Richard Croft

Tenor

Tenor Richard Croft is internationally renowned for his performances with leading opera companies and orchestras around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Opera National de Paris, Berlin Staatsoper, the Salzburg Festival, and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. His clarion voice, superlative musicianship, and commanding stage presence allow him to pursue a wide breadth of repertoire from Handel and Mozart, to the music of today’s composers.

Operatic highlights of Mr. Croft’s past seasons include; Captain Vere in Billy Budd for Deutsche Oper Berlin; Handel’s Jeptha directed by Claus Guth and conductor Ivor Bolton at Dutch National Opera; Idomeneo with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa;  the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Teatro alla Scala, Theater an der Wien, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Ravinia Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Mozarteum’s Mozartwoche in Salzburg; Hyllus in Handel’s Hercules at the Canadian Opera Company and Lyric Opera of Chicago; Jupiter in Handel’s Semele at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Captain Vere in Britten’s Billy Budd at Los Angeles Opera; the title role in La Clemenza di Tito with the Wiener Staatsoper; Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante with the San Francisco Opera; Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Seattle Opera; Ubaldo in Haydn’s Armida and the title role of Mozart’s Mitridate at the Salzburg Festival; Mamud in Vivaldi’s La Verità in Cimento with Opernhaus Zürich; and M. K. Gandhi in a new production of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera, which was broadcast on the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series to movie theatres around the world.

During the 2017/18 season, Mr Croft performed Tito in the critically acclaimed Glyndebourne production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at Glyndebourne directed by Claus Guth, with Robin Ticciati leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The run of performances concluded with a semi-staged performance at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms. The 2018/19 season saw Mr. Croft in the role of Mamud in La verità in cimento at Opernhaus Zürich. Mr Croft’s 2019/20 engagements include; a stage production of the Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Messiah at Salzburg Mozartwoche with Les Musiciens du Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski and directed by Bob Wilson.

Recent symphonic engagements include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Berlin Philharmonic; Handel’s Messiah with the Singapore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Theater an der Wien; Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Milwaukee Symphony; Berlioz’s Te Deum with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Idomeneo with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, which was recorded and released by Harmonia Mundi; Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Festival; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Croft has been Grammy-nominated for his recordings of Handel’s Hercules with Anne Sophie von Otter (Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv) and Scarlatti’s Il Primo Omicidio with Dorothea Roshmann (Harmonia Mundi). Other recordings with Deutsche Grammophon include Handel’s Ariodante and the Paris version of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, both with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. For Erato, he has recorded Handel’s Theodora with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. On Phillips Classics, he has been featured on Rameau’s Les Indes Gallantes from the Paris Opera and as Almaviva from the Netherlands Opera in Dario Fo’s production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He can also be heard on Querstand Records performing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Gewandhausorchester under Herbert Blomstedt. His performance in Peter Sellars’ critically-acclaimed production of Theodora from Glyndebourne has been released on DVD, as has his performance in the title role of Mozart’s Mitridate with the Salzburg Festival (Decca).

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