared at major concert venues and festivals such as the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Tonhalle Zurich, styriarte Graz, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Vienna Konzerthaus.

His opera and concert engagements have brought Bernard Richter together with many of the leading conductors of our time, including Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, William Christie, Ádám Fischer, Kent Nagano, Marc Minkowski, Jeffrey Tate, Ivor Bolton, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Marriner, Sylvain Cambreling, Peter Schneider, Iván Fischer and Raphaël Pichon. He has worked with directors including Laurent Pelly, Christof Loy, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Keith Warner, Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau, Jean-Marie Villégier, Christophe Honoré, Zabou Breitman and Kasper Holten.

After studying voice in his hometown in Switzerland, he joined the Biel Opera Studio, from where he launched his international career.