“Thomas’s entrance had ringing authority, immediately establishing Otello’s primacy. But there was no harshness; Thomas succeeded in keeping Otello a lyrical tenor role.”
Gordon Williams, Opera Wire, Title role in OTELLO
With a “heroically shining tone of exceptional clarity and precision” (Opera Magazine) and “gorgeously burnished power” (New York Times), American tenor Russell Thomas uses his signature elegance and intensity to create vivid character portrayals on the world’s most important stages.
The 2019/20 season features Mr. Thomas’s much-anticipated role debuts in a trio of important Verdi roles. He opens the season with his first Don Alvaro in a new Frank Castorf production of La forza del destino at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and subsequently makes his role and house debuts as Radames in Houston Grand Opera’s new Phelim...
“The fervency and emotional commitment of Thomas’s interpretation proved fiercely effective…. The ardor he expressed for Leonora in “Ah si, ben mio, coll’essere” and the heat he generated in the vocally daunting “Di quella pira” underscored the stature of his work. Here was a tenor who didn’t so much act the role of the doomed lover Manrico as inhabit it.”
Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, Manrico in IL TROVATORE
