PRESS

OPERA NEWS
On the Beat by Brian Kellow

"Some years ago, when bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs came offstage after singing in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation gala, Thomas Hampson reached out and shook his hand. "You've got a lot of courage," said Hampson. "I'd never have been able to sing with that front row." Mobbs looked out and spotted Robert Merrill and Sherrill Milnes in the audience. "You never know who's going to be there," Mobbs says.

"Or what, for that matter. Last summer, while he was singing in Tancredi with Eva Podles and Georgia Jarman, a frog landed on the room of the Caramoor tent and stayed there, adding its own Rossini embellishments throughout the first act. "Ewa had a great night, Georgia had a great night, and so did the frog," says Mobbs. "Michael Barrett [Caramoor's artistic director] climbed up on the roof at intermission and got rid of it." (Next month, Mobbs returns to Caramoor as Ferrando in Il Trovatore.)

"In the beginning of his career, Mobbs was primarily a high lyric baritone, but now he's moving into heavier bel canto roles. He's definitely a talent to watch... So far, he's taken a few career bumps with good humor: "I did Il Viaggio a Reims [at NYCO] and got the second-to-last bow, and somehow the editor cut me out of the review. I'm starting to learn that that's part of my job as a lower-voiced singer. It's about the sopranos and tenors!"

Still, he remains happy with his choice of a career, and he plans to make it last a long time. "I was thinking about that this year, when Alan Arkin won the Oscar. He hadn't been nominated for thirty-eight years, but he just kept working. Good guys don't always finish last. At least, that's what I'm hoping."