Arias Erwin Schrott

• Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880):
• 1 Scintille, diamant 02:32
• Georges Bizet (1838-1875):
• 2 Carmen, Act 2: Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre 04:25
• Charles Gounod (1818-1893):
• 3 Le veau d'or 02:01
• Jules Massenet (1842-1912):
• 4 2nd Interlude 02:34
• 5 O mon maître, o mon grand! 10:27
• Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901):
• 6 A te nell'ora infausta 03:57
• 7 Sciagurata 06:21
• 8 Attila: Mentre gonfiarsi l'anima 05:21
• Arrigo Boito (1842-1918):
• 9 Ave Signor (Chorus) 03:25
• 10 Ave Signor 03:53
• 11 Son lo spirito che nega 03:28
• 12 Ecco il mondo 02:46
• Carlos Gomes (1836-1896):
• 13 Di sposo, di padre 05:36
• Pablo Sorozabal (1897-1988):
• 14 No te acerques no me persigas 03:28
• 15 Despierta negro 03:32
• Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924):
• 16 Tre sbirri, una carozza... (Te Deum) 04:07
• Total Runtime 01:07:53

Info for Arias

On his second release for Sony Classical, Erwin Schrott transfers many of his stage triumphs to an album of arias. Although it is a must to include one of his showpiece arias from Mozart’s Don Giovanni on the recording, for the most part Schrott has devoted this album to classics from the French and Italian bass-baritone repertoire, complementing them with compositions by Verdi and Massenet that are not often heard.

The two arias by Giuseppe Verdi from Attila and I Lombardi hark back to the major interpretations of Verdi by many heroes of the bass-baritone world back in the composer’s lifetime. Boito’s opera Mefistofele represents a fitting extension of the repertoire here. Massenet himself particularly admired baritone singing – the arias from the opera Don Quichotte testify to this in their own individual way, and the works of Offenbach and Bizet provide a logically consistent context for this in terms of music history. Finally, with the famous aria Le Veau d’or from Gounod’s Faust, with a deliberately diabolic touch Erwin Schrott creates a link to Boito’s masterpiece.

The singer also gives due place to his love of music by Spanish and Latin American composers: The two arias by the Spanish composer Pablo Sorozabal, and Da sposa, di padre by the Brazilian Carlos Gomes from the opera Salvator, are three varied, highly characteristic pieces that frequently arouse an enthusiastic response from audiences at his concerts.

“he has a superb voice which he uses intelligently and sensitively...Once you adjust to the pronounced echo, there is plenty of pleasure to be had here - from his singing and adventurous choice of repertoire alike...his dying Don Quichotte is especially fine.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“The best of his voice - a dark vocal plushness in his mid-range - emerges in the Toreador Song's verse portion, though beyond that he pushes for low notes that aren't really there...Declamatory passages go well for Schrott, especially when the language is Italian - one reason why some of the early Verdi arias are among the more convincing moments on the disc.” (Gramophone Magazine)

“on disc, his pleasing lyric bass is a good fit for the characters he plays...this is far from the random bran-tub selection one now almost invariably encounters on recorded solo opera programmes of this type...[Don Quichotte's] valedictory music inspires some of Schrott's most sensitive singing...one of the most plausible champions of this repertoire in today's opera firmament.” (International Record Review)

Erwin Schrott, bass-baritone
Rinat Shaham, mezzo-soprano
Sorin Coliban, baritone
Maria Grün, cello
Vienna State Opera Chorus

ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna

Daniele Rustioni, conductor

Erwin Schrott
is one of the most exciting singers of our time and is universally regarded as today’s finest exponent of the major Mozart roles of Don Giovanni, Leporello and Figaro.

He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and made his operatic debut at the age of 22 as Roucher in Andrea Chénier. After winning first prize in the 1998 Plácido Domingo “Operalia” Singing Competition, he shot to international fame, making debuts in one major opera house after the other in quick succession. He triumphed in theaters such as the Teatro alla Scala, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Opéra national de Paris, the Washington National Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Hamburg State Opera, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Los Angeles Opera and many others. In the summer of 2008 he made his long-awaited debut at the Salzburg Festival as Leporello.

In recent seasons Erwin Schrott has sung Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Teatro alla Scala, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Washington Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, as well as in Seville and Turin and with the Metropolitan Opera on tour to Japan. He has performed the role of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera, Covent Garden and in Valencia. Other roles in his repertoire have included Pagano in Verdi’s I Lombardi, the title role in Verdi’s Attila, Banquo in Macbeth, Escamillo in Carmen, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust and the title role in Boito’s Mefistofele.

Engagements in 2011 included L’elisir d’amore at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia and Le nozze di Figaro at the Opéra national de Paris. In the summer of 2011 Erwin Schrott returned to the Salzburg Festival, appearing both as Leporello in Don Giovanni and in the title role of Le nozze di Figaro. In July and August he wowed audiences at three major concert events in Germany and Austria alongside Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann. The Berlin Waldbühne concert was seen on television by over one million people in more than twenty different countries.

The year 2012 has started with a concert tour of Germany and Switzerland with Anna Netrebko that will extend to the United Kingdom and Denmark later in the year. In February Erwin Schrott returned to Covent Garden for further performances as Don Giovanni. In June he will again join forces with Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann for a “Gipfeltreffen der Stars”. They will also be giving a concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall under the title “Opera’s Greatest Stars”. Erwin then also will be performing in Don Giovanni under the direction of Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.

This album contains no booklet.