Track Listing

1. Faust/Act 2: Le veau d'or est toujours debout
2. Faust/Act 4: Sérénade: Vous qui faites l'endormie
3. Mefistofele/Act 2: Ecco il mondo, vuoto e tondo
4. La Damnation de Faust/Part 2: Voici des roses
5. Don Carlo/Act 4: Ella giammai m'amò! - Dormirò sol nel manto mio regal
6. The Tales of Hoffmann/Act 4: Scintille, diamant
7. Das Rheingold: Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge
8. Tristan und Isolde/Act 2: Tatest du's wirklich? Wähnst du das?
9. Demon/Act 2: Na vozdusnom okeane
10. Demon/Act 2: Ne plač', ditya
11. Rusalka/Act 2: Běda! Běda! - Celý svět nedá ti
12. Boris Godunov/Act 4: Death of Boris

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85444 in Music
• Released on: 2008-11-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Description
The eagerly awaited DG debut solo disc from René Pape has arrived! The reigning operatic bass of today, Pape has created an international fan base with his moving performances on every major operatic stage. Pape has appeared almost every season with the Metropolitan Opera since his 1995 house debut and continues to receive stellar reviews for every performance. This recital brings together the roles that have made his career as well as a few rarities. Highlights are his moving monologue from Verdi's Don Carlo and King Marke's monologue from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Pape is joined by conductor Sebastian Weigle who leads the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Opera News (New York)
"René Pape is an artist who thrills his audiences with charisma, intelligence and a one-in-a-million voice."

About the Artist
Born in Dresden in 1964, René Pape was a member of the city's legendary Kreuzchor from 1974-81. In 1988, while still a student, he made his debut at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden and was immediately engaged by the company. Since then on its stage he has sung most of the chief roles of his already illustrious career, the majority of them conducted by music di-rector Daniel Barenboim. Pape is equally at home on the concert platform and has appeared with the world's leading orchestras and renowned conductors in the major concert halls all over the globe. For his recordings, he has already received two Grammy Awards. 1990-1994 First appearances at the Salzburg Easter Festival as Don Fernando (Fidelio ) and in Bach's St. Matthew Passion (1990). Invited by Solti to sing Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Salzburg Festival (1991); repeats the role in La Scala debut under Solti (1991). Debut as King Philip in Verdi's Don Carlo in Basle and with the Met Opera as Don Fernando at the 1992 Seville EXPO. Sings in Haydn's The Seasons with the Orchestre de Paris and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, both under Solti (1992); first guest ap-pearances with the Vienna State Opera as Don Fernando, the Speaker and Sarastro (1992/93 season). Bayreuth debut as Fasolt (Das Rheingold ) in 1994, returning each year in the role to 1997 1995-1997 New York debut as the Night Watchman in Wagner's Meistersinger at the Met (1995); Hunding in Die Walküre at the Vienna State Opera (1996); Rocco in Fidelio at the Salzburg Festival (1996); Covent Garden debuts in Palestrina (Pfitzner) and Lohengrin (1997). Fasolt and King of Egypt (Aida ) at the Met (1997). Met tour to Japan with Verdi's Requiem and as Brander in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust (1997) 1998 Paris Opéra debut as King Marke (Tristan und Isolde ); Verdi's King Philip at Salz-burg; King Henry (Lohengrin ) and Old Hebrew (Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saëns) at the Met 1999 Highly acclaimed interpretation of King Marke at the Met under Levine; Chicago Lyric Opera debut as Pogner in Die Meistersinger; Mozart's Figaro at the Berlin State Opera 2000 Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival; Rocco at the Met; King Marke in Tristan at the Berlin State Opera; Escamillo (Carmen ) at the Met 2001 Debut at the San Francisco Opera as Pogner; appears in Japan with the Met (Verdi's Requiem and Old Hebrew) 2002 Role debut as Don Giovanni at the Berlin State Opera; Frère Laurent in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Orange Festival; Rocco at the Bavarian State Opera; Orest in Strauss's Elektra at the Met. Named "Vocalist of the Year" by Musical America 2003 King Henry at Covent Garden; Glyndebourne Festival debut as King Marke; Escamillo at the Verona Arena; debut as Gurnemanz (Parsifal ) at the Met. DVD release: Rocco in the Met Fidelio, conducted by Levine 2004 Leporello at the Met; Gurnemanz with the North German Radio (NDR) Symphony Or-chestra; King Marke at the Lucerne International Festival (TV broadcast); King Philip in Florence. Recording: Mein Herz brennt, a song cycle composed by Torsten Rasch and based on the lyrics of the German industrial rock band Rammstein. On DVD: the Met productions of Tristan und Isolde (Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2005), Samson et Dalila, and Die Meistersinger, all with Levine 2005 Rocco at the Chicago Lyric Opera. At the Met, he sings his first Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust, conducted by Levine; Gurnemanz at St. Petersburg's White Nights Festival, and the title role in Boris Godunov at the Berlin State Opera under Barenboim 2006 Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the Boston Symphony under Levine. At the Met he sings King Henry, Gurnemanz, King Philip, Sarastro; goes on tour with the Met in Ja-pan (Hunding and Leporello), and participates in a Gala Concert in honour of Joseph Volpe at the Met together with Plácido Domingo and Roberto Alagna. For his Boris Godunov at the Berlin State Opera he is named "Artist of the Year" by Germany's op-era critics. He sings King Philip in Don Carlo at the Mariinsky Theatre and in Munich. Pape is greatly acclaimed for his Sarastro at the Salzburg Festival, where he also ap-pears in concerts with Anna Netrebko, Magdalena Kozená and Elīna Garanča. He plays Sarastro and the Speaker in Kenneth Branagh's English-language film of Mo-zart's The Magic Flute (English Chamber Orchestra under James Conlon; release 2007). Signs exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Recordings on DG: Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Abbado (Gramophone Award 2006) and The Mozart Album - a selection of arias sung by Deutsche Grammophon's star singers 2007 Sarastro at the Met; Gurnemanz, Boris Godunov, Don Giovanni and King Philip in Berlin; Wagner arias with the Munich Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann in Mu-nich; King Marke at the Glyndebourne Festival under Jiří Bělohlávek, on tour in Japan under Barenboim, and in Munich under Kent Nagano. Appears at St. Petersburg's White Nights Festival under Valery Gergiev with excerpts from Russian operas and as King Philip; in a Wagner Gala Concert together with Plácido Domingo at the Bavarian State Opera; and at a Gala Concert at Los Angeles Opera with Domingo and James Conlon. Sings Martin's Jedermann Monologues with the Dresden Staatskapelle under Fabio Luisi at the Semperoper and in Vienna; Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death with the Hamburg Philharmonic under Simone Young in Hamburg; in Beetho-ven's Ninth Symphony with The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland (the recording is released in autumn), with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jiří Bělohlávek at the BBC Proms, and with the Berlin State Opera under Baren-boim; at the Verbier Festival he sings in Mozart's Requiem. René Pape is presented with a 2006 Opera News Award by the Metropolitan Opera Guild 2008 Appears in Tristan in Madrid and at the Met; Die Meistersinger (Pogner) and Don Giovanni in Berlin; Don Carlo in Berlin, Oslo and Vienna; role debut as Banquo in Verdi's Macbeth at the Met; Die Walküre in Barcelona; Bo-ris Godunov in Dresden. Concert appearances include Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 and the Verdi Requiem in Berlin; Verdi's Requiem in Valencia with Lorin Maazel and in Barcelona; Mussorg-sky's Songs and Dances of Death with the Met Orchestra and Gergiev in Carnegie Hall; Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Ce-cilia under Kurt Masur in Rome. Special highlights of the year are a televised gala con-cert in Norway in the presence of the king in April, and an open-air concert perform-ance of Die Walküre (Act I) at Berlin's Waldbühne in August. Festival appearances include the Festival d'Orange (Gounod's Faust ) and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Wagner). Releases: A Mozart Gala from Salzburg with Anna Netrebko, Mag-dalena Kozená, Patricia Petibon, Ekaterina Siurina, Michael Schade, Thomas Hampson and the Wiener Philharmoniker under Daniel Harding on DVD. Solo recording debut on Deutsche Grammophon: Gods, Kings & Demons, a selection of opera arias with the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Sebastian Weigle 5/2008

Customer Reviews

At last...a whole album of Rene Pape
Rene Pape is gorgeous to look at and to listen to. I've crossed the ocean twice to hear him sing. After years of buying collections and operas so that I could hear one measly aria from him, it's a great treat to have a whole CD of Rene. Many of his iconic arias, like Ella Giamai M'amo from Don Carlo and the great King Marke monologue from Tristan and Isolde are here. But the one I listen to over and over is Act II, Romance: "Na vozdusnom okeane" RUBENSTEIN: Demon. The music is as melodic as Schubert, and the singer as lyrical as the finest tenor. Great emotion pours out through his disciplined voice. If there are any sins in this CD they are ones of omission -- for example, there is no In diesen heil'gen Hallen or O Isis und Osiris, from Magic Flute -- I guess Sarastro isn't a God, King, or Demon. You must own at least one copy of this CD.

At long last.
At long last a CD of one of the great voices of our time. I was so thrilled to learn he was finally coming out with this CD and I have been listening to it over and over again since receiving it. I hope he records a Flying Dutchman and Guernamanz in Parsifal. Of course we all eagerly await his Wotan. Thank you Rene for giving us this wonderful recording. We want more.

The phenomenally successful Pape gets his due
Bass-baritones with voices as deep and plush as Rene Pape's rarely become superstars, but he's on the verge, I think. Diehard fans already exist in plenty, and every time his name appears on the bill at the Met for a performance of Tristan, Parsifal, the Magic Flute, or Fidelio, you know that the A-list cast is on. It's nice to see this native Dresdener, now 44, paired with the great Dresden Sttaatskapelle (even if Weigle's conducting is no better than satisfactory).

In keeping with the theme, we start off with three flavors of Mephistopheles by Gounod, Boito, and Berlioz, all of which Pape handles with stylish panache. His voice is so velvety and smoothly produced that he never resorts to barking or melodramatic hamminess. On stage I imagine he would add a few more teeth to his bite, however, and quite a lot more snarl. King Philip's soliloquy from Don Carlo is beautifully sung and touchingly acted.

The one snippet of Pape's noble Wotan taken from Das Rheingold is tantalizing (too bad the conducting is particularly draggy here), but then we get a signature role, King Marke singing the entire Act II monologue. As pure singing and vocal acting, this couldn't be improved on, but once again I msut point out the sagging Weigle, who lets down the orchestral side. The last lengthy extract is Boris's death scene, which Pape keeps on the restrained side -- but how can one complain when such artistry is at work?

Here's the full program:
Berlioz:
Voice des roses (Air de Méphistophélès)

Devant la maison from La Damnation de Faust

Boito:
Ecco il mondo, vuoto e tondo from Mefistofele

Dvorak:
Beda! Beda! - Celý svet nedá ti

Gounod:
Le veau d'or est toujours debout from Faust

Serenade: Vous qui faite l'endormie (Mephistopheles) [from Faust]

Mussorgsky:
Oy, dusno, dusno! - Proscay, moy sïn from Boris Godunov

Offenbach:
Scintille, diamant from Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Rubinstein:
Na vozdushnom okeane

Ne plac', ditya from Demon

Verdi:
Ella giammai m'amò (from Don Carlo)

Wagner:
Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge from Das Rheingold

'Tatest du's wirklich' - King Marke's monologue from Tristan and Isolde