CHAN 3155 CCHANHAN 33155155 WWideide bbookook ccover.inddover.indd 1 11/2/08/2/08 113:50:363:50:36 © Bill Cooper © Bill Great Operatic Arias with Sir Thomas Allen 3 CCHANHAN 33155155 BBook.inddook.indd 22-3-3 11/2/08/2/08 113:48:353:48:35 Time Page Time Page Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) from Macbeth from The Magic Flute Macbeth’s Scena and Aria (Perfi di! – Pietà, rispetto) Papageno’s Aria (Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja) 5 ‘Treachery!’ – ‘When you are old and full of tears’ 5:16 [p. 59] 1 ‘I’m sure that there could never be’ 2:52 [p. 56] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from The Marriage of Figaro from Don Giovanni Figaro’s Aria (Non più andrai) Leporello’s Catalogue Aria (Madamina) 2 ‘Here’s an end to your life as a rover’ 3:51 [p. 56] 6 ‘Little lady! Here’s a list I’ve assembled’ 5:38 [p. 60] Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) from The Marriage of Figaro from Falstaff Figaro’s Recitative and Cavatina (Se vuol ballare) Ford’s Monologue (È sogno? O realtà…) 7 ‘Bravo, my lord and master’ – 3 ‘I’m dreaming? Or is this true?’ 4:37 [p. 57] ‘So little master, you’re dressed to go dancing’ 3:30 [p. 60] from Don Carlos Giuseppe Verdi Don Carlos’ and Rodrigo’s Duet (Dio, che nell’alma infondere) from La traviata (The Fallen Woman) 4 ‘Listen!’ – ‘God who has brought us together’ 5:41 [p. 58] Recitative and Duet (Pura siccome un angelo) with Gwyn Hughes Jones tenor • Philip Tebb bass 8 ‘You are Violetta Valéry?’ – Geoffrey Mitchell Choir ‘I have a daughter sent from God’ 18:56 [p. 61] with Claire Rutter soprano 4 5 CCHANHAN 33155155 BBook.inddook.indd 44-5-5 11/2/08/2/08 113:48:403:48:40 Time Page Time Page Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from The Magic Flute from The Magic Flute Pamina and Papageno’s Duet (Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen) Papagena and Papageno’s Duet 9 ‘A man in search of truth and beauty’ 3:12 [p. 66] 13 ‘Pa-pa-ge-na’ 2:38 [p. 69] with Susan Gritton soprano with Susan Gritton soprano from Don Giovanni Kurt Weill (1900 –1950) Don Giovanni’s Aria (Finch’ han dal vino) from Knickerbocker Holiday 10 ‘Now that the wine has stopped them from thinking’ 1:29 [p. 66] 14 September Song 4:04 [p. 70] TT 76:23 from Don Giovanni Don Giovanni’s Canzonetta (Deh, vieni alla fi nestra) Philharmonia Orchestra 11 ‘Come softly to your window’ 2:20 [p. 67] Gareth Hancock assistant conductor David Parry Giuseppe Verdi from Don Carlos Prison Scene (Per me giunto è il dì supremo) 12 ‘I’m here, Carlos!’ – ‘My last day has dawned for ever’ 12:13 [p. 67] with Gwyn Hughes Jones tenor 6 7 CCHANHAN 33155155 BBook.inddook.indd 66-7-7 11/2/08/2/08 113:48:413:48:41 Sir Thomas Allen as Germont père in Sir Thomas Allen in the title role of The Royal Opera’s productionOn of session:Don Giovanni ?? The Royal Opera’s production of La traviata © Bill Cooper © Bill © Clive Barda /ArenaPal Barda © Clive 8 9 CCHANHAN 33155155 BBook.inddook.indd 88-9-9 11/2/08/2/08 113:48:423:48:42 Following his hugely popular fi rst recital disc for Opera in English, Tom Allen here brings us fresh delights from his repertoire, mixing the less familiar with some of his ‘bench- mark’ roles (Leporello as well as Don Giovanni and Papageno, Verdi’s Ford and Rodrigo as well as Germont Père, Mozart’s Figaro (rather than the Count)), plus a favourite by Weill. In all these pieces Tom demonstrates the musical versatility and love of language – especially his native English – that has made him a legendary communicator in song and opera throughout the world. A recording to relish! Sir Peter Moores, CBE, DL March 2008 Sir Peter Moores with a portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott, acquired for Compton Verney © Lyndon Parker 10 11 CCHANHAN 33155155 BBook.inddook.indd 110-110-11 11/2/08/2/08 113:48:483:48:48 terms with Verdi. The more probable outcome further questions of what kind of voice it was, Great Operatic Arias there is a sore throat. He may look over the for Guglielmo’s music is relatively high, light pages of a Verdi score – the baritone part in and lyrical in vocal character while Leporello’s This recital by Sir Thomas Allen is one in seems thin. For instance, the ‘baritone’ role the duet from La traviata, for instance – and is nearer the true bass (his stave always a series, itself part of the steadily growing of Leporello will sometimes be taken by a see no note that, on a good day, lies beyond written below Giovanni’s) and more that of a catalogue of opera in English, designed to real, full-time bass, as indeed will that of Don his compass; but what will tell is the frequency character-role. focus on a particular type of voice, with Giovanni himself. Similarly in The Marriage of of the notes lying dangerously close to the top Of the fi rst Don Giovanni, Luigi Bassi, we the purpose of illustrating its character and Figaro a bass Figaro is by no means uncommon and the extent to which this baritone voice is have at least a description of the voice in 1800 exploring its repertoire. Here, the voice is the (the great Ezio Pinza and his successor Cesare expected to live happily in those regions. What as ‘lying between tenor and bass’ – and we lyric baritone, and the programme concentrates Siepi, for example, sang the role frequently) has changed between Mozart and Verdi is, fi rst, note that the word ‘baritone’, though in on two composers whose work is central to it. and quite often the Figaro will be from that that the tessitura or ‘lie’ of a role has risen by a its Latin form it dates back to the fi fteenth Opera has now a 400-year-old history, bringing further intermediate category, the bass- tone and perhaps more. Along with this comes century, appears not to have been thought of. changes in styles, requirements and practices. baritone. The baritone himself is commonly the demand for additional power, resonance Mozart heard him in Prague when still only Of all the male voices the baritone has thought of as an in-between voice anyway: and dramatic force. The true Verdi baritone is twenty and singing Count Almaviva in probably remained the most constant, being we are trained to take that view of it by our almost as rare as the genuine bass and a good The Marriage of Figaro: he had established nearest to the normal speaking voice. Even so, choral tradition where the four-part music is deal more so than the lighter varieties of tenor. himself over the previous two years as a the expectations of composers have changed for soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Offi cially Today, especially in Italy, once the main source, well-liked artist. The premiere, then, gained considerably, and singers have had to adapt. our choirs have no baritones in their ranks. As the supply appears to be running alarmingly an added distinction in the provision of a Between The Magic Flute (1791), Mozart’s last we know, the reality is that some ‘tenors’ and low. twenty-one-year-old Don Giovanni. In later comic masterpiece, and Verdi’s Falstaff (1893) most ‘basses’ are really baritones, encouraged Mozart’s original Figaro at Vienna in 1786 years, Bassi would tell how Mozart would there lies little more than a century, but in to strain upwards or downwards as the case was the Italian Francesco Benucci, always encourage his singers to improvise (with the respect of their requirements of the singing- may be. described as a bass, sometimes with the condition that they also kept in touch with voice the difference is profound. It is also fairly certain that your average bass- addition buffo or comic. In a letter, Mozart the orchestra), and that on Bassi’s suggestion In his scores, Mozart does not specify singing baritones in the choral society could, reports his voice as ‘exceptionally good’, and Mozart rewrote the Giovanni–Zerlina duet the baritone voice at all. Don Giovanni, by amateur standards, make a reasonably that approval must have extended to a wider (‘Là ci darem la mano’) as many as fi ve times. for instance, has the male roles distributed successful attempt at the Mozart arias heard in estimate of him as an artist, as he cast him as In 1815 he sang his most famous role again, between one tenor and four basses. That he this recital (and may even have Figaro’s song for Leporello in the revised Vienna premiere of under the direction of Carl Maria von Weber. had different kinds of voice in mind is clear, the young recruit as a well-tried party-piece), Don Giovanni in 1788 and as Guglielmo in the Little is known about the original Leporello, yet the dividing line between them often but they are unlikely to be on such friendly fi rst Così fan tutte two years later. This raises Felice Ponziani, but Emanuel Schikaneder, 12 13 CCHANHAN 33155155 BBook.inddook.indd 112-132-13 11/2/08/2/08 113:48:493:48:49 the fi rst Papageno, remains so familiar as a For his fi rst Macbeth, Rigoletto and Germont with singers of Caruso’s time, and Pini-Corsi late Verdi.