The show stands or falls with the casting of the title role. And Gera can consider itself fortunate to have found, in Jeff Stewart, a performer who is at home in Britten’s style. The Englishman is almost the ideal fit for the hero, and he gives a complex character image with the desired vehemence and inner despair. It was fascinating how Stewart nuanced, with his multi-faceted tenor, the diverse moods of Grimes, the lack of self control, drivenness, the social misunderstanding, but also a touching sensibility expression. He was able to convince both in arioso passages as well as the declamatory recitative style
Tatjana Mahner – Oper & Tanz
What you need, above all, to bring this opera to the stage, is a real Peter Grimes. And that’s the Englishman Jeff Stewart. His voice is perfect for Britten’s music. On top of that he comes from a singing culture that we on the continent find inseparable from Benjamin Britten’s life partner Peter Pears. Stewart is outstanding: A Grimes who leaves nothing to be desired in his portrayal of this exceptional role
Gahre – Das Opernglass
The casting of the title role with Jeff Stewart can be described as a stroke of luck, because he lived through and suffered the terrible fate of Peter Grimes in every gesture, in every tone. Everything he does is believable and psychologically understandable, even the terrible attacks on Ellen, the boy and the sanctimonious churchgoers
Ingeborg Kalkus – SVZ
A vocal and dramatic sovereign is Lenski. Sung with very well placed high notes and a cultivated technique by Jeffrey Stewart, who was recently a celebrated Edgardo at the Komische Oper, Berlin
Rainer Bessling – Foyer
Of the singers, the highlight of the evening was Jeffrey Stewart who clearly demonstrated the relationship between the joy of life and intellectualism, and vocally, with wonderful soft singing and a sculpted, ringing tenor, portrayed every aspect of this intoxication of love
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
…(his voice) worked splendidly with the searching tenor tone of Jeffrey Stewart as Nadir, who was outstanding in the aria Je Crois Entendre Encore.
Peter Kurz – SVZ
With remarkable intensity of acting, Jeffrey Stewart makes this new interpretation his own, and in so doing employs his tenor voice equally intelligently and effectively.
Reviews
Here are a few reviews which give you an idea of what people have thought of my work.
Peter Grimes – Gera
Dietrch Bretz – Der Neue Merker