THE GONDOLIERS & UTOPIA, LIMITED - SCOTTISH OPERA
Ben McAteer upped his artistic profile with a deliciously camp portrayal of the Grand Inquisitor – a mature, stage-filling impersonation that kept within the bounds of taste.
Opera Magazine
Ben McAteer’s Grand Inquisitor, a delicious picture of pomposity, gives an outstanding comic performance.
The National
Outstanding were Ben McAteer’s charmingly easygoing King Paramount…
The Scotsman
Though the production maintains a light-heartedness, an ounce of villainy can be sniffed out by Ben McAteer’s Grand Inquisitor, a booming and delicious role. And though not necessarily the most diabolical of Gilbert & Sullivan’s rogues, McAteer devours the scenes, capitalising on every opportunity with his bass-baritone and imposing vocals.
The Reviews Hub
Opera Magazine
Ben McAteer’s Grand Inquisitor, a delicious picture of pomposity, gives an outstanding comic performance.
The National
Outstanding were Ben McAteer’s charmingly easygoing King Paramount…
The Scotsman
Though the production maintains a light-heartedness, an ounce of villainy can be sniffed out by Ben McAteer’s Grand Inquisitor, a booming and delicious role. And though not necessarily the most diabolical of Gilbert & Sullivan’s rogues, McAteer devours the scenes, capitalising on every opportunity with his bass-baritone and imposing vocals.
The Reviews Hub
CD: SULLIVAN HADDON HALL, FORD MR JERICHO, CELLIER CAPTAIN BILLY (DUTTON EPOCH)
But it’s the jaunty theme song of Ben McAteer’s jam-maker Jericho that has lodged immovably in my ear, sung (like everything here) with a warm-toned humour that never degenerates into mere ‘character’ singing.
...there isn’t a single member of the cast who doesn’t sound entirely committed to their role...McAteer lyrical as well as droll as the scheming suitor Rupert.
Gramophone
...there isn’t a single member of the cast who doesn’t sound entirely committed to their role...McAteer lyrical as well as droll as the scheming suitor Rupert.
Gramophone
DIE FLEDERMAUS, NORTHERN IRELAND OPERA
Baritone Ben McAteer made a brilliant Eisenstein, characterful and humorous and strongly acted.
BachTrack
BachTrack
DIE TOTE STADT, RTÉ NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Ben McAteer contributed a sonorous and sympathetic portrait of Frank, with a particularly fine rendition of the waltz song 'Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen'.
Opera Magazine
Baritone Ben McAteer really stood out in his different roles as Frank and Fritz. His aria “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen” was touchingly sung and in his mid- range his voice possessed a noble, romantic tone.
BachTrack
Opera Magazine
Baritone Ben McAteer really stood out in his different roles as Frank and Fritz. His aria “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen” was touchingly sung and in his mid- range his voice possessed a noble, romantic tone.
BachTrack
CD: SULLIVAN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA (DUTTON EPOCH)
All soloists make their mark...but ultimately it's Ben McAteer's emphatic Jesus that impresses most.
BBC Music Magazine
This Jesus sings his words in the first person, avoiding the need for a narrator. As sung by baritone Ben McAteer, he's an engaging, persuasive charmer with impeccable diction, Sullivan accompanying his solos with an ‘inner-orchestra’ of soft winds and lower strings.
The Arts Desk
BBC Music Magazine
This Jesus sings his words in the first person, avoiding the need for a narrator. As sung by baritone Ben McAteer, he's an engaging, persuasive charmer with impeccable diction, Sullivan accompanying his solos with an ‘inner-orchestra’ of soft winds and lower strings.
The Arts Desk
CANDIDE, WEST GREEN OPERA
Ben McAteer was simply brilliant in the double role of Dr Pangloss and Voltaire. He has the lion's share of the spoken dialogue, acting as explainer and narrator for much of the time. Here McAteer made a delightful ranconteur, whilst turning the odious Dr Pangloss into a charming mountebank.
Robert Hugill
Robert Hugill
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
It's the Count who has the trickiest role to maintain, keeping on the right side of caricature that can either go the way of pathetic bumbling fool to unsympathetic cheating lecher, neither of which tend towards a convincing redemption. Ben McAteer's Almaviva carried a measure of those characteristics, but - in line with the well-considered period setting - was more of a last-gasp opportunist finding that the times (and women's rights) were fast catching up with his sort. His singing was perfectly measured for technique and character, a perfect foil for whoever he was on stage with at any given moment.
Opera Journal
As for the lecherous Count, Ben McAteer looked every inch the part, towering above the rest of the cast, the sweet heft of his baritone voice projecting very well.
BachTrack
Ben McAteer presents an intriguing figure, smoothly-sung, decisive yet distracted, a reading of the role that is disarmingly naturalistic.
Goldenplec Music News
Opera Journal
As for the lecherous Count, Ben McAteer looked every inch the part, towering above the rest of the cast, the sweet heft of his baritone voice projecting very well.
BachTrack
Ben McAteer presents an intriguing figure, smoothly-sung, decisive yet distracted, a reading of the role that is disarmingly naturalistic.
Goldenplec Music News
IOLANTHE, ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA
As Tolloller and Mountararat, Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer were irresistible – their vowels decliciously Victorian-aristocrat, their acting only just over the top…
Opera Magazine
Ben McAteer gets the gormless dignity of Lord Mountararat down pat, and when he’s not camping it up with Ben Johnson’s Tolloller…swaggers sonorously through ‘When Britain Really Ruled the Waves.’
The Spectator
The brace of earls, Tolloller (Ben Johnson) and Mountararat (Ben McAteer), are the smoothest and wittiest of the lot, and their singing is sublime.
What's On Stage
As the two Earls, Tolloller and Mountararat respectively, Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer show a pleasing instinct for the G&S idiom, and the self-deprecating satire of the latter’s ‘When Britain Really Ruled the Waves’, as Gilbert lampoons the two-party system, stingingly hit the mark.
Opera Today
Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer find exactly the right mode of deadpan deliberation which, in their heyday, the unjustly-axed D’Oyly Carte company (which some of us still remember) had to a T.
The Independent
Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer seemed to be having the time of their lives as the two love-smitten Earls, all deft foot-work, delightful characterisation, and pukka accents, yet superbly sung too.
Robert Hugill
As the hereditary peers Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer are nicely differentiated; the latter comes close to stealing the show with ‘When Britain really ruled the waves’.
Classical Source
Opera Magazine
Ben McAteer gets the gormless dignity of Lord Mountararat down pat, and when he’s not camping it up with Ben Johnson’s Tolloller…swaggers sonorously through ‘When Britain Really Ruled the Waves.’
The Spectator
The brace of earls, Tolloller (Ben Johnson) and Mountararat (Ben McAteer), are the smoothest and wittiest of the lot, and their singing is sublime.
What's On Stage
As the two Earls, Tolloller and Mountararat respectively, Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer show a pleasing instinct for the G&S idiom, and the self-deprecating satire of the latter’s ‘When Britain Really Ruled the Waves’, as Gilbert lampoons the two-party system, stingingly hit the mark.
Opera Today
Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer find exactly the right mode of deadpan deliberation which, in their heyday, the unjustly-axed D’Oyly Carte company (which some of us still remember) had to a T.
The Independent
Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer seemed to be having the time of their lives as the two love-smitten Earls, all deft foot-work, delightful characterisation, and pukka accents, yet superbly sung too.
Robert Hugill
As the hereditary peers Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer are nicely differentiated; the latter comes close to stealing the show with ‘When Britain really ruled the waves’.
Classical Source
FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, WELSH NATIONAL OPERA
Outstanding among a consistently fine ensemble [is] Ben McAteer as Dostoyevsky's representative, the resilient aristocrat, Goryanchikov
Financial Times
As Goryanchikov, Ben McAteer has less to do and sing than one might have expected, given that the character’s experience, in a sense shapes the work, he is there as a political dissident, not as a thief and/or a murderer like most of the others, and the work begins with his entry into the prison and ends with his release from it; even so, McAteer made one warm to the character’s dignity and humanity, both in the way he resisted the taunts of some of the other prisoners and in the kindness of his treatment of Aleya.
Seen & Heard International
Financial Times
As Goryanchikov, Ben McAteer has less to do and sing than one might have expected, given that the character’s experience, in a sense shapes the work, he is there as a political dissident, not as a thief and/or a murderer like most of the others, and the work begins with his entry into the prison and ends with his release from it; even so, McAteer made one warm to the character’s dignity and humanity, both in the way he resisted the taunts of some of the other prisoners and in the kindness of his treatment of Aleya.
Seen & Heard International
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, SCOTTISH OPERA
Ben McAteer has blossomed since his time as a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist. Now singing lead roles, he displayed an ideally nuanced power. I anticipate he will be a part of the company's future over the coming years.
Scottish Daily Mail
Gravitas was finally achieved by Act IV in Figaro’s misogynistic aria “Aprite un po’ quegli occhi”, lit with almost gothic brilliance by a single white spotlight, and in Susanna’s “Deh vieni non tardar”. Indeed, Ben McAteer’s Figaro and, in particular, Anna Devin’s Susanna were the two stand-outs.
BachTrack
Scottish Daily Mail
Gravitas was finally achieved by Act IV in Figaro’s misogynistic aria “Aprite un po’ quegli occhi”, lit with almost gothic brilliance by a single white spotlight, and in Susanna’s “Deh vieni non tardar”. Indeed, Ben McAteer’s Figaro and, in particular, Anna Devin’s Susanna were the two stand-outs.
BachTrack
THE MIKADO, SCOTTISH OPERA
But it was the three noble lords who came close to stealing the show...Ben McAteer's Pish-Tush was a comic masterclass, looking for all the world like a sub-Pythonesque colonial caricature, complete with pith helmet and cricket bat. But his voice is first rate
Scottish Daily Mail
Ben McAteer, fresh from Scottish Opera’s stunning recent new commission The Devil Inside, demonstrated that he could hold his own in a very different genre. Here he was an absurdly camp comic Pish-Tush who was considerably more funny than most absurdly camp comic turns usually are
Opera Britannia
Scottish Daily Mail
Ben McAteer, fresh from Scottish Opera’s stunning recent new commission The Devil Inside, demonstrated that he could hold his own in a very different genre. Here he was an absurdly camp comic Pish-Tush who was considerably more funny than most absurdly camp comic turns usually are
Opera Britannia
THE DEVIL INSIDE, SCOTTISH OPERA/MUSIC THEATRE WALES
Ben McAteer (the John Mather Charitable Trust Scottish Opera Emerging Artist‚ 2015/16) was definitely the highlight of our night. He sang with a modern‚ contemporary sound that cut through the ample orchestra and over some extremely dramatic scoring for the pit. His range was astounding and the ease of production was inspiring.
Schmopera
Ben McAteer sings the principal role of James. He has a solid, powerful baritone and really good stage presence. This is the most emotionally complex role and he conveys the thoughtful, ambiguous character well, especially at moments of interior, lyrical, reflection such as when he compares his own, damned, state to a poor couple crossing the road in the rain.
Opera Ramblings
Schmopera
Ben McAteer sings the principal role of James. He has a solid, powerful baritone and really good stage presence. This is the most emotionally complex role and he conveys the thoughtful, ambiguous character well, especially at moments of interior, lyrical, reflection such as when he compares his own, damned, state to a poor couple crossing the road in the rain.
Opera Ramblings
THE MAGIC FLUTE, NORTHERN IRELAND OPERA
An enormously likable‚ robustly-sung performance from Newry-born baritone Ben McAteer...a natural comic actor with the bumbling‚ puppy-like demeanour of a youthful Oliver Hardy. His closing duet with Papagena was pure catharsis‚ the most simply joyful moment in the entire evening...a heartening and - yes - magical evening.
Opera
When you're talking about an entertaining Magic Flute, you're talking about one where Papageno makes a strong impact and Ben McAteer's performance, in dungarees covered with bird-crap, was indeed the stand-out routine of the night, his voice agile, his enunciation clear and his personality engaging.
Opera Journal
Opera
When you're talking about an entertaining Magic Flute, you're talking about one where Papageno makes a strong impact and Ben McAteer's performance, in dungarees covered with bird-crap, was indeed the stand-out routine of the night, his voice agile, his enunciation clear and his personality engaging.
Opera Journal