Richard Martell

His career started in the 1950s. In 1955, he sang in Marseille and again 1962 in Carmen (see below). Martell sang in Bordeaux (1956), at La Scala (1975, Louise), in Monte Carlo (1958), San Francisco (1956, Tosca, Francesca da Rimini), Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1961, Faust, Siegmund).

He sang further in Lyon (1962), Brussels (1962, 1968, 1969), San Francisco (1964) und Vancouver (1965), Toulouse (1965 Siegmund, 1966 José).

He sang also in Bayreuth as Melot (1963), Siegmund (1968).

Martell also sang in Köln (1964), Wiener Staatsoper (1969) and in Boston (1970, Erik).

In 1964, he was part of the US premiere of Lady Macbeth Mtsenkogo uezda (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) in San Francisco.
Reference: Kutsch und Riemens

From a Carmen performance in Marseille:
Trouble was not long in coming. The lights were extinguished and then put on to reveal an eye-catching curtain by Buffet in somber tones – predominantly black, white, blue and ocher. The sets and costumes soon made it apparent that Buffet had succeeded in stripping the usual Frenchified elegance from the opera and restoring some of the wildness of Spain in the 1820s.

The 400 or so local opera connoisseurs perched at the top of the house began muttering as soon as tenor Martell sang his first line, started shouting when he nervously hit a clinker or two.

The vegetables began flying when Don José finished singing La fleur. Mezzo-soprano Resnik, unable to make her voice heard, regally glared at the connoisseurs in paradise and cried: "Silence!'' The swells in the orchestra shouted "Bravo, Carmen!" while the connoisseurs in paradise shouted "Behead her!" After four minutes, mezzo-soprano Resnik managed to quiet the gallery and proceed.

The hecklers obstinately showered the stage with leeks after the final curtain.