Confidence.

"Without it a singer wouldn't succeed," says tenor Richard Leech, who is enjoying a long and successful career. "If I didn't have confidence, I wouldn't be here talking with you right now.

	Tenor Richard Leech says Canio in "Pagliacci" is a heavy dramatic role that wouldn't have fit him 20 years ago, but "I'm ready now." Click photo for larger image. 'Pagliacci' Presented by: Pittsburgh Opera, featuring Richard Leech, Mary Mills Where: Benedum Center, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Tuesday; 8 p.m. Oct. 20; 2 p.m. Oct. 22. Tickets: $16.50-$130.50; 412-456-6666.

It's been 20 years since Leech, then a promising artist of 29, had his first Post-Gazette interview. Poised to sing Gounod's "Faust" in Heinz Hall, he was beaming with confidence, and he has more than fulfilled the promise.

At that time, Leech was being advised and pressured by agents to take a European audition tour, the usual move for a singer of his age and career level. But unlike most American singers, the tenor from Binghamton, N.Y., was being nurtured by a regional company -- Tri-Cities Opera -- in his own back yard. His teachers were there, and he was getting much-needed experience at home.

"I canceled the audition tour at the last moment," Leech explains. "I felt I didn't need to knock on doors in Europe. I was resenting what felt to me like starting all over again. The time had come that a young singer could get experience in the United States."

His confidence paid off. As it happened, the Deutsche Opera in what was then West Berlin offered him the part of Raoul in Meyerbeer's rarely performed "Les Huguenots" -- a gruelingly high role most tenors would shy away from.

"I sang a little of ['Huguenots'], and it fit me," he says. This led to more performances, including a French production that was recorded. (A later Berlin production is now available on DVD.) "This opened doors for me and paid for my audition trip." From then on Leech was in demand on both sides of the big pond.

He returned to Pittsburgh Opera several times after that, in "Rigoletto," (repeating the role of his 1986 debut), "La Boheme," "Tales of Hoffmann," "Mefistofele" and "A Masked Ball." His most recent appearance, however, was 11 years ago, in "Tosca."

"I was getting a withdrawal symptom for Pittsburgh," he quips. "I'm glad to be back."

Canio in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," which will open Friday in the Benedum Center, is a role debut for him. "It's a heavy dramatic role that wouldn't have fit me 20, even 10 years ago. I'm ready now," he proclaims.

"The most difficult thing about singing Canio is finding a way to keep the emotions of the character out of the vocal technique. You want the drama in the voice, but it's important not to get carried away."

His solution is what he calls "singing in the third person," keeping one's emotional distance. At the same time, he says that "honesty and communication" are the most important elements in good singing.

"Singing is not about the voice," is the rather startling way he puts it. "Assuming you have a voice, now you need to actually sing: to find a way to communicate, to say something meaningful, to get out of the way of the expression."

He compares vocal technique to taking a golf swing. "You do all the technical work in advance, but when it's time to sing, the best thing is to forget all that and just do it. I adore roles that are real, where the style of the piece doesn't impose itself on the drama. That's what the Italians call 'verismo.' It's living theater, not a museum piece."

The fact that "Pagliacci" contains one of opera's most famous arias -- "Vesti la giubba" -- makes the tenor feel "tied to history, to the great tenors of the past."

"I like to get an impression from listening to Jussi Bjoerling and Giuseppe Di Stefano," he says. He cites Youtube.com, where you can find a video of the legendary Enrico Caruso singing Canio's aria with the sound dubbed over it from one of Caruso's recordings.

Although the brief opera "Pagliacci" has traditionally been paired with Mascagni's one-act "Cavalleria Rusticana," Pittsburgh Opera will be doing Leoncavallo's work on its own (a scant 90 minutes without intermission). Leech's next new role will be Turiddu in "Cavalleria" -- first in San Diego, then Berlin. He doesn't plan, however, to take on these two strenuous works in a single evening.

With all his successes, Leech is proud to say he has been able to balance his career with real life.

"It's the biggest challenge," he says, "not to take it overly seriously, not to define yourself by the career and become a caricature of yourself, as some very famous opera singers have done. You have to ask yourself from time to time, 'Who are you?'

"I've always managed to keep [singing] as a job, to enjoy life, find new challenges, and keep having fun."

That too, takes confidence.