Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey produced large and gleaming tone and displayed subtle musical and verbal intelligence. He is an altogether exceptional artist.” – Boston Globe

OF MICE AND MEN (Lennie Small)

San Diego Opera

“Anthony Dean Griffey, celebrated for his Lennie in New York, proved a powerful singer and actor.” “He has presence and a tenor that is pure, sweet and clarion.”

Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, February 15, 1999

“And once you see and hear San Diego Opera’s exceptional new production, you may forget that Of Mice and Men was anything other than an opera. Or that anyone ever portrayed the character of Lennie as superbly as tenor Anthony Dean Griffey.” “Best of all, tenor Griffey reprises his role as the mentally disabled farm worker who’s part brute, and part sensitive soul. It’s a showcase part, a definitive portrayal. And Griffey proves himself a singing actor of rare quality. He used his large frame to fine advantage, hulking like a titanic toddler, or wringing his hands with compulsive anxiety. Meanwhile, his singing was wonderfully focused and unforced, smoothing soaring into falsetto for tenderly expressive passages.”

Valerie Scher, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 15, 1999

“Anthony Dean Griffey has already made an indelible impression on audiences and critics at Glimmerglass and the New York City Opera. As Lennie Small – the half-wit giant, small in mind but great in uncontrollably brute strength – Griffey is perfection.”
“He turns his sheer physical presence into a grotesque portrait of a leering, finger-sucking village idiot. Yet, – oh the humanity! You really felt it. And the man has a gorgeous lyric tenor voice to boot.”

David Gregson, San Diego Magazine, February 14, 1999

“And once you see and hear San Diego Opera’s exceptional new production, you may forget that Of Mice and Men was anything other than an opera. Or that anyone ever portrayed the character of Lennie as superbly as tenor Anthony Dean Griffey.” “Best of all, tenor Griffey reprises his role as the mentally disabled farm worker who’s part brute, and part sensitive soul. It’s a showcase part, a definitive portrayal. And Griffey proves himself a singing actor of rare quality. He used his large frame to fine advantage, hulking like a titanic toddler, or wringing his hands with compulsive anxiety. Meanwhile, his singing was wonderfully focused and unforced, smoothing soaring into falsetto for tenderly expressive passages.”

Valerie Scher, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 15, 1999

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