...Adams attracted audience attention among all the Café Momus hubbub with his stunning, major voice...
Opera News: Cincinnati Opera, La Boheme
The Mastersingers were a formidable group, comprising...tenor John Christopher Adams as Vogelgesang (a sterling Lenny in Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men” at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in May)...
Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Opera, Die Meistersinger
...you were simply brilliant...
Carlisle Floyd: University of Cincinnati, Of Mice and Men
As Lennie stroked his dead puppy, his words set off an explosive chain reaction that propelled Thursday’s performance of Floyd’s opera at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music to its tragic, powerful conclusion. Helping it along was a young tenor named John Christopher Adams, performing the role of his life as Lennie, a giant of a man-boy, who is both simple-minded and dangerous.
Adams’ performance was gripping for its combination of clueless innocence and uncontrollable strength, made even more believable by his 6-foot, 7-inch height. Yet he also eloquently brought the element of humanity to his character, singing about the home he would never have with almost unbearable emotion as he pointed, “I see it George. It’s over there.”
..her duet with Lennie was one of the evening’s musical high points...
Cincinnati Enquirer: University of Cincinnati, Of Mice and Men
...Literally towering over the cast was six-foot-seven-inch tenor John Christopher Adams. Adams had it all, not just size and stature, but a steely bright tenor that soared over everything and, topping it off, the genuine demeanor of a child. The way Adams wrung his hands and shuffled his feet, his wide-eyed, uncomprehending gaze and his obvious dependence on George were profoundly touching.
George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own farm, where Lennie can have rabbits to pet and they can “live off the fatta the lan’,” is the opera’s beating heart. Adams and Bouley gave it rapturous expression, both in act one where they are hiding in a gulley to escape the police, and in the final scene where Lennie has again sought refuge after having killed Curley’s Wife. George comforts Lennie by singing of their new home “across the river.” Hands over his eyes, Lennie says he can finally “see” it and in one of the saddest moments in opera, George, in order to save Lennie from lynching, sends him off with a merciful shot to the head.
Music in Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, Of Mice and Men
