Erwin Schrott is one of the most charismatic singers around and his voice is a big, healthy bass-baritone, with an easier, more ringing top than that appellation normally implies. But this CD is a disappointment. First of all, the recording itself is awful: the orchestra takes a nose-dive every time Schrott’s voice enters; it sounds electronically manipulated. Or was it even in the same room at the same time? Whatever it is, it’s irritating and does the music no good whatsoever.
Opening with the show-stopping “Scintille, diamant” from Hoffmann, you are immediately impressed that a “bass-baritone” is singing it untransposed; Schrott takes both optional high A-flats with ease and power. Unfortunately, the aria is sung uninflected and a bit too quickly, so it has none of its wicked, seductive power. The “Toreador Song” is big, but again is sung without much personality, and it is here that we first spot the disappearing orchestra: grand intro followed by where-did-it-go? In “Le veau d’or” Schrott sounds more baritone than basso-cantante; if you’ve ever heard René Pape, let alone Boris Christoff, in this music, you’ll hear how pale Schrott is.
The excerpts from Boito’s Mefistofele are the best things on the CD; Schrott gets into the snarling character as nowhere else—but I still wonder where the grand, rolling Ghiaurov or Ramey-like sound is in this music. The Don Quichotte scene is a bore—a seamless legato and fine sound, but understated to a point of blandness. In Pagano’s music from I Lombardi, he has to jump the beat to add life to whatever conductor Daniele Rustioni (who is he?) is doing (or has pre-recorded). Scarpia’s Te Deum is exciting, and the excerpts from Gomes and especially “Despierta, negro” from Sorozabal’s La taberna del Puerto, are most welcome.
Schrott is thrilling in Mozart—his Leporello on DVD is priceless and his Figaro flawless. Is he singing the wrong repertoire here? Is Rustioni the nom-de-conductor for a metronome that lives in Vienna, where this was recorded? (No information about him is offered; no pictures either.) Or maybe Schrott has to be seen and heard at the same time—but this is a drag.
