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  25 Feb 19 MOZART Cosi fan tutte Royal Opera House
  Covent Garden

  “Sir Thomas Allen a chanté le rôle du vieux philosophe Don Alfonso un nombre impressionnant de fois, mais il y apporte encore de la fraîcheur.”

  “Sir Thomas Allen has sung the role of the old philosopher Don Alfonso an impressive number of times, but he still brings freshness to it.”
  Mark Everist, Olyrix, 08 March 2019

  “…infatti, poche note e qualche gesto scenico misurato a Sir Thomas Allen per dimostrare di essere ancora, a quasi 75 anni, l’artista dalla personalità musicale magnetica. La sua interpretazione di Don Alfonso è di quelle che si imprimono nella memoria immediatamente… ma la personalità artistica, la musicalità, se possibile, risultano ingigantite dall’avanzare dell’età. La recitazione è curata e analitica come da attore consumato: un capolavoro il suo Don Alfonso, una lezione artistica rara e pregiata. ”

  “…Just a few notes and some scenic gestures measured by Sir Thomas Allen are enough to show that he is still, at almost 75, the artist with a magnetic musical personality. His interpretation of Don Alfonso is one that immediately imprints itself on the memory…artistic personality, musicality, if possible, are magnified by advancing age. The acting is accurate and analytical as a consummate actor: his Don Alfonso masterpiece, a rare and valuable artistic lesson.”
  Luigi Raso, L’Ape Musicale, 28 February 2019

  “…no one sings the role of Alfonso with more irony, or sheer joy…”
  Marc Bridle, Opera Today, 27 February 2019

  “As Alfonso, Thomas Allen shows he has lost none of his sense of sly comedy…”
  Nick Kimberley, Evening Standard, 26 February 2019

  “Thomas Allen is such a pro, knows this opera inside out, and has no trouble engaging as Don Alfonso conceived as a participatory actor/director, revelling in the contradictions of the theatrical exercise being presented… His comic timing remains acute as ever, and includes a quicksilver classic!”
  Alexander Campbell, Classical Source, 25 February 2019

  “Scheming away as the impresario Don Alfonso is Sir Thomas Allen, as elegant and suave as ever…”
  Stephen Pritchard, Bachtrack, 26 February 2019

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  12 Dec 18 BERNSTEIN Candide London Symphony Orchestra
  Candide

  “Sir Thomas Allen is a very experienced Dr Pangloss (and Narrator), being the person of choice for this part as much as he seems to be for the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos. On this occasion, his clear sense of ease with the role made his portrayal feel as eccentric as ever…”
  Sam Smith, Music OMH, 11 December 2018

  “Thomas Allen, an avuncular Narrator, brought a veteran’s experience to his delivery of the spoken lines while sounding in good voice as Pangloss.”
  John Allison, Telegraph, 10 December 2018

  “Sir Thomas Allen made for a perfectly English Narrator, doubling as Doctor Pangloss. Hilarious and perfectly English in delivery, he ensured that the parallels between the political scene for the setting of the play and current political trends did not go unnoted…He also exuded a confidence that ran like a thread through the performance, his voice ripe and resonant, particularly in his ‘Dear Boy’, where his masterly timing called on his years of experience.”
  Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International, 10 December 2018

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  31 Aug 18 September Songs Sir Thomas Allen with Lucy Crowe and Stephen Higgins
  

  “It’s a fine, consistently engaging disc, witty and touching in equal measure.”
  Tim Ashley, Gramophone Magazine, September 2018

  “A stimulating album, made even more so by the addition of soprano Lucy Crowe in three numbers. As for Allen’s voice, it’s in great shape, with all the amplitude and beauty of tone of his prime.”
  David Mellor, Daily Mail, 25 August 2018

   

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  16 Dec 17 Lehár The Merry Widow
  Metropolitan Opera Company, New York

  “As the cuckolded husband, veteran baritone Sir Thomas Allen, his voice holding up beautifully and his diction irreproachable, proved how a secondary character can sway the stage. He was as spry, vocally and physically, as singers half his age.”
  Edward Sava-Segal, Bach Track, 18 December 2017

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  12 Oct 16 Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro
  Scottish Opera

  “This is one of the finest Figaros this reviewer has seen in over fifty years of opera going.”
  Hugh Kerr, Tv Bomb, 18 October 2016

  “‘Allen’s production of Figaro is undeniably enjoyable’… ‘this was a strong start to the season and a Marriage of Figaro to remember.'”
  Von Gregor Forbes, Bachtrack, 13 October 2016

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  28 Jul 16 Adés The Exterminating Angel
  Salzburg Festival

  “Cairns’s staging is as meticulously detailed as Adès’s score, while Hildegard Bechtler’s set, dominated by the giant portal of the room from which there seems no escape, is sensibly spare. And the Salzburg cast is superb, dominated by three generations of British singers, with Thomas Allen and John Tomlinson, Christine Rice, Charles Workman, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies, as well as Anne Sofie von Otter, Amanda Echalaz and Audrey Luna. It’s a magnificent piece of ensemble work.”
  Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 29 July 2016 

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  30 Mar 16 Recital - 30th March 2016
  Bridgewater Hall

  “It is hard to approach comment on the performance of a national treasure and deeply respected veteran of opera and voice production. Speculatively, this may read a little more like an account than a critique. But perhaps that is more due to the fact that this was quite simply a knock-out concert, from every angle and particularly in the detail.”
  Imogen Phoebe Webb, Bach Track, 1 April 2016 

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  11 Apr 15 Rossini Il Turco in Italia
  The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

  “The key to this cast, though, is the pairing of two old hands — Thomas Allen’s cultured poet Prosdocimo and the put-upon, bumbling old Geronio of Alessandro Corbelli, who has made Rossini’s buffo roles his own. They may no longer be in the most youthful of voice, but they know how to hold the stage.”
  Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 13 April 2015 

  “They are presided over by another returnee, Thomas Allen’s sardonic Prosdocimo; and because the demands on him are more comic than vocal, he too is incomparable.”
  Jim Pritchard, Seen and Heard, 14 April 2015 

  “Those inimitable old masters Thomas Allen and Alessandro Corbelli, as Prosdocimo and Don Geronio, plus Ildebrando D’Archangelo as the Turkish prince, were perfection.”
  Mark Ronan, 12 April 2015

  “Thomas Allen gave a masterclass in operatic comedy”
  John Allison, Opera Magazine, June 2015

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  05 Oct 14 Schubert Winterreise
  UK Tour

  “Allen responds to the composer with unfailing vocal shading that can be both boldly dramatic and guardedly expressive. Besides, Allen’s innate feeling for phrasing means every note of Schubert is delivered with inherent sensitivity. There is also plenty of contrast as Thomas Allen varies his voice to suit the moment and none more so than in the grotesque Will o’ the wisp dance in Irrlicht and the pictorially atmospheric Frühlingstraum (Spring’s dream), which, like the rest of the songs, are clearly enunciated. Through his assiduous artistry, Allen draws one into the ethereal sphere of Schubert’s imagination.”
  Pat O’Kelly, The Independent, 9 October 2014

  “Sir Thomas holds the audience in a beautifully extended moment of silence, before the inevitable applause that follows. Standing ovations have become all too common in recent years, but on this occasion the audience’s reaction is spontaneous and well-deserved”
  Michael Lee, Goldenplec, 8 October 2014

  “‘Sir Thomas Allen, one of the finest baritones in the world’ … ‘One wonders how many performances of this work Sir Thomas Allen has presented? What a joy to hear his fresh, flawless voice at every dynamic. Never a waver with clear German text, matching easily with programme translations alongside for captivated listeners. There was minimum but relevant communication throughout. There was a discreet step forward for added drama, including subtle hand movements with a distinct conviction that this was a story being told to each individual in the venue’…’A recital to treasure.'”
  Maggie Cotton, Birmingham Post, 21 October 2014 

  “Thomas Allen was in magnificent voice and, if some of the pianissimo passages would have come more easily to him earlier in his career, this was more than compensated for by the richness and power of his utterances, as he portrayed the anguish and despair of the traveller, bereft of hope in his lonely journey. More than this, Allen’s interpretation was personal and deeply felt. This was not the haunted musings of an individual at the end of a barren road and life. Rather, it was a defiant outburst of someone enraged at his fate and against the joys of which he had been deprived.”
  Anthony Ogus, 27 October 2014