CARLO COLOMBARA

The Art of the Bass

Carlo Colombara, bass

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana / György G. Ráth

Bulgarian National Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Ghiaurov

Prague Tchaikovsky Orchestra / Fabrizio Milani

Oscar Martos Hidalgo, director

BIZET Carmen: Votre toast (Song of the Toreador)

VERDI Don Carlo: Ella giammai m’amò

ROSSINI Il barbiere di Siviglia: La calunnia

VERDI Simon Boccanegra: Il lacerato spirito

GOUNOD Faust: Vous faites l’endormie

VERDI Nabucco: Tu sul labbro

BOITO Mefistofele: Ecco il mondo

VERDI Attila: Mentre gonfiarsi l’anima parea

RACHMANINOV Aleko: Aleko’s Cavatina

MUSSORGSKY Boris Godunov: Farewell, my son

Described as “the great Verdian bass” (Le Figaro) and a “Mefistofele who stood out over all the others” (Der Neue Merker), Carlo Colombara brings some of the most famous bass rôles to life in this wide-ranging programme. Emotions range from the pride of Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, through the terrors of Verdi’s Attila, to the tender recollections of Rachmaninov’s Aleko. Mephistopheles strides powerfully through both Gounod and Boito’s operas, and Rossini’s comic wit contrasts with the darkness of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.

In 1986 he won the prize for the best Italian singer in the G. B. Viotti Competition and the following year he won the As.Li.Co competition before making his début at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome in Ernani. His subsequent career has brought appearances in the most important theatres of the world, in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Vienna, Milan, New York, Zurich, Barcelona, where he now lives, Verona and elsewhere.

Naxos DVD 2110612