Mozart: Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen (from Die Zauberflöte) (Pamina & Papageno's duet)

‘Operatic justice’, writes J.B. Steane in his informative and amusing note for this album, ‘is a law unto itself, and the baritone has been prominent among its victims. Unlucky in love, he is seen in the most favourable light as a father-figure and is otherwise all too often the villain of the piece. He may be manly but is rarely heroic. He will have his arias, his moments of glory, yet (uncannily, it must seem to him) their place is rarely at the centre of the opera, or for that matter, part of its last-act climax.’

Beginning with a bracket of Mozart arias, this colourful recital, recorded by Matthias Goerne in 2000, takes us through the terrains of mid- and late-19th century opera – Wagner, Humperdinck, Richard Strauss – to the early 20th-century with the moving ‘Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen’ from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, to two brief excerpts from Berg’s Wozzeck.

Matthias Goerne both works within the tradition and extends it. Like his predecessors, from Schlusnus to Fischer-Dieskau, he has developed his careers in opera and song side by side, though it is true that his fame and hitherto his work as a recording artist have centred less on opera than on Lieder and oratorio. His operatic recording debut was spotted by Gramophone magazine and described as ‘an impressive appearance’, as Prometheus in the large cast of Braunfels’s Die Vögel.

In Mozart’s day it was quite common practice to adapt popular opera melodies for dancing or in the home. In this way the success of an opera was reflected just as nowadays a recording of highlights is an indicator of popularity.

Six arias were selected for this recording from the numerous opera arrangements for flute instruments – three are from the 'Magic Flute' and three from the 'Entführung aus dem Serail'. Preference was given to the arias which are either thematically connected to the flute (Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton / Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja) or which seem to be particularly suited to the flute and guitar in character.

The CD is completed by Fernando Carulli’s arrangement of Mozart’s Quartet K478 and by Matteo Carcassi’s 'Air des Mysteres d’lsis' variations modelled on the choral passage 'Was klinget so herrlich' from the finale of the first act of 'Zauberflöte'.

Over a long and still flourishing career Sir Thomas Allen has given benchmark performances in several operatic roles of which Mozart and Verdi operas figure strongly. With two spicy exceptions, every item in this programme comes from an opera by Mozart or Verdi. Part of the design of this recital series is to highlight the particular type of voice and explore its repertoire. The works chosen for this disc provide a unique showcase of Sir Thomas Allen’s unique gifts and that of the baritone in general. The Sunday Telegraph wrote of volume one, “How good to have this anthology of Thomas Allen’s versatility in a

wide range of his operatic roles… anyone who cherishes good singing will rejoice in this great baritone’s smooth legato, perfect diction, subtle characterisation and, of course, beautiful and unmistakable voice,” and The Guardian noted “As always, Allen was a supremely intelligent recitalist, matching sound with sense, probing the meaning of a text without fracturing the vocal line.”

As in previous issues, the solos are interspersed with longer excerpts, duets and ensembles, including performances with Susan Gritton and Claire Rutter. With Ford’s monologue in Falstaff, Sir Thomas extends his lyrical voice to encompass the more theatrical style of late Verdi and in the lighter Weill ‘September Song’, he extends it further, albeit in a different direction altogether. Other repertoire includes recitatives and arias from Verdi’s Macbeth and La Traviata, arias from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, and duets from The Magic Flute.

All tracks sung in English

The Stockholm Opera was one of the leading European houses at the middle of the last century, partly due to the fact that so many great Sw. singers stayed at home. One of them, Hugo Hasslo, possessed a beautiful tenor-baritone voice. He even tried Cavaradossi once, but wisely kept to his baritone roles, in Verdi, Mozart, Donizetti and Rossini. After his retirement in the 60s he became a beloved and successful voice teacher.