Bryn Terfel: Opera Arias
Recorded in 1996, this CD captures the great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel at the peak of his career (and he is still going strong now more than 10 years later ). At 6'3" tall, Mr. Terfel is a gifted actor and an imposing stage presence who could have gotten away with just singing all the right notes. Instead, he does us all a favor and exploits all his talents to the fullest and always give a characterful performance both in his physical acting and in his singing. An opera is never boring when the man is around!

This voice is a gloriously strong bass-baritone that is capable of infinite finesse and subtlety. He has wide vocal range allowing for a repertoire that ranges from the powerful Wagnerian roles to the finesse bel canto opera of Donizetti and Mozart. His basic sound is warm and gentle (something similar to a really imposing French horn), but he can also be very convincingly forceful, diabolical, and mean when the role calls for those qualities. This CD sees him singing comfortably in 4 different languages. The German, Italian, and French are quite good. The Russian, I'm not familiar with the language enough to opine on.

Mr Terfel is also an excellent vocal technician whose powerful voice can out blast a full size orchestra (and a Wagner orchestra has at least 95 players in it), sing caressing soft pianissimo, or carry you on the wings of his smooth as silk legato. And he does it all with such theatrical flair that you can see what his character is doing with your eyes closed. Rarely have such an popular opera star proves himself even better than the hype as Mr. Terfel has. This CD allows a good glimpse of what a Welsh vocal chameleon sounds like.... and with an added pleasure of orchestral accompaniment under the baton of the ever sensitive James Levine, conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. It is almost too good to be true!

Tracks:
W.A. MOZART:
1. Le nozze di Figaro: Non piu andrai, farfallone amoroso
2. Don Giovanni: Deh, vieni alla finestra
3. Don Giovanni: Madamina, il catalogo è questo
4. Cosi fan tutte: Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo
5.. Die Zauberflöte: Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja
Even the non-opera fans would probably be familiar with tracks 1, 3, and 5. They are favorite of TV commercials. In track 1, the clever barber and feudal valet Figaro is singing a mock send off cheers to the young Cherubino who has been punished with a military commission by Count Almaviva. Terfel is an amusing and playful Figaro who is supremely confident in his own ability. He even adds a most aptly teasing ornamentation into the falsetto zone (notes sung with unsupported head resonance... like when guys try to talk in girly light high voice) before the final recap of the song.

Track 2 sees him in a darker tone as a very sly Don Giovanni who is casually seducing the young peasant girl Zerlina on her wedding day. You know he will discard her as soon as he is finished, but still he is irresistible His soft pianissimo in contrast with more forceful bursts of mezzo forte draws you in and then grabs you with the lure of the dangerous man.

As the servant Leporello he is even more sly in track 3, the famous ‘Catalog Song’ that recounts all the women of Europe Don Giovanni had successfully seduced. Terfel’s voice retains a pleasant surface, but what a master at projecting an underlying sense of menace He is gloating in his master’s glory rather than really trying to comfort the distressed Donna Elvira. The theme of the confident king of the hill reaches its height in track 4, where Guglielmo the stud, under disguise as a foreigner, tries to seduce both his best friend Ferrando’s fiancee for himself while convincing his own fiancee to go out with Ferrando (the girls don’t recognize their tricky fiances yet).... Why is it that the girls are always falling for the ‘bad boys’ like Guglielmo?

Track 5 is really a change of mood from the smug and egoistical men to the childlike bird-catcher Papageno of Mozart’s fantasy opera. This is his introduction aria of an innocent who is confident of his ability only because he doesn’t know better, rather than because of his extensive worldly experiences. It is famous for the pan-pipe refrains (here done in a terser manner than I’m used to, but is very effective at actually sounding like a bird is actually chatting with Papageno). Terfel’s strong voice doesn’t make for a wide-eyed innocent Papageno, but a more mature one with keen appreciation of the simple world he lives in.

R. WAGNER:
6. Tannhäuser: Wie Todesahnung Dämmrung deckt die Lande... O du mein holder Abendstern
7. Der fliegende Holländer: Die Frist ist um
Now that he has gotten the songs of younger and more optimistic people out of the way, the next 2 tracks are songs of those who are more world weary and enjoy a rainy day more than they’d admit. Wolfram the selfless Minnesinger sings track 6, a noble song also known as ‘Wolfram’s Evening Star Song, as he prays for protection of his mistress Elisabeth, who is determined to sacrifice herself to save the soul of the errant Tannhäuser.

In track 7, the cursed Dutchman singing of his eternal sentence of being a sea-bound ship that is only allowed to come ashore once every 7 years. He is tired of this wretched ‘eternal life’ and wants nothing but death. Wagner could have written the song just for Terfel to sing it. In a few track we go from the optimistic birdman to a bitter and gloomy life-hating seaman... What next, you say?

J. OFFENBACH:
8. Les Contes d’Hoffmann: Allez ... Pour le livrer combat... Scintille, diamant
C. GOUNOD:
9. Faust: Vous qui faites l’endormie
A. BORODIN:
10. Prince Igor: Ni sna ni otdyeha izmucennoj duse
From the wretched men of Wagner, Terfel moves on to the bona fide villain of Dapertutto in Jacques Offenbach’s twisted ‘Tales of Hoffmann’ in track 8. He then tops himself with a truly diabolical Mephistopheles (the Devil), in Gounod’s take on the Goethe’s ‘Faust’ (Track 9), singing his serenade. It is startling to hear Terfel goes from being seductive one moment to his maniacal laughter in the next. If the snake in the garden of Eden could sing, he would probably sound like this when he seduces Eve into eating the forbidden fruit.

Track 10 sees Terfel’s first effort at singing in Russian. I haven’t got a clue how good he pronounces thing, but I don’t really need to understand exactly what words this Prince Igor is singing to get a good glimpse of his desperation. The guy is going to pieces, but there is always a certain grace in his singing that betrays his princely origin.

G. DONIZETTI:
11. Don Pasquale: Bella siccome un angelo (Lovely as an angel coming down to earth)
G. ROSSINI:
12. La Cenerentola: Miei rampolli femminini (My female offsprings, I disown you for disrupting my sweet dreaming)
In track 11, Dr. Malatesta is asked by Don Pasquale to find him a wife, so the cunning doctor describes for him a too good to be true young lady that also happens to be his sister (actually she isn’t... it’s a rather tricky show and this is one of the tricks). At any rate, the aria is designed to seduce, and with Terfel singing it, it is as seductive as a chocolate covered peach. Being an aria by Donizetti, we get to hear how the masterful Bryn Terfel can lighten his magnificent voice and sings breathtakingly smooth legato with such a light touch that one wouldn’t expect of any voice that could have been such a convincingly powerful Dutchman and Wolfram just a few tracks before!

The excursion into bel canto opera continues in track 12 as the greedy Don Magnifico who values his ambition to upgrade his own social status above all things. He starts this song off disowning his 2 daughters for having interrupted a particularly interesting dream he was enjoying, then goes on describing how his dream self gets transformed into an as&3115, and ending with his homemade interpretation of how his as&3115-iness would bring him many assets. It is amazing how such a magnificently imposing voice can also cope so effortlessly with the Rossini’s agile score.

G. VERDI:
13. Macbeth: Perfidi All’anglo contra me v’unite
14. Falstaff: Ehi Paggio ... L’Onore
For those who think of opera and classical music as ‘relaxing things you listen to to be put to sleep’, these last 2 tracks will ensure that sleep will be the furthest thing on your agenda once Terfel is done with you. His MacBeth and Falstaff display perfectly what turbo power the Welsh singer has in his throat. And he doesn’t just blast the heck out of you with his powerful voice, but with all the rage and curses flying out of the stereo speaker with such palpable level of venom... really you’ve got to be either dumb or deaf to not jump off your lazy chair at the last sung note and run off to do something fruitful. It’s like having the angry old man shouting over your head looking like the crazy drill sergeant from Kubrik film, 'Full Metal Jacket', you know?

A solo recording of operatic bass-baritone arias really don’t come better than this. Highly recommended! If this guy ever shows up at cities near you to sing, you’ve got to check him out. A talent like this doesn’t come around often.

1 CD. Run-time: 70:51 minutes. Printed libretto in original language (Russian in phonetic English equivalent for track 10) with English translation included.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening