SIMON KEENLEYSIDE

Tales of Opera

 

1. Gioacchino Rossini:  Il Barbiere  di Siviglia - Largo al factotum della città

2. Gioacchino Rossini:  Guillame Tell - Sois immobile

3. Jules  Massenet: Hérodiade - Vision Fugitive

4. Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlo  - Per me guinto è il di

5. Giuseppe Verdi:  Un ballo in maschera - Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima

6.  Giuseppe Verdi:  La Traviata  - Di provenza il mar

7.  Ambroise Thomas : Hamlet  -  O vin, dissipe la tristesse

8.  Vincenzo Bellini : I Puritani - Ah! Per sempre io ti perdel

9.  W.A. Mozart :  Zauberflöte  - Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen

10. Ruggiero Leoncavallo: Pagliacci - Si può, si può

11. Francesco Cilea : L'Arlesiana - Come due tizzi accesi

12. Peter Tschaikovsky : Pique Dame -  Ja vas ljublju

13. W.A. Mozart :  Don Giovanni - Dah vieni alla finestra

14. W.A.  Mozart :  Zaide  - Nur mutig, mein Herz, versuche dein Glück

15. Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser  -  Oh, du mein holder Abendstern

 

Simon Keenlyside

Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Ulf Schirmer

 

Simon Keenlyside is one of Britain’s most sought after and charismatic singers, noted for his versatility and highly charged performances.

 

The British baritone displays his versatility in what is — astonishingly — his first opera recital on disc. First, a few cavils: the programme is the now ubiquitous mishmash of composers and periods, with no sense of a progression or theme (and Tales of Opera must be one of the feeblest catch-all titles ever conceived for any album of this type). The proofreading of the booklet is shocking: the printed texts don’t always correspond to what you hear, either. That said, Keenlyside’s singing is magnificent, especially in his beloved Mozart — we get a glimpse of his celebrated Papageno, his suave Don Giovanni and Allazim, in the unfinished Singspiel known as Zaide — and in the lyric French baritone repertoire. Perhaps some of the heavier Italian repertory isn’t ideally suited to his virile, lyric baritone: the prologue from Pagliacci needs a robuster, more Italianate sound, although Keenlyside sings it more musically than any Italian baritone I have heard. Still, the highlights far outweigh the relative failures — it’s hard to think of a baritone today who could sing Yeletsky’s scene from The Queen of Spades, Wolfram’s Evening Star solo, from Tannhäuser, and Figaro’s Largo al factotum so idiomatically.

Four stars, Times

 

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