Bad Boys
Bryn Terfel
label: Deutsche Grammophon format: CD UPC: 00028947780915 release date: 4/13/2010
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Tracks
| Mefistofele (Arrigo Boito): | ||
1. Canzone del fischio: "So lo Spirito che nega" 03:40 | ||
| Tosca (Giacomo Puccini): | ||
2. Tre sbirri, una carrozza 04:24 | ||
| The Elixir of Love (L'Elisir d'Amore) (Gaetano Donizetti): | ||
3. "Udite, udite, o rustici" 07:15 | ||
| Otello (Giuseppe Verdi): | ||
4. "Vanne! la tua meta già vedo" - "Credo in un Dio cru- del" 04:43 | ||
| Der Freischütz (Carl Maria von Weber): | ||
5. "Schweig, schweig, damit dich niemand warnt" 03:13 | ||
| Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Du Bose Heyward): | ||
6. It ain't necessarily so 03:51 | ||
| The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) (Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht): | ||
7. Moritat von Mackie Messer 02:56 | ||
| Ruddigore (Arthur Sullivan, W.S. Gilbert): | ||
8. 20. When the night wind howls 02:34 | ||
| Sweeney Todd (Stephen Sondheim): | ||
9. Epiphany 03:17 | ||
| Les Misérables (Alan Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg): | ||
10. Stars 03:10 | ||
| La Gioconda (Amilcare Ponchielli): | ||
11. O monumento! 04:17 | ||
| Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Gioacchino Rossini): | ||
12. No.6 Aria: "La calunnia è un venticello" 03:28 | ||
| Fidelio (Ludwig van Beethoven): | ||
13. "Ha! Welch ein Augenblick!" 03:07 | ||
| Faust (Charles Gounod): | ||
14. No.7 Ronde du veau d'or: "Le veau d'or" 02:06 | ||
| Don Giovanni KV527 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart): | ||
15. "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco m'invitasti" 06:21 | ||
Bad Boys
Musicians
- Bryn Terfel(Bass-Baritone)
Composers
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Arrigo Boito
- Gaetano Donizetti
- George Gershwin
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Giacomo Puccini
- Gioacchino Rossini
- Arthur Sullivan
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Carl Maria von Weber
- Kurt Weill
- Alan Boublil
- Claude-Michel Schönberg
- Amilcare Ponchielli
- Stephen Sondheim
- Charles Gounod
- Ira Gershwin
- W.S. Gilbert
- Du Bose Heyward
- Bertolt Brecht
suggested recordings
tags
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reviews
Opera News Review - JUDITH MALAFRONTE
For Bryn Terfel's "Bad Boys," the Welsh bass-baritone lets loose his dramatic appetite on some of opera's nastiest villains with a combination of musical bravado and vocal glamour that will have listeners turning to the dark side faster than you can say "Beelzebub." In Boito's Mefistofele, the devil introduces himself to Faust in "Sono lo spirito che nega" (I am the spirit that nullifies), and Terfel leads off his recital with a high-octane reading, nicely paced by Paul Daniel and the superb Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, that works up from sneering and growling into a wide open roar; this is neither the chilling smoothness of Samuel Ramey nor the in-your-face audacity of Nicolai Ghiaurov but a gargantuan and volatile spirit you don't want to mess with. Terfel keeps the thrill level up in selections with little or no orchestral introduction, and he has the stamina to sustain — and even build on — the high intensity he started with. Iago's "Credo" (from Verdi's Otello) is wilder and louder than it might be in context, but his Scarpia is a well-honed and consummate portrayal. In last year's concert performances of "Bad Boys," Terfel brought out a whip for the "Te Deum," but this recorded version needs no sado-props to confirm the terrifying brutality of Rome's corrupt police chief: each time Terfel sings "Va, Tosca" he lets her name slither around his mouth with nauseating lustfulness. Even if he has five times too much voice for many of the selections, this artist's instinct for detail and vocal color warrant repeated listenings. Words and text really seem to be one of Terfel's hooks in characterization, and he moves easily from the dead Sir Roderick's posh accent in "When the night wind howls" — a fun showpiece, with its harmonic twists and clever orchestration, from Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore — to the Catfish Row vowels of the drug-dealing Sportin' Life in his highly personal take on Bible stories, "It ain't necessarily so" (from Porgy and Bess). Terfel's enjoyment of a line such as "for he made his HOME in dat fish's abDOmen" is infectious. The bass-baritone's Italian diction is no less fine, and he makes easy work of Basilio's "La calunnia" (from Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia), in which Daniel once again draws great sonic variety from the orchestra. Dulcamara's bravado and studied salesmanship are not exactly evil (unless you find him representative of a corrupt healthcare industry), but Terfel's larger-than-life portrayal in "Udite, o rustici" (from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore) shows what glee he's had playing this quack onstage. Another role honed in performance is Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. Terfel's bold, emotionally shattering reading of the "Epiphany" (with Anne Sofie von Otter's neat cockney accent painting Mrs. Lovett's few lines) is one of the disc's high points. Once again, Terfel starts big (shouting "I had him!") and allows the barber's kaleidoscopic thoughts to lead him through a stupendous vocal workout as he turns himself into a vengeful, demonic murderer. Although Pizarro, the corrupt prison governor in Beethoven's Fidelio, fits into the rogue's gallery of murderers, drug-dealers and nihilists, his aria "Ha! Welch ein Augenblick!" is just too low and unrelentingly dark for Terfel. If he doesn't entirely inhabit Barnaba (in "O monumento," from Ponchielli's La Gioconda), the disc's only real musical dud is Javert's song from Les Misérables, which sounds trite and derivative after the magnificent, innovative Sondheim scene. The last track, the final trio from Don Giovanni, finds Terfel (as the Commendatore) condemning himself (as Don Giovanni) to death while (as the servant Leporello) he looks on. It's big and impressive — Terfel really does use three contrasting voices — but it also communicates this artist's immense musical gifts, vocal prowess and charismatic artistry4/16/2010 10:02 AM (GMT-08:00)