Mr. Troxell’s star turn as Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton in the award-winning Sony film Madame Buttterfly, presented by Martin Scorsese, received high praise following its premiere in Paris and the United States in 1996. Film critics Siskel and Ebert gave him “two thumbs up” and said of Richard’s performance, ”His voice is splendid and his manner assured.” The New York Times deemed his performance “the most dramatically satisfying vocal characterization” in the film. His Pinkerton is one of the most viewed performances of this role.
Richard’s continued success in film is evidenced in two other DVDs. First on the EMI label, Marta Domingo’s production of La rondine from the Washington Opera which was later broadcast on the PBS series Great Performances and secondly with Deutsche Grammophon label Franco Alfano’s opera Cyrano de Bergerac in which he portrays the handsome officer Christian opposite the Cyrano of Roberto Alagna.
This past season Richard made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Michael Mayer’s production of Rigoletto followed just five months later by his Broadway debut in the New York City Center’s Tony Award-winning Encores Series in Rodgers’ and Sondheim’s Do I Hear a Waltz, alongside the wonderful Melissa Errico. His performance of Pablo Neruda in Daniel Catan’s Il Postino with Opera Saratoga this season was his debut into the world of Spanish opera.
Not your “normal” opera singer, Richard’s career has ranged from being a recurring guest on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show , to climbing out of the sewers of Seville as Don José at the Sydney Opera House in Carmen with Opera Australia, to singing the National Anthem for Major League Baseball’s American League Championship Opener, to singing the Dwarf at Avery Fisher Hall in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, and to completing his latest compact disc, Classic Broadway, with Maestro Steven Mercurio.
Along with his Metropolitan and Broadway debuts, Richard’s 2014–2016 seasons included Carmen in concert with Denyce Graves in Baltimore; Madama Butterfly and Carmen with Vancouver Opera; Carmen with Calgary Opera as well as two productions of the same in Toronto; Die Fledermaus in Nashville; Pinkerton with Opera Tampa followed by a gala concert in Washington DC with James Galway for Maestro Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival. The 2013–2014 season included Opéra de Montréal’s production of Manon with just two days notice, filling in at the last minute as Des Grieux, Galileo in Philipp Glass’ Galileo Galilei with Cincinnati Opera, a concert at Teatro del Lago in Chile, followed by La bohème with Opera Tampa and ended with performances with the NYC Opera in the North American debut of the Covent Garden production of Anna Nicole. His 2012 season began in Bari, Italy at the Teatro Petruzelli with Maestro Lorin Maazel in Carmen followed by Roméo etJuliette with Palm Beach Opera, followed by a West Coast premiere and compact disc recording as Galileo in Philipp Glass’ Galileo Galilei with the Portland Opera and ended nicely with Hawaii Opera Theater’s production of Die Fledermaus. In the summer of 2012, Mr. Troxell went from La bohème in Vermont to Carmen again with Maestro Maazel with the Castleton Festival to Madama Butterfly in Taipei with Opera Australia, to another Madama Butterfly for the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, to Carmen with Julie Nesrallah of CBC radio’s “Tempo” in Ottawa, and finally to Camden Yards for the National Anthem with the Baltimore Orioles.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Mr. Troxell has been seen with the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony in his signature role as tenor soloist in Orff’s Carmina burana. Other concert engagements of note include Handel’s Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Mahler’s Die Lied von der Erde with the Detroit Symphony, and Mendelsshon’s Walpurgisnacht with the Denver Symphony. At Avery Fisher Hall, Mr. Troxell performed the title role in Zemlinsky’s opera Der Zwerg under the baton of Leon Botstein with the American Symphony Orchestra. Opera News called his interpretation” the afternoon’s most successful performance.”
Starting out as an actor in musical theater at the beginning of his career, Richard loves returning home to the Broadway and Pops standards. He has been a favorite with the Boston Pops, the Cincinnati Pops with Erich Kunzel, the Naples Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, and the Erie Pops singing the hits of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Lerner and Lowe, Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and many more.
His signature act Puccini to Porter, currently in production, takes the audience on a multi-media journey, featuring highlights from Scorsese’s Madame Butterfly to Porter tunes.
Richard Troxell’s talents as an actor and singer are evidenced in the wide variety of roles he has sung, ranging from a punk-rocker in a contemporary staging of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut for the Spoleto Festival USA , to the wide-eyed innocence of Candide for Portland Opera, to the maniacal Don José in Carmen, and finally to the love-struck Roméo in Roméo et Juliette at Teatro de la Maestranza.
Away from the stage, Richard appeared with Garrison Kellior on his show A Prairie Home Companion while he was in Minnesota appearing at the Opera. And baseball fans have not been denied the opportunity to hear Richard – for eleven years in a row as he sang The Star Spangled Banner at the opening day ceremonies in Camden Yards for his beloved Baltimore Orioles.
Mr. Troxell’s recording credits include his latest two solo compact discs, So in Love with the Tom Lawton Trio and Classic Broadway with the Czech National Symphony under the baton of maestro Steven Mercurio; Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly for Sony; Beppe in I pagliacci for the Deutsche Grammophon, under the baton of Georges Prêtre; Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac for the Deutsche Grammophon; the title role in Philip Glass” Galileo Galilea for the Orange Mountain Music, and numerous recordings for the Milken Archive of Jewish Music on the Naxos Label, including Masada by Marvin David Levy with the Berlin Radio Symphony, and his first sold-out solo compact disc, Wonderful World.
Richard Troxell is from Thurmont, Maryland where he started singing at the age of four along with his parents, belting out Broadway tunes at Lions Club benefits and singing hymns in the church choir. He received his operatic training at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia, PA. He currently resides in the countryside of Chester County, Pennsylvania with his wife dancer/choreographer Lisa Lovelace and their two sons Wilder and Shane. When not performing, he enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, motorcycling, hiking, and long-distance bicycle riding.
