"here is a voice with Puccinian ping" -Bach Track
IL TRITTICO- OPERA HOLLAND PARK
"Jeff Gwaltney, one of the talented young American tenors bursting on to the English scene today, gives a towering performance as Luigi."
"Jeff Gwaltney was a robust Luigi, and for once we had a tenor with the requisite physique to make us believe Luigi hauled sacks for a living. Jeff Gwaltney's voice might be robust, but his performance was not without finesse and was very endearing. We had slightly less sense of Luigi's interior life than we did with Michele and Giorgetta, but partly this is because Puccini gives the singer less to work with."
"Jeff Gwaltney's Luigi had the biggest voice, with just the right combination of roughness and lyricism."
"but the tightly-told tale still works its nasty spell thanks to Stephen Gadd's marvellously sung bargeman, Jeff Gwaltney's burly stevedore Luigi and Anne Sophie Duprels as the smitten "sgualdrina", Giorgetta".
"Duprels pulled of a visionary duet with Jeff Gwaltney’s hunky stevedore lover, Luigi, as they dream of a better life. Gwaltney’s tenor has filled out considerably since his Dick Johnson in OHP’s Fanciulla last year, and he too acted well and looked the part."
"Fine contributions from the rest of the cast with Jeff Gwaltney a convincing figure as her lover Luigi, showing sincere anger in his rebellious aria Hai ben ragioni."
"Stephen Gadd and Jeff Gwaltney had one believe just as strongly in them and their plight in Il tabarro; it may not be a lengthy opera, but these felt like fully drawn characters, and the ‘smaller’ parts offered much of great interest too. "
"Gwaltney had the heft both to hoist a sack aloft as if it were filled with feathers and to project with ease to the corners of the pavilion. But he certainly wasn’t all weighty swagger and sang with sensitivity."
MADAMA BUTTERFLY- ROYAL ALBERT HALL
"American tenor [Jeff] Gwaltney has just the right voice for Pinkerton. Even the microphones couldn’t disguise the fact that here is a voice with Puccinian ping."
"Jeffrey Gwaltney, recently seen as Dick Johnson in Opera Holland Park’s La fanciulla del West, has a light yet full and rounded tenor voice, and carries the right sense of aloofness and expectancy."
MUSIC OMH
"What a circus!', cries Pinkerton, a robust and authentically American tenor, whose fluency and ingenuous stage presence comes with a swagger."
London Times (Subscription Only)
FLYING DUTCHMAN- SCOTTISH OPERA
"Complemented by Scott Wilde’s warm-voiced, warm-hearted Donald and Jeff Gwaltney’s appealingly lyrical George: both have commendable German diction."
"The singing is magnificent, with impressive Scottish Opera debuts from Scott Wilde as Donald, Senta’s money-grabbing father; Jeff Gwaltney as her spurned lover George, recast as a gun-toting minister, and Peteris Eglitis in the title role."
"American Jeff Gwaltney also makes a company debut as George and it would be good to see him again in a bigger role."
"Solid support came from Sarah Pring’s Mary and Jeff Gwaltney’s George."
"There was some good, solid singing from Sarah Pring as Mary, here the hall-keeper and Senta’s lone female advocate, and from Jeff Gwaltney as Senta’s suitor George."
RUSALKA- LYRIC OPERA DUBLIN
"Jeff Gwaltney as the Prince was vocally assured and convincingly lovestruck, lecherous and repentant as the occasion demanded."
"Covering the challenges of his role with refinement and flexibility, Jeff Gwaltney is the imposing Prince with Imelda Drumm the formidably dark-voiced Jezibaba."
FANCIULLA DEL WEST- OPERA HOLLAND PARK
"Jeff Gwaltney is a handsome Ramerrez, physically and vocally confident, suggestively sliding a gun into his hostess' holster in the cramped cabin of Act II."
"In the far smaller space of Opera Holland Park we had two very fine singers for these roles, both making their OHP debuts. Young American tenor Jeff Gwaltney sang Dick Johnson with excellent emotional expressiveness."
"As Ramerrez, Jeff Gwaltney’s lower register is sometimes a little underpowered, but he has the ability to apply a certain edge to his rich, smooth tenor voice to make it feel overwhelmingly impassioned."
MUSIC OMH
"In acts II and III, Glanville and Gwaltney’s voices both hit peak form and achieved exactly the kind of romantic chemistry you would wish. Gwaltney’s tenor is open, clean and unwavering, nicely able to turn a phrase."
BACH TRACK
"Jeff Gwaltney’s ardent Dick Johnson and Simon Thorpe’s glowering Jack Rance (her disappointed lover) were also admirable."
"American tenor Jeff Gwaltney and Tasmanian baritone Simon Thorpe are impressive as bandit Dick Johnson and sheriff Jack Rance respectively, both offering focused vocalism and finely achieved acting performances."
"The main male role is that of Dick Johnson (alias Ramirez), here taken by American tenor Jeff Gwaltney. He has an excellent voice, but...It was in the tender love duet that he found his (pardon the pun) forte, and it was here that he and Glanville emerged as musical equals."
SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL
"Another promising OHP debutant is Indiana-born tenor Jeff Gwaltney, as Dick Johnson, the bandit who is reformed by love of a good woman."
"Tenor Jeff Gwaltney ably embodied the passion and the danger inherent in the bandit, his acting especially convincing in the second and third acts. He was somewhat overshadowed by Ms. Glanville, who succeeded in being audible over the orchestra in a way he sometimes could not, especially at the beginning. However, his voice seemed to warm up as the performance wore on, and once it did, the golden timbre of his voice gave ardent expression to the role’s professions of love and anguish. In the opera’s big showpiece aria, ‘Ch’ella mi creda’, he sang beautifully and with feeling."
OPERA BRITANNIA UK
"Local lawman Jack Rance (Simon Thorpe) is one of many with ambition to change all that. To his fury, she opts instead for the more dangerous appeal of the criminal Dick Johnson (tenor Jeff Gwaltney, in fine voice)."
"Also making his debut at OHP is a young American tenor of great vocal potential and an unpronounceable name, Jeff Gwaltney. He certainly seemed credible, suitably tall if not noticeably Hispanic-looking or Italian-sounding as the dashingly handsome Dick Johnson (the baddie Ramerrez), another dodgy Pinkerton type."
CLASSICAL SOURCE
"Susannah Glanville as the glamorous good girl, Minnie, and Jeff Gwaltney as the salvation-seeking outlaw, Dick Johnson, grew into their roles, opening up vocally in the second half after unexceptional starts – though Glanville's first entrance is a cracker and Gwaltney is a tenor talent to take note of. It helped that both have fine stage presence, a quality that the more enigmatic and psychologically interesting Sheriff Rance lacked in Simon Thorpe's smoothly sung characterisation."
THE GUARDIAN
"Jeff Gwaltney has an attractive, soft-grained tenor voice."
"Gwaltney gained confidence and opened up lyrically for the ecstatic love duet, while Glanville sang and acted with such scorching, vibrant intensity that one can only regret that ENO hasn’t cast her for its production of this in the autumn. Moving into the third act without a second interval, Gwaltney went on to sing “Ch’ella me creda” with touching ardour: the part may be too big for him at this early stage of his career, but he gave it everything he’s got and he and Glanville created a wonderful golden glow for the opera’s sunset ending."
"Tenor Jeff Gwaltney had fewer such problems, he has already sung Erik in The Flying Dutchman (for Scottish Opera) and he seems set to develop into a fine dramatic tenor. He is a big bloke and made a convincing bandit, managing to combine physical charm with a certain impressiveness. He has a voice to match; true, he perhaps lacks some Italianate sheen but he had a nicely easy delivery and a good freedom at the top. Both visually and aurally this was a lovely coherent, convincing performance."
"Both Gwaltney and Glanville seemed to have developed a nice rapport and their scenes together in acts one and two, gave us a lovely intimate view of the progression of their relationship. Puccini's writing here for Minnie and Johnson is more believable than in La Boheme, and Gwaltney and Glanville took advantage of this with poignant results."
PLANET HUGILL