“John Daszak fills the entire stage with his imposing presence and the expressiveness of his enormous dramatic talent. He is totally believable in the role of the insidious and promising jailer, whom we soon realise is none other than the Grand Inquisitor.”

“The Jailer-Inquisitor, excellently played by John Daszak, retained his insinuating and nefarious character.”

“Also faithful to the role of Herod for many years, John Daszak still manages to surprise with the lustful and decadent portrait that he manages to breathe into this grating character, both through his vocal performance and through his stage presence that remains devilishly formidable.”

“John Daszak is a shady jailer who fraternizes and terrorizes, all of this packed into a multifaceted tenor.”

“John Daszak’s Herod is impressive for his silvery voice, acute, firm in the high tessitura and powerful throughout; his acting is equally appreciable”

“Tenor John Daszak, as Herod, was most impressive as he lusted after his step-daughter, panting and sexed-up, browbeating his steel-spined wife Herodias, or frantic as he attempts to talk Salome out of her decadent desire.:

“John Daszak (Herodes) … masterfully interpret the royal couple, making them two old and quarrelsome bourgeois spouses”

“The best of the evening undoubtedly lies in the cast brought together by the Triennale. The most extraordinary in both acting and singing is certainly John Daszak: his character, Skuratov, loses his mind during the opera, and it is overwhelming.”

“But already in the second act, when Skuratov (with virile, sharp character tenor intensity: John Daszak) talks about his act of violence and dances awkwardly to it, the temperature and tension rise.”

“Swaggering around in silk pyjamas, Daszak brings both pathos and pure loathesomeness to the character of the Tetrarch. He has a ringing energy to his tenor voice that works really well for the role, and complemented Schaechter’s crisp delivery well.”

“John Dasdak’s Herod dominated the stage. His penetrating tenor with a dose of metallic Sprechstimme is ideally suited. His German is uncannily clear and his varied phrasing perverse and insinuating. Bouncing about the stage dressed like an aging rocker, he projected a manic energy and even an oddly sympathetic side.”

“Herodes, embodied by John Daszak, has the spinelessness, both postural and vocal. Fluctuating with lightness and virtuosity between the tenor and baritone tessitura, deliberately producing a few ​‘drooling glissandi’. He is on the alert, for his desires as well as his fears, with the help of a flawless projection and a virtuoso diction of the everyday German.”

“Similarly admirable was John Daszak as a formidable Shuisky”

“As the doctor, Kaufmann (Jakob Lenz), John Daszak used his high tenor to expressionist effect.”

“John Daszak proves well suited to the role of Aschenbach, his interpretation founded on musical command, excellent diction and wide-ranging tonal colouring; he articulates his monologues with perception in an interpretation that seems to show the character perhaps slowly dying from the outset.”

“John Daszak was brilliant as Alviano. Stripped, wounded and abused in Act 3, his character stood helplessly on the same round and rotating platform where he had posed earlier as Carlotta’s model. Now underserving victim, he had lost all face, been ostracised, spat upon, refused by his only love. I’d venture that few singers could meet such physical demands and still sing as brilliantly as this Alviano did.”

“English tenor John Daszak was the stark Herodes, his tormented spirit dominating every moment of Castellucci’s theater.”

“Some aspects of the staging had been tweaked. For one thing, the Dance of the Seven Veils seemed to have more of Herod’s presence than before. Or maybe that was because John Daszak, in his role debut, was such an attention-grabbing figure, his eyes piercing to the back of the auditorium, his words cutting through the orchestra.”

“John Daszak was incisive as the gallant yet ruthless Drum Major”

“John Daszak’s cartoonish Tambourmajor leaves a formidable impression.”

“the enormous task of communicating the story and the staging falls on the British tenor John Daszak, the standout of the night…he has a deeply intense quality and was impeccable in his portrayal.”

“Sergey, a strapping chancer sung in a vivid, clarion tenor by John Daszak.”

“John Daszak making a welcome return to ENO…had all that was needed for the love ​‘em and leave ​‘em cad he must portray and Sergei was a great showcase for his superb dramatic tenor voice.”

“The most outstanding of the Bayreuth new-comers is John Daszak, who sings with a glistening, piercing voice as the cunning mastermind”

“John Daszak’s execution in the dual role of Prologue and Quint is a great fit…His bright timbre is ideal for the role and he successfully evokes Quint’s sinister nature.”

“John Daszak made an appealing Aron. The powerful, rounded tone of his voice attacked each sentence with the well-spoken clarity of an entertainer. Certainly a polished tenor”

“An unexpected bonus is the presence of John Daszak, a last-minute ring-in for the role of Aron. Quite apart from the feat of memorising all that dodecaphonic music and hitting all those murderous top notes, Kosky requires his Aron to perform a dazzling range of magic tricks. Daszak pulls it all off as though he had been rehearsing for months.”

“John Daszak, the tenor soloist, incarnated the score’s raw energy.”