“Stuart Skelton, the Australian tenor, reprises the title role, though nothing about his forlorn, tousle-haired, lumbering interpretation is ever anything but fresh, visceral and masterly … [He] sings his pianissimo passages, notably the yearning “What harbour shelters peace”, with beauty and raw vulnerability.”
Fiona Maddocks
The Observer
“Britten wrote the title role, of course, for Peter Pears, though it’s hard (in my mind, at least) to see how Pears could have matched the full range, colour and lyrical turbulence of Aussie heldentenor Stuart Skelton. Since Pears, the other two great Grimes have been Jon Vickers and Philip Langridge, and Canning reckons Skelton is easily worthy of naming in the same company.
Britten himself didn’t much like Vickers in the role, probably because he was a bit too rough and hairy, rather as Skelton is. But Skelton’s soft singing, and his delicately signalled acting, is beyond praise. He manages to be both monster and booby, a damned soul, but a deeply touching lost one, too.”
Michael Coveney
What's On Stage
“The range of what Skelton does vocally across some of the trickiest transitional writing between head and chest voices is both remarkable and beautiful. His little arioso in the hut scene where he imagines “kindlier times” was truly bel canto for the Heldentenor. Every time Ellen was recalled, the softening of his whole demeanour made the pent-up anger unthinkable. Heartbreaking.”
Edward Seckerson
The Review
“Stuart Skelton’s portrayal of the anti-hero was again, without qualification, the best I have seen and heard. Skelton suggested that it is no luxury, but even a necessity, to have a Heldentenor in the role. There is no doubting the strength of his voice – his excellent Seattle Siegmund last summer offering further testimony to that – but just as impressive were the moments of hushed arioso (‘Now the Great Bear and Pleiades’) and all manner of colours and shades in between. “
Mark Berry
Seen and Heard International
“Australian tenor Stuart Skelton‘s Grimes is nothing short of stunning. I don’t mean ‘very, very good’ – I mean stunning, both vocally and dramatically. His portrayal of Peter as an angry, bewildered figure rather than a thuggish brute is, by turns, terrifying and heart-breaking. He chooses to give Grimes a physical, awkward naivety, casting him almost as an overgrown child himself, turning the screws even tighter in an opera where cruelty towards children is at the heart of the drama.”
Matt Hutchinson
The Arbuturian
“Skelton, singing with astonishing visceral intensity, is surely now the Grimes de nos jours. Not to be missed on stage.”
The Sunday Times
“Stuart Skelton has surely never been bettered as the hulking Grimes. He totally inhabits the role. His is a performance to treasure, as is the conducting of Edward Gardner, and the magnificent playing of his orchestra.”
David Mellor
The Mail on Sunday