“Richard Croft’s off-stage Quint is eerily seductive.… The whole is a musical feast and an understated provocation.”
Shirley Apthorp, The Financial Times
“Richard Croft’s off-stage Quint is eerily seductive.… The whole is a musical feast and an understated provocation.”
Shirley Apthorp, The Financial Times
“Mr. Croft gives an outstanding portrayal of the ruler incapable of action while deploying his velvety tenor with regal stylishness. His delivery of the challenging ‘Fuor del mar’ is technically stunning, yet the aria emerges as the recognizable product of a tormented soul.”
George Looomis, The New York Times
“Richard Croft is everything you could want, combining emotional depth with musical refinement and precisely the vocal agility the part demands.”
Shirley Apthorp, The Financial Times
“The tenor Richard Croft brought aching poignancy to the role of Gandhi.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
“The first impression is of simple beauty: a tenor voice, cushioned by the ebb and flow of repeating cadences from the orchestra… Croft gave himself utterly to Gandhi, investing the role with a fitting, radiant simplicity… The final act is a masterpiece of the power of simplicity.”
Anne Midgette, The Washington Post
“Richard Croft had deepened his already profound Gandhi, singing with a beauty befitting Monteverdi: this was surely some of the most gorgeous male vocalism in recent Met decades.”
David Shengold, Opera Magazine
“Richard Croft’s multi-layered reading of the Captain skillfully blended the assumptions of class privilege with both an awareness of his weakness as a leader and his aspirations toward a more humane society. His abandonment of Billy was unquestionably a betrayal — of the sailor and of himself.”
Simon Williams, Opera News
“Richard Croft gave an indelible performance as Gandhi, his fine-grained tenor at once fragile and commanding–limitless power within a slender frame.”
Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“Richard Croft confirmed himself the world’s leading interpreter of the title role in a glorious Ravinia debut.”
“And at a long evening’s end, when the American tenor Richard Croft cast a neo-Wagnerian spell, he did so to offer guidance for enriching the wayward world that we were about to reenter… Croft’s Verdian rapture and Mozartian purity were just the beginnings of his creation of an imagined character.”
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
“Richard Croft is everything you could want, combining emotional depth with musical refinement and precisely the vocal agility the part demands.”
Shirley Apthorp, The Financial Times
“Friday’s opening performance (a Sunday matinee also was offered) was dominated by Croft’s towering performance as Idomeneo. A deeply expressive singer and a compelling stage presence, the American tenor caught the heroic, tragic dimension of his role. In his big showpiece aria in the second act, ‘Fuor del mar,’ he made each embellishment speak volumes about the terrible emotional conflicts raging within the king.”
Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein