The American tenor Brian Jagde is Pinkerton ... brilliant with a gleaming, radiant, elevated, open and engaging, warm voice. Bravo! Many tenors who perform in Hamburg should take an example from Mr. Jagde."
... nothing stands in the way of an extraordinary — indeed, flawless — young Anglo-American cast ... In fact, Wagner’s characters all feel human here ... Froh (the trumpeting Brian Jagde) ..."
... tenor Brian Jagde is in the trenches, battling to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of important American tenors epitomized by Richard Tucker. Jagde’s Pinkerton in WNO’s Madama Butterfly was a burst of raw virility ... his nuanced acting and superb singing transformed his Pinkerton from a hedonistic rake into a man sensitive enough to recoil from the blood on his conscience."
In February he was heard in "Adriana Lecouvreur" alongside Angela Gheorghiu at her 25-year London stage jubilee. Now the tenor presents himself for the first time to the audiences in Washington, Stuttgart and Madrid. A conversation about his path to the international stages ...
On this showing we should be offering him UK nationality. The young American's voice has grown in power and tonal beauty even in the short time that's elapsed since he sang Pinkerton here. Already a prodigious instrument, it has the potential for him to become one of the great modern tenors."
American tenor Brian Jagde has just made his return to the Royal Opera singing Maurizio in Sir David McVicar’s production of Adriana Lecouvreur. Two of his key roles in his career so far have been Don José in Carmen and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, which he’s performed from Berlin to Munich, from San Francisco to Washington.
Calaf in Puccini’s “Turandot”
Great respect! Most convincingly, his portrayal of Don José in the final act was a completely depressed man tormented by hopeless despair."