Richard Cross (bass-baritone)

Richard Cross (born December 7, 1935, Faribault, Minnesota) is an American bass-baritone who had an active international opera career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. Possessing a rich and warm voice, Cross sang a broad repertoire that encompassed works from a wide variety of musical periods and styles. He currently teaches on the voice faculties of the Yale School of Music, the Juilliard School, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Cross studied singing at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1957. He made his professional opera debut in 1958 at the first Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy in the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's The Scarf. Impressed by his performance, composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who ran the Spoleto festival, invited Cross to portray the role of Donato in his new opera Maria Golovin. Cross agreed, and portrayed the role both in its premiere at the Brussels World's Fair in August 1958 and when it premiered in the United States on Broadway in November 1958 at the Martin Beck Theatre under the umbrella of the NBC Opera Theatre. For his portrayal, Cross won a Theatre World Award. In 1959 he sang the role of Donato again with the New York City Opera and toured North America with NBC Opera Theatre.