Born in Ílhavo - Portugal, Ricardo has established himself over the last few years as an Award-winning versatile performer, with a repertoire ranging from the florid Baroque and Bel Canto roles to contemporary opera.

In the 2020 - 2021 season, despite the forced slowdown in activity due to the ongoing global pandemic, Ricardo recorded and released his first two albums: Berlin im Licht - A Kurt Weill Songbook, his debut album entirely dedicated to the Songs of Kurt Weill with the label of Artway Records, and Fernando Lopes Graça Songs and Folksongs (Naxos Classical), both with pianist Nuno Vieira de Almeida. Both albums have been welcomed with terrific reviews which you can read here.

In the 2018-2019 season Ricardo created the role of De Valletta, in Reuben Pace’s new opera City of Humanity, composed as part of ‘Malta European Culture Capital 2018’. He also returns to Opera Valladolid to sing his first Valentin in Gounod’s Faust.

As the winner of the baritone category of the 2018 Armel Opera Festival Singing Competition, Ricardo has been awarded the role of Leporello in a new production of Don Giovanni to be performed at the Teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz in Ecuador, and at the Palace of Music in Budapest in 2019. Following his performance of the role in the Hungarian capital, he also won the Best Performer Award of the 2019 Armel Opera Festival.

Previous seasons saw Ricardo debut to critical acclaim at his home country’s National Opera House in Lisbon, in Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmelites, directed by Luís Miguel Cintra and at London’s Opera Holland Park, as Masetto in Don Giovanni.

In 2018 he debuted with critically acclaimed performances of the title role in Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne at the English National Opera Lilian Baylis House, and Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon for Opera Valladolid, his Spanish debut. Ricardo also returned to the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, for a production of Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, and to Longborough Festival Opera to sing his first Ariadne auf Naxos.

Previous career highlights have included the London premieres of Saverio Mercadante’s Don Chisciotte at Leighton House Museum and of Federico Ruiz’s Los Martirios de Colón at the Southbank Centre. Equally at home in Opera, Oratorio and Recital, Ricardo has also performed, amongst others, for Wexford Festival Opera, Longborough Festival Opera and Casa da Música - Porto.

He regularly gives Lecture-Recitals at London’s Cadogan Hall, having recently completed a cycle of lectures where he researched and explored the impact of Censorship and Political Propaganda in Operatic Performance and Composition from the Baroque period through to the Second World War.

Ricardo is a two-time bursary recipient of The International Opera Awards Foundation, who have generously supported him between 2015 and 2016, and he would also like to acknowledge the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust who have provided invaluable support along the way.

Having started his musical studies with brazilian soprano Juracyara Baptista, Ricardo then continued studying at the University of Aveiro with portuguese bass-baritone António Salgado, before moving to London to work with Laura Sarti at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. After Guildhall, he furthered his studies at the Welsh International Academy of Voice with Dennis O'Neill and currently studies with Sherman Lowe.

Do not repost or reprint without permission. Please contact us for the most up to date version.