September 1996

BRYN TERFEL: OPERA ARIAS. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Levine. Texts & translations.
DG 445866

Terfel performs "Die Frist ist um" as if he had been singing Wagner's Dutchman for a decade -- not only for the weight and presence of the voice, but for the range of color and excellence of enunciation. The Welsh bass-baritone's Figaro and Leporello we know. Don Giovanni, Papageno, Guglielmo (the alternate Cosí aria), Magnifico and Malatesta afford wide enough scope for him, and he does well by them all.

But Dappertutto, Prince Igor, Gounod's Méphistophélés, Wolfram, Macbeth, Falstaff? The singer who can encompass this vast paunch of parts is a colossus bestriding opera. Terfel seems vocally -- and more to the point, histrionically -- ready to play them onstage. In the liner notes, he credits working with James Levine on the selections, and the results of their collaboration are always evident here. Well backed by the Met Orchestra, he flings down the gauntlet while still early in his career.

-PATRICK J. SMITH