Kevin Short – Mephistopheles & Other Bad Guys (2018) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Yes, at the opera, when the tenor and the soprano stubbornly want to make eyes at each other, there is always a baritone or a bass to sow some discord, sometimes in vain—Osmin, Pizzarro, Caspar—, sometimes successfully—the various Mephisto, Nick Shadow Lindorf-Dapertutto-Miracle. The American bass-baritone Kevin Short offers here, accompanied by an Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille in great shape, a compendium of very, very bad characters, roles he has already sung more or less on the whole lyrical scene. Reckon that he has already performed at the MET in New York, at the operas in Chicago, Houston Los Angeles and Washington, at the Opéra Comique in Paris, in Cologne, Stuttgart, Bologna; in the festivals in Santa Fe, Bregenz, Baden-Baden, Aix-en-Provence. Not forgetting, obviously, his intense participation in the concertante field with the orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Cleveland, the one from the RAI, from Radio France and so many others of that kind. Purists (who are absolutely right), fear not: Kevin Short perfectly masters the French pronunciation, as well as the German one and the Italian one. As a “bonus”, he offers a tune from his compatriot Gordon Getty, Mephistopheles to Faust. For your information, Getty indeed bears the name of the famous petroleum dynasty, but Gordon much prefers to compose music—some excellent pieces, incidentally.

Tracklist:
1. Faust, CG 4 (Excerpts): Le veau d’or est toujours debout 02:17
2. Faust, CG 4 (Excerpts): Vous qui faites l’endormie 03:10
3. Mefistofele (Excerpts): Son lo Spirito che nega 03:53
4. Mefistofele (Excerpts): Ecco il mondo 02:43
5. 6 Songs, Op. 75: No. 3, Aus Goethes Faust (Arr. D. Shostakovich for Voice & Orchestra) 02:13
6. Fidelio, Op. 72: Ha! Welch ein Augenblick! 03:27
7. Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K. 384 (Excerpts): Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden 02:19
8. Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K. 384 (Excerpts): O, wie will ich triumphieren 03:44
9. Der Freischütz, J. 277: Schweig! Damit dich niemand warnt 03:17
10. Les contes d’Hoffmann (Excerpts): Prologue. Dans les rôles d’amoureux langoureux 02:41
11. Les contes d’Hoffmann (Excerpts): Scintille, diamant 02:40
12. I Lombardi alla prima crociata: Sciagurata! 05:02
13. La damnation de Faust, Op. 24, H. 111 (Excerpts): Voici des roses 02:37
14. La damnation de Faust, Op. 24, H. 111 (Excerpts): Devant la maison “Serenade of Mephistopheles” 02:21
15. Mephistopheles to Faust (Version for Voice & Orchestra) 03:00
16. Mephistopheles’s Song in Auerbach’s Cellar “Song of the Flea” (Arr. I. Stravinsky for Voice & Orchestra) 03:09
17. The Rake’s Progress: I Burn, I Burn! I Freeze! 01:49
18. Robert le diable: Voici donc les débris du monastère antique 03:08
19. Das Rheingold, WWV 86A: Bin ich nun frei “Alberich’s Curse” 03:31