Richard Crawley
Tenor
Richard Crawley will join the rosters of the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 2010-11 season. In the Fall of 2010 he will sing his first Canio in I Pagliacci with Portland Opera, and in the summer of 2011 he will debut at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in the title role of Lohengrin. During the current season, Mr. Crawley stepped in with only 6 days' notice to learn and perform the title role of d'Indy's Fervaal at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra, to high acclaim. The New York Times stated he "gave a heroic performance. Mr. Crawley, clearly a quick study, has a healthy, pleasing and robust voice." He recently performed a similar feat not just once, but twice - first, when he learned and performed the title role of Mascagni's Il Piccolo Marat at Avery Fisher with Teatro Grattacielo, with only two weeks' notice. The New York Times said then of his singing: "As Marat, the tenor Richard Crawley sang with power and urgency..." He then also stepped in on short notice to learn and perform Enée in Les Troyens at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg with Maestro Gergiev conducting. He again was lauded for that effort, with ConcertoNet saying that he "firmly nailed all the scary high notes without yelling or shrieking, a major feat."
Recent engagements for Mr. Crawley have included Cavaradossi in Tosca (opposite Carol Vaness) with the San Francisco Opera, as well as additional engagements with San Francisco Opera to cover the title role in Otello, Pollione in Norma, Luigi in Il Tabarro, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Lenksi in Eugene Onegin, and supporting roles in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre and Adams' Dr. Atomic. He also performed Don José in Carmen opposite Denyce Graves in Athens, Greece; Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut and Don José with Hawaii Opera Theatre; Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana with Toledo Opera; Verdi's Requiem with Dayton Philharmonic; a critically acclaimed Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Chautauqua Opera as well as Dayton Opera; Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera with Opera Santa Barbara; Cavaradossi in Tosca with Hawaii Opera Theatre; the title role of Faust at Portland Opera; his role debut as Otello with the Oakland East Bay Symphony; Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Hong Kong Symphony; and highlights of Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame and Eugene Onegin fully staged with the Sacramento Opera.
Career highlights include performances with Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Atlanta Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Tulsa Opera, Opera Colorado, Lake George Opera, Syracuse Opera and Augusta Opera; in such roles as Don José in Carmen, Luigi in Il Tabarro, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Sam Polk in Susannah, the Steuermann in Der Fliegende Holländer, the title role in Faust, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Narraboth in Salome, Alfredo in La Traviata, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Alfred in Die Fledermaus and the Marquis in Lortzing's Zar und Zimmermann.
Also an accomplished orchestral soloist, Mr. Crawley has performed Handel's Messiah with the New Japan Philharmonic and the Tokyo Oratorio Society, as well as at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He has sung Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony; Mendelssohn's Paulus with the New Japan Philharmonic; the Evangelist/Tenor in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica; Haydn's Harmonie Messe with the Syracuse Symphony; Haydn's The Creation with Baltimore Choral Arts Society; Bach's b minor Mass with Handel Choir of Baltimore; the Evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Concert Artists of Baltimore; and the Mozart Requiem with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and also at Carnegie Hall.