Joseph Shore Career Facts

hines and i 1995 i am the way


Joseph Shore and Jerome Hines

 “I have had the good fortune to both employ and sing with Joseph Shore over a period of many years.  I have always been a sincere admirer of his beautiful voice and obviously superior grasp of vocal technique… Joseph Shore is a world-class singer who really knows what he is doing.”

Jerome Hines, The Metropolitan Opera

“To Joseph Shore, who gave me a better understanding of the male’s high voice.

Jerome Hines, The Four Voices of Man, (Acknowledgments, p.xi)

Jerome Hines, Met 1

“Chamber Opera Theatre’s performance and production were thoroughly
admirable, including the staging by Thaddeus Motyka. Both operas
(sung clearly in good English translations) were cast with splendid
singing actors, including Ron Gentry as a Mozart not far removed from
Tim Curry and Joseph Shore as a Salieri on an Ian McKellen level.
Indeed when Shore broke down while reading the opening of Mozart’s
Requiem after giving his rival poison, it was a moving moment of truth
comparable to anything in AMADEUS.” Bill Zakariasen, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

“Sang so expertly that one flinched inwardly at the implication that Salieri murdered Mozart.” 


“Mr. Shore has a clear, focused tone at the top of his vocal range, where he is also dramatically comfortable. This allowed him to be both playful, interesting and controlled in the American repertory, which almost conversationally exploited that upper register… The selections by Samuel Barber, such as ‘I Hear an Army’ and two songs by Richard Faith, had well-shaped phrases and dramatic energy. At times, Mr. Shore also touched on deeper sentiments than those of the lyrical or excited surfaces of these songs…”


“Juan Pons, the originally scheduled ‘Amonasro,’ bowed out long before rehearsals began. No problem.  A young and remarkably talented baritone named Joseph Shore proved ready, willing, and able to sing into the breach… Shore brought vocal and dramatic thrust to Amonasro.” 


“Shore’s voice has a velvety quality of extraordinary beauty which could place him with the finest baritones of the day.” 


“Baritone Joseph Shore was superb as Salieri, his voice full and flexible, his acting on a level rarely seen on the operatic stage.” 


“Baritone Joseph Shore’s magnificent voice makes him an imposing Rigoletto.  He was superb in getting across… the awful dilemma of the clown who jests while his heart is breaking.  His duet with his daughter, ‘Piangi fanciulla,’ was the most touching moment of the evening.”   


“The Rigoletto, Joseph Shore, is a fine dramatic baritone with ringing high a flats, and he was obviously well inside this role.”



  “This Rigoletto is one of the triumphs of the company’s   history. Joseph Shore’s Rigoletto is etched with enormous skill… A thoroughly believable and very musical performance.”


             “Joseph Shore as Rigoletto is exceptional for a young singer beginning a career. He plays the role with a greater physical warp and deformity than does Kostas Paskalis of the other cast, and he was much alive, giving more variety and color to his passages in the rather slow first act. He sings with a fine fullness, resonance, and power and was convincingly mature as the grieving father in the second act. Shore’s performance here should do much to send him on his way.”


 “In the character of Macbeth Joseph Shore gives us a man who suffers genuinely as he is swept along by tides of greed and jealousy which he cannot fully understand. Shore is that rare Macbeth who almost forces us to pity him….Better yet is Shore’s virile, powerful baritone. It seems to be an instrument under total control of its owner. He is able to modulate it with vivid emotion�grief, fury, fear, anything�without distorting the sense of the musical line. And it seems tireless. At the end of three hours of heavy use, it seemed as fresh and as powerful as it started out.”

“Baritone Joseph Shore is the main appeal of the Arizona Opera Company’s
Macbeth…Shore sings a powerful title role, one that integrates Verdi’s fluent vocal lines with the weak and pitiable character of Shakespeare’s original tragedy…When Macbeth withdraws from his murdered King’s chamber and holds the bloody knife aloft, it is a chilling thing indeed to hear Macbeth almost shudder the words, ‘Now it is finished.’ Shore milks it for all he can, faltering ever so slightly on the final notes�Shore has a dusky voice, one instrument from top to bottom, and with a gentle edge like a properly aged Scotch.”


“Joseph Shore’s Macbeth was effectively interpreted, particularly in the mad sequences when he brought to his portrayal a tension that revealed him to be both a frightening tyrant and a frightened, haunted ruler, unable to stop shaking after committing the crime of murder for fear he too will be slaughtered. Shore is as much an actor as he is a singer. He is more animated on stage than any of the other singers and exhibits a sense of importance whenever he makes an entrance, in whatever mood. He makes an excellent Macbeth in stature and voice, and demonstrates a careful, considered understanding of the role. He has a rich, robust voice that fills the hall with an open, masculine sound that at one point in Act IV had more gusto to it than the combined voices of a dozen castle guards.”



Rigoletto ending 1979