Voice Professor Robin Buck was widely praised for his lead role in the recent Long Beach Opera production of Michael Nyman's 1986 opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

George M. Wallace of A Fool in the Forest wrote "Long Beach Opera has always emphasized engagement with the drama as much as the music in the operas it chooses to stage, and on that score the three LBO-veteran principals here are more or less perfectly cast… At the center of the production's success is baritone Robin Buck as Dr. P, the object of all our inquiries. Buck's Dr. P is a well of uncertainty, from which are drawn unexpected moments of beauty and confidence, as in the Dichterliebe excerpt or when P describes the bucolic riverside scene that he perceives in what is actually a photo of a parched desert. The fine vocal turn is supported by an equally nuanced, fully realized physical performance, centering particularly around the eyes.'

Things Not Seen [The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, 
Long Beach Opera], June 18, 2012

Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times added "David Schweizer's production (direction and sets) is straightforward, allowing the characters and their sentiments to be honestly and movingly expressed. The three singers are LBO regulars, and they are all excellent… Baritone Robin Buck is an elegant and musically eloquent Dr. P."

'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat': an opera about identity, June 17, 2012.

And Jim Rugirello of Gazettes.com wrote "The singers, all veterans of past LBO productions, were marvelous. ... Robin Buck, who’s been in a couple of shows and also directed CSULB’s opera program back in the days BBC (before Bob Cole), showed off his lyric baritone well and also did some terrific acting as the patient, a former singer with a quirky sense of humor and a baffling disease. ... At the center of the opera, Buck (with assistance from Duykers) gave a lovely performance of Robert Schumann’s great song “Ich grolle nicht.” ... It’s all, as is typical of Long Beach Opera, extremely well done and well sung.

Musical Notes: Opera Closes Season With Prescription For More Music, June 25, 2012

This summer Dr. Buck will be artist in residence at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and the LifeLong Singer program (which he heads).

Hawaii Performing Arts Festival

Photo courtesy Keith Ian Polakoff and Long Beach Opera.