Mozart's Opera Arias
Tutto Mozart
Gramophone Choice
‘Tutto Mozart’
Bastien und Bastienne – Diggi, daggi. Così fan tutte – Soave sia il vento; Il core vi dono. Don Giovanni – Madamina, il catalogo è questo; Là ci darem la mano; Deh! vieni alla finestra. Le nozze di Figaro – Non più andrai; Crudel! perchè finora; Hai già vinta la causa; Aprite un po’ quegli occhi. Die Zauberflöte – Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja; Bei Männern; Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen; Pa-Pa-Pa-Papagena. Un bacio di mano, K541. Così dunque tradisci…Aspri rimorsi atroci, K432. Io ti lascio, o cara, addio, KAnh245/K621a. Nun liebes Weibchen, ziehst mit mir, K625/592a. Männer suchen stets zu naschen, K433/K416c
Bryn Terfel (bass-bar) with Miah Persson (sop) Christine Rice (mez) Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Sir Charles Mackerras
DG 477 5886GH (64’ · DDD · T/t) Buy from Amazon
Unlike many showcase CDs for famous singers, this one has been carefully planned to demonstrate Terfel’s many-faceted gifts as a Mozartian, boxing the compass of roles and pieces for bass-baritone. Familiar items are interspersed with unfamiliar ones, and the singer, who writes how well Mozart wrote for his kind of voice, is heard in all the roles he has sung on stage (the exceptions include Papageno, for which his figure is unsuited, although in purely vocal terms he proves a lively and sympathetic bird-catcher). His Figaro, which begins and ends the programme, is nicely distinguished from his Count Almaviva, both brought before us by his pointed use of the Italian text. Similarly his suave, insinuating Giovanni is very different from his earthy Leporello, the timbre for each part cleverly differentiated. From Così fan tutte, he briefly undertakes Alfonso, another role he hasn’t assumed on stage, in the Farewell trio, then switches to Guglielmo for ‘Il core vi dono’ where he woos the attractive Dorabella of Christine Rice.
Of the rarer operatic items and separate arias he gives a particularly dramatic account of ‘Così dunque tradisci’ and finds the gentle Entführung-like humour of the incomplete ‘Männer suchen stets zu naschen’ to his liking, with Miah Persson (unfairly not credited on the CD front) as partner to the inauthentic nonsense of ‘Nun liebest Weibchen’.
The quality of the disc is confirmed by Sir Charles Mackerras’s authoritatively Mozartian direction and fine playing from the SCO. The recording has both space and presence.
Additional Recommendation
La clemenza di Tito – Deh per questo istante; Ecco il punto, oh Vitellia…Non più di fiori. Così fan tutte – Temerari…Come scoglio; Ei parte…Per pietà, ben mio. Don Giovanni – Batti, batti; In quali eccessi…Mi tradì. Le nozze di Figaro – Non so più cosa son; Porgi, amor. Concert arias – Oh, temerario Arbace!…Per quel paterno amplesso, K79. Ch’io mi scordi di te?, K505
Véronique Gens (sop) Melvyn Tan (fp) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Ivor Bolton
Virgin Veritas 628633-2 (59' · DDD · T/t) Buy from Amazon
Véronique Gens is one of the most engaging and stylish Mozart sopranos around, as this sampler of her art confirms. Under the exacting baton of Ivor Bolton, the OAE show sharp and eager teeth to match her own highly strung recitative in ‘In quali eccessi’. And this Donna Anna demonstrates more than one-dimensional Angst as the orchestra’s wind soloists breathe in sympathy with every moment of palpitando in Gens’s own supple phrasing. There’s a similar focus on the emotional potential of breath in a ‘Non so più’ whose fierce frustration flies out of eloquent consonants. Steady control of breath and tone bring a moving poise to ‘Non più di fiori’, where Vitellia’s horrified introspection finds empathy in the basset-horn obbligato. And as Sesto, Gens moulds the moist clay of some of Mozart’s most beautiful melodic contours in ‘Deh, per questo istante’. There’s her Countess and Zerlina to enjoy as well, with the two exquisitely sculpted and sparingly but powerfully ornamented arias from Così fan tutte.
