Leppard, Raymond John (1927– )

English conductor and musicologist. His imaginative reconstructions of Monteverdi and Cavalli operas did much to generate popular interest in early opera and to stimulate academic investigation of the performance implications of early music manuscript scores.

He studied at Cambridge and made his debut as a conductor in London in 1952. From 1960 he was a regular conductor of English Chamber Orchestra, and of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra 1973–80. He conducted Solomon at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in 1959 and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne, East Sussex, in 1964. This was the first of several realizations of Venetian opera, all of which attracted negative scholarly comment for making too many transpositions, having too much music from other sources, and instrumental parts realized in too lavish a manner. However, Leppard's versions of Monteverdi, and of Cavalli's L'Ormindo, La Calisto, L'Egisto, and Orione have been popular with the public. Leppard also produced Monteverdi's Ballo delle ingrate in 1958, and Cavalli's Messa Concertata. He made his US concert debut in New York in 1969, his opera debut in Santa Fe in 1974 with Egisto, and his New York Metropolitan Opera House debut in 1978 with Billy Budd. He has been based in the USA since 1976, being principal guest conductor of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1984 and of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1986.