PRESS

THE NEW YORK TIMES
by Anthony Tommasini

"In order to be funny, even a good joke has to be told just right. This general principle applies to comic opera as well. And for musical felicities, comic vitality and sheer entertainment, Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia may be the funniest opera ever written... [Caramoor International Music Festival] conductor and vocal coach Will Crutchfield led an appealing cast and members of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in a semistaged performance of Il Barbiere using a new critical edition of the score, supervised by Philip Gossett.

"The freshest takes concerned the ornamentations of the vocal lines. Singers of Rossini's day were given enormous liberty to embellish melodic lines. Mr. Crutchfield has studied this aspect of the genre thoroughly, and the sometimes surprising embellishments his cast employed found a pleasing balance between long-spun lyricism and dazzling gymnastics... The baritone Daniel Mobbs was a robust, sassy Figaro...Mr. Crutchfield was able to make the score's many delicate passages come through with uncommon transparency."

DANIEL MOBBS RECEIVES KOLOZSVAR AWARD FROM NEW YORK CITY OPERA

New York City Opera has awarded Daniel Mobbs the Kolozsvar Award, recognizing his "memorable performance of multiple roles [in the Mark Morris production of Purcell's] King Arthur."

Each year, the City Opera honors selected artists who have contributed to its season by awarding a series of prizes. The winners are chosen by George Manahan, John Beeson, Cory Lippiello and Robin Thompson from a list of nominees. The awards themselves will be presented at a luncheon to be held at The Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street on April 15, 2008.

Established in 1995 by Mr. Marvin Kristein, the Kolozsvar Awards honor one artist from the fall season and one from the spring season who have performed in new or unusual repertory. In the words of Mr. Kristein: "Kolozsvar comes from Hungarian folklore and evokes a magical place — a utopia."

THE WASHINGTON POST
by Anne Midgette

"Also a convincing teen [in the Baltimore Opera production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette] was Daniel Mobbs, singing Mercutio with a firm baritone that made one sit up and take notice...He certainly enjoyed leaping around the stage in his tights."

THE VILLAGE VOICE
by Deborah Jowitt

"The fabulous New York City Opera production [of Purcell's King Arthur], directed and choreographed by Mark Morris, dispenses with the spoken text. Songs dealing with armed pursuit over treacherous terrain become a hunt for love with glow-worm flashlights, bantering couple dances, and a dizzying, deliberately clumsy vaudevillian game with doors and mirrors...I love the way Morris has intermingled his wonderful company members and the seven superb vocalists, and directed them to pay attention to one another. At times, singers join the dance, and dancers open their mouths in song...How could you not rejoice in the sight of bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs crammed into a refrigerator, his words jolting out, while soprano Mhairi Lawson struts about as Cupid, telling him love's a blessing, not something to freeze up over? How could you not laugh over the absurdity of Tall, Sanders, and countertenor Iestyn Davies folding laundry as they sing proudly of the importance of British wool? Or admire Morris's clever gestural equivalents to certain lyrics? And don't forget the giraffe and the duck and the phallo-patriotic maypole. Purcell's music — lovingly, teasingly, cleverly articulated — bears this barge of delights along. I need to see-hear King Arthur again right this minute."

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
by Heidi Waleson

"Mark Morris, the director/choreographer, jettisoned Dryden's spoken text [of Purcell's King Arthur] entirely, and the plot along with it, leaving an entertainment of singing and dancing that Mr. Morris calls "a vaudeville." And very entertaining it is...In the Frost Scene, soprano Mhairi Lawson was a bright-voiced, mischievous Cupid; she easily awakened bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs, who sang the shivers of the Cold Genius wonderfully, from his sleep in a refrigerator, and set off the hesitant, stomping movements of the blanket-shrouded Cold People."

VARIETY.COM
by Eric Myers

"Anyone expecting the Knights of the Round Table in director/choreographer Mark Morris' version of Henry Purcell's 1691 King Arthur at New York City Opera is in for a disappointment. Morris, who claims to dislike John Dryden's original libretto, dispenses with spoken dialogue and plot, giving us what he terms "a sort of vaudeville."...Standouts include two singers rapidly becoming local favorites. Bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs unfurls elegant, cavernous tones, and is amusing as the ship's captain and as the Cold Genius of Winter, trapped in a refrigerator before being freed by Cupid."

THE NEW YORK TIMES
by Anthony Tommasini

"Remember the days, before the coming of titling systems, when opera buffs felt free to ignore all the convoluted plots and librettos and just bask in the music? Mark Morris's unabashedly fanciful production of Purcell's King Arthur, which opened the spring season at the New York City Opera on Wednesday night, offers audiences a throwback to those times....There is a deservedly acclaimed scene in which the magician Osmond shows off his powers in a vision, a "Prospect of Winter in Frozen Countries." Here we see the sturdy and excellent baritone Daniel Mobbs, trapped inside a clunky old refrigerator, as snowflakes rain down on a group of dancers bundled up in flannel blankets. Surely the music was inspired by the charming "Shivering Chorus" in Lully's opera Isis. But Purcell outdoes Lully in this music, full of jagged rhythms, quivering vocal lines, sputtering string chords and boldly wandering harmonies."

THEATERMANIA.COM
by Eric Myers

"With Monty Python's Spamalot entering its third year on Broadway, and the New York Philharmonic getting ready to present Camelot, King Arthur is one popular fellow in New York these days....If Morris' ensemble of dancers are often the focus on the opera's staging, his singers not only hold their own, they happily play along with his sense of fun. For example, the silvery-voiced soprano Sarah Jane McMahon does a little juggling (clad in a gorgeous Mizrahi take on the little black dress), while the excellent baritone Daniel Mobbs not only crouches within that refrigerator, but in another section, sings clad only in a pair of white boxer shorts."

OPERA (UK)
by David Shengold

"Daniel Mobbs got (and deserved) a rousing hand after the opening scene [as Ferrando in Caramoor's production of Il Trovatore]: firm bass-baritone tone, all the gruppetti absolutely in place and the aria sung like a true narrative, with excellent diction and pointed phrasing."

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
by Jack Zink

"For most folks, the key to getting right a comic opera such as Mozart's Cosí fan tutte lies between the winks in the composer's colorful score. David Gately, however, was equally if not more concerned with the twinkles in Lorenzo Da Ponte's improbable story about two guys who make the mistake off getting what they wish for, setting women's liberation in motion 150 years before Betty Friedan's The Femininue Mystique...Gately directs the Florida Grand Opera's season opening production of "Cosi fan tutte," a smartly packaged comedy with an appealing vocal sextet...The driving comical forces — and in some respects the vocal gemstones — of the Florida Grand production are bass-bartiton Daniel Mobbs' youngish mischief-maker Don Alfonso and Suzanne Mentzer's impish maid Despina."

GAY CITY NEWS
by David Shengold

"High points in the month's NYCO revivals included — in a generally enjoyable Don Giovanni — a remarkably complete assumption, vocally and verbally, of Leporello by Daniel Mobbs (a handsome, polished vocalist deserving a run as Giovanni himself)..."

EDGE NEW YORK

"There are operas, and there are works of art, and then there's Don Giovanni. With an energetic young cast, an enthusiastic conductor facing a fine-toned orchestra, and Broadway-style razzmatazz direction, this production of Don Giovanni is a healthy reminder of why opera was once the pop music of its day...thanks to some great, physically deft singers (especially Daniel Mobbs' Leporello), we get a real sense of action... The singing was, for the most part, outstanding. As mentioned above, Daniel Mobbs is a deft Leporello. Even more, his voice has a nice timbre, and he seems especially suited to a comic role. ...this production is as good an introduction to the joys of Mozart as any you will find. Even the most hardened opera queen will take to this supple production of an opera by the composer who, more than any other, embodies the form. "

At right: Daniel Mobbs as Leporello in New York City Opera's "Don Giovanni"