I first saw this on a jumbo screen in one of the city squares of Salzburg. Richard Croft instantly became my favorite tenor of all time. What an incredible instrument, and such heart-felt performing. It's a shame we don't see him more often. I own this DVD and the entire show is incredible. The girl who plays Sifare could make stones weep.
I have listened most critically to tenors for 40 years. I'm astounded that Bruce Ford is not a household name in US operatic audience. I'm equally taken by Richard Ford. This piece is a beast and I know it intimately and find Croft's singing of it much to be admired. Ford has more weight up top, but this Mozart piece doesn't demand that for a full characterization. So either voice I would pay to hear....
It's nearly impossible to not sound strained singing such an unforgiving tenor role, but it's amazing how Croft braves it with such flair, especially the first couple of arias. Bravo!
Commoventissimo il re Mitridate che piange ritrovando la patria dopo essere stato sconfitto ! Bellissima interpretazione. Grazie, grazie !! Bravo Croft !
Also, 14 years after this 2006 production, I’m STILL in absolute awe at tho how ingeniously Mark Minkowski incorporated K.444 into the end of this scene...
This has to be one of the best simple songs ever written. Croft is famous for his flexibility. His "Fuor del Mar" from Idomeneo is sensational. He has tremendous facility in fioratura. But none of that is used here. This aria unlike the female parts of Miradate has no fioratura. Mozart wrote this when he was fourteen, The cast apparently were upset that a kid was the composer. The tenor d'Ettore bullied the young genius. d'Ettore as it happened couldn't do fioratura but he could do big leaps. Mozart wrote him this lovely song with no little notes but giant leaps. If Croft had been around this aria would probably have been more conventionally florid. Mozart wrote music that was often too difficult for anyone but the best singers alive. So he wrote also simpler tunes. Many of those pieces written for limited singers are among his greatest masterworks. Of course the historical Mithridates the Great was a monster and war criminal but Mozart's noble music makes him into a saint.
Nobody ever seems to mention the shocking fact that Mozart wrote this opera when he was 14 years old. They're all too concerned with who sings it "the best."
Se di lauri il crine adorno, Fide spiaggie a voi non torno, Tinto almen non porto il volto Di vergogna e di rossor. Anche vinto, ed anche oppresso Io mi serbo ognor li stesso E vi reco in petto accolto Sempre eguale il mio gran cor.
First of all, it's the sound a singer makes while singing that's important.. Second, when performing in a less-than-gigantic hall, especially with period instruments, throat articulations are historically correct. Third, he's been singing that way for 20 years or more, and still sounds the same as when he started, so he must be doing _something_ right. Of course, it doesn't hurt that as opera singers go, he's also one of the best actors out there.
Agree with you. Ford and Winbergh are wonderful. I also adore Croft's beautiful voice, but this not at his best, I think. Like you say still one of the best ones.
Sorry to have missed your comment. I'm not sure what you mean, bad juju, but I agree about his longevity and technique. Far too many "stars" let their success in other roles push them into attempting material that is a strain and ultimately damaging to their voices. (Thos Hampson comes to mind.) Crofts has had plenty of challenging and beautiful roles without doing so; Mithridate is a cool "niche" he's established. Opinion is just that; without detracting from any other, he's still my favourite.
Si se tiene una bella voz y buen gusto sobra potencia. Dicho de otro modo: la potencia y la técnica son un complemento cuando hay buen gusto y bella voz. En su caso está todo. Lo esencial y el complemento. En muchos sólo una parte.
Faithful shores, if I do not return to you crowned with laurels, at least I do not carry a face flushed with shame and disgrace. Even defeated and oppressed I remain always the same, and I bring to you as ever a big heart in my breast.
Well, with all this bad technical juju, the amazing thing is that he still sounds just as fabulous as he did some 20 years ago; see the Drottningholm production of La Finta Giardiniera. I think the trick is that he's stuck to lyric roles instead of pushing all the way to dramatic as he clearly could have if he'd wanted to.
Notice how Mr Croft tilts his head back (esp the cadences,) and "bites" the notes and words clearly, as opposed to the smoother (and far less-enunciated) performance of Bruce Ford. I think Croft gives the best rendition here, emotionally and "by the notes," although Ford's phrasing and ornamentation are in some ways better. Gosta Winbergh's long phrases are exciting in themselves, but I like Croft's clarity and diction best.
The amount of tension in this guy's face and neck is crazy....watch his jaw and neck muscles twitch in time with his vibrato. Thins out on top and bottom(with an odd Kermit the frog edge to the voice on the bottom)....and he aspirates the fioratura. He has a good sense of the style and phrasing, but doesn't have the breath control to pull it off. It's not a bad voice.....but it certainly is wanting in comparison to Ford or Blake(though the voice is more pleasant than Blake's by a fair bit).
