He is the founding Artistic and General Director of Teatro Nuovo, a company that presented its inaugural season in the summer of 2018 at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall as the successor to the twenty years of opera at the Caramoor International Music Festival led by Crutchfield.
[3] A specialist in the bel canto repertoire, he prepared the first performing edition of Donizetti's Élisabeth ou la fille de l'exilé and conducted its world premiere at the Caramoor Festival on July 17, 2003.
[8] In the summer of 2016, he conducted Aureliano in Palmira in its North American premiere for the Bel Canto at Caramoor International Music Festival.
[10] In addition to his scholarly work on vocal style, Crutchfield was the youngest music critic in the history of The New York Times, where he was a regular contributor from 1983 to 1989.
[13][14] Since 2017 Crutchfield's activity has centered on Teatro Nuovo, where he has sought revival of period performing style in Italian opera in a way the Wall Street Journal described as "transformative".