The baritone Richard Cross had a flourishing operatic career from the late 1950s to the 1990s. Born in 1935, he studied at Cornell College before making his début at the first Spoleto Festival of 1958 in the world première of Lee Hoiby’s The Scarf. Impressed, Menotti invited him to sing the rôle of Donato in Maria Golovin, for which he won a Theatre World Award after its Broadway première. Between 1960 and 1965 Cross sang with numerous opera companies throughout the United States, opposite artists of the calibre of Joan Sutherland, before joining the Frankfurt Opera, where he was active between 1966 and 1979. In 1974 he sang the title part in Verdi’s Falstaff at Glyndebourne, followed by Sir Morosus in Richard Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau in 1977. He returned to the United States as a member of the New York City Opera from 1979 to 1984. Subsequently he undertook a number of challenging rôles such as Moses in the New York City Opera’s 1990 production of Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. He continues to be active as a voice teacher in New York.

© David Patmore