Critical Acclaim

Reviews for 'Tosca' at English National Opera

Wall Street Journal
Amanda Echalaz shows Tosca's pathological jealousy as the key that makes Scarpia's (the wonderfully gloating Anthony Michaels-Moore) treachery work.

Music OMH
Anthony Michaels-Moore was suitably oleaginous as Scarpia – his rounded bass-baritone had no problem riding the first act Te Deum.

Financial Times
Anthony Michaels-Moore makes more of Scarpia than a caricature villain.

Daily Telegraph
Anthony Michaels-Moore was a plausibly saturnine and incisive Scarpia.

The Times
Anthony Michaels-Moore slithers around Scarpia’s oleaginous threats with gruesome flair.

The Independent
And Anthony Michaels-Moore’s Scarpia – whose black-caped entourage swoop down on the church choristers in act one like malevolent birds of prey (nice touch) and thereafter remain a sinister presence – does exactly what it says on the tin: he is obsequiously, sadistically, loathsomely mellifluous.
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Reviews for 'Falstaff' in Paris Feb 2010

concertonet.com - Giuseppe Verdi : Falstaff

forumopera.com - Falstaff

I Hear Voices - Falstaff, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

Kulturkompasset - Excellent Falstaff in Paris

Utmisol - Falstaff en majesté !
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Reviews for 'Simon Boccanegra ' at the Liceu Barcelona Jan 2009

'Opera ' magazine
Anthony Michaels-Moore gave a dignified portrayal of the Genoa Doge.

ABC magazine Edicion Cataluna
Ese gran artista que es Anthony Michaels-Moore se entrego por entero al personajo de Boccanegra, proyectando bondad y fortaleza.

AVUI Catalan
Puntuals senyals de fatiga no van afectar gaire la bona impressio del Simon d'Anthony Michaels-Moore, mes flexible en el fraseig a mesura que el protaganista s'acostava a la seva hora final.

El Punt
Tambe es va reconeixer preferentment el treball del bariton angles Anthony Michaels-Moorte, concentrat i convincent en la interpretacio del protagonista.

La Vanguardia
Como Simon se defendio bien Anthony Michaels-Moore, aunque en la gran escena concertante del fin primer acto acuso un cierto grado de fatiga, que superbo muy bien en la segunda parte, donde canto mejor.
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Nabucco, Verdi Festival

Parma/Reggio d'Emilia
'Opera' magazine Oct 2008
In a festival strong in baritones, Anthony Michaels-Moore offered a distinguished , richly-sung account of the title role, reaching its dramatic peak in Nabucco's simple but eloquent prayer to Jehovah in the final act.
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Falstaff, Santa Fe Festival

'Opera News' 2008
To stage Falstaff is a perilous undertaking. Drop one stitch, and the whole fabric is liable to unravel. Sadly, there were errors galore in the Santa Fe production (seen July 29), when half the cast seemed stricken with vocal troubles. Only Anthony Michaels-Moore, whose Falsaff was a genial Lord of Misrule, was a pleasure to listen to.

'Opera' magazine
Anthony Michaels-Moore offered a well-characterized, good-naturedly orthodox account of the title role.
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La Forza del destino, Berlin Staatsoper

'Opera News' 2005
Anthony Michaels-Moore contributed a fascinating, powerful Don Carlo di Vargas.
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Peter Grimes recording, LSO Live

'Opera News'
Nov 2004
Anthony Michaels-Moore makes a fine, firm Balstrode, his burly baritone well matched to the role.
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Lucia di Lammermoor, Met

'Opera News' 2003
As Enrico, Anthony Michaels-Moore probably would have sent 'em home happy had he done nothing more than "stand and deliver." But he, too, dug beneath the surface, solicitous -- even seductive -- as he pressed on Lucia the forged proof of Edgardo's infidelity, then turning on her viciously when she resisted him. Michaels-Moore set the rafters shaking with his "Cruda, funesta smania" (an imposing, if unsubtle, bit of singing) and never looked back from there, his sound fabulously healthy and his grasp of Donizetti style faultless
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Un Ballo in Maschera, Pittsburgh

'Opera News' 2002
The evening's best singing came from baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore, who must surely possess one of the most gorgeous voices on the opera stage today. His sound has real presence, and its honeyed opulence dominated every scene in which he appeared. "Eri tu" was predictably a highlight (though the singer's energy level flagged just a little near the end), and elsewhere he commanded the stage as a multi-sided figure torn between anger and sorrow.
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Anthony as Jack Rance in 'La Fanciciulla del West' in Miami

The Herald
Wednesday November 16 2005 :
British baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore was a rough-hewn Sheriff Jack Rance, bringing dignity to a role often played as a stereotypical villian. The chemistry between Blancke-Biggs and Michaels-Moore lit up the stage. Michaels-Moore's dark, imposing sound rang out with stentorian power but also produced the most exquisite, dulcet pianissimos.

El Nuevo Herald - translation by Guillermo Alonso
November 19 2005:
Returning to the subject of the voices, there is nothing to reproach. Anthony Michaels-Moore, as the sheriff Jack Rance, practically steals the evening, not only because of his impeccable baritone but because he is a very convincing actor. He is one of the best of them.

Miami Newtimes
November 17-23 2005 :
Perhaps best of all was Anthony Michaels-Moore as Jack Rance: The British baritone made a fine American sheriff and his powerful tone, superb breath support and impeccable Italian diction made a persuasive case for the genius of Puccini.

Diario Las Americas - Ariel Remos - translation by Guillermo Alonso
November 19 2005:
The baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore possesses a well defined timbre in a seamless voice that delights as it moves through its registers. His duets with the soprano were excellent throughout.
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Anthony as Macbeth at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

The Times /
Friday June 14 2002
Anthony Michaels-Moore voice seems to be growing month by month; what was once a warm-toned, essentially lyric instrument is now powerful and heroic, with a really dark edge when needed, which it sometimes is for Verdi's Macbeth. Yet he retains his sense of musical line and legato, his elegance of phrase. His account of the big aria gave protagonist a nobility, a tragic dimension not easy to conjure up without a little music to help.

www.musicalamerica.com :
British baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore is a truly magnificent Macbeth, his voice strong, rounded, controlled. He really gets inside the role, and so convincingly portrays a weak man whose misgivings claw at his naked greed for power.

What's On
June 25 2002
Anthony Michaels-Moore's Macbeth proves once again what a major operatic star he is, managing to capture both the power of the king and the vulnerability of being his Lady's husband.

Evening Standard
14 June 2002
The British baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore charted with impressive veracity and no hint of excess the course of Macbeth's mental collapse. He has rare musical subtlety which carried through to every physical gesture.

The Guardian
Saturday 15 June 2002
At the centre, however, is a towering performance of the title role from Anthony Michaels-Moore. We first meet him sauntering back from battle, an elated smile on his face, pausing casually, in a moment of chilling prescience, to wash the blood of victory off his hands at a roadside standpipe.
Shugging off his vision of the dagger, he strides into Duncan's room with vaunting self-confidence, only to return shaking with nausea, the knowledge of his own moral destruction palpably written across his face.
Vocally he's outstanding - beautifully virile, yet anguished and reflective.

The Independent on Sunday
23 June 2002
In the title role, Anthony Michaels-Moore captures the irresolvable regret at the centre of Lloyd's argument. His lean legato cuts through the textures like a warm knife through butter, his top notes burning like a brazier. More significantly, his vulnerability suprises; adding suspense to the inevitable, brutal tragedy.
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Anthony as Iago in 'Othello' at Glyndebourne

Opera
October 2005
It was left to Anthony Michaels-Moore as a frighteningly plausible, subtly insinuating Iago to show what can be made of the text. He now has the part wholly at his command, dramatically and vocally (his attention to Verdi's dynamic details was admirable). I have never heard him sing better.

The Sunday Telegraph
July 29 2001
..it is rare to encounter so accomplished a portrayal of this villian as that by Anthony Michaels-Moore, sung with smooth and velvety tone. This is a suave, plausible, self-confident Iago who sings his evil Credo with his feet on Othello's desk, stretching his arms casually above his head as he reaches his final "Heaven is an old fable" (Evecchia fola il ciel) and later smirking at the audience as he plants his foot on Othello's prone body at the end of Act 3. In Michaels-Moore insinuating singing of "Era la notte" we heard this baritone at the top of his form.
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Anthony as Gerard in 'Andrea Chenier' in Scotland and Buenos Aires

The Scotsman
Friday 18 March 2005
But it was Anthony Michaels-Moore's unflinching engagement as the confused Gerard that stole the show. It was immense in stature and the most convincingly portrayed.

Clarin
Domingo 23 de junio de 1996
En una noche poco afortunada, fue el personaje descollante. El barítono inglés Anthony Michaels-Moore brilló por su apostura y empaque escénico y por sus virtudes vocales, reveladas desde el principio, hasha culminar en su notable versión de Nemico della patria y el aria Un dí m"ers di gioia, de generoso despliegue vocal, sin inútiles desbordes ni excesos expresivos. Michaels-Moore promete ser una gran Yago en Otello, de Verdi, y al salir del escenario dijo a Clarín que en poco tiempo abordará el Macbeth verdiano, algo que valdría la pena ver pronto en Buenos Aires. En el poco simpático rol de Gérard recibió la única -y muy justa- ovación de la noche. De villano a héroe, sin escalas.

Buenos Aires Herald
Wednesday July 17 1996
Anthony Michaels-Moore (debut), is a real talent. He invests everything he does with a vital sense of drama and he has a beautiful baritone, full and even in all registers, produced with ease and quality. His best years lie ahead but in his nine-year career he has been versatile and successful. The public knew the difference and he was the only one to get an ovation, after his intense aria Nemico della patria.