Swedish baritone
Peter Mattei has been active on the international opera scene since the mid-'90s, but he hasn't made it into the ranks of superstar baritones who proliferated during about the same period. If this album of a wide variety of arias has the effect of bringing him to the attention of a broader spectrum of the opera-loving public, it will have served a valuable service. The album incontrovertibly demonstrates that
Mattei is an artist of the first rank not only because the quality of his vocal equipment but because of the depth and breadth of his musicianship revealed in repertoire ranging from
Mozart to
Britten. Arias from Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro figure prominently on the album and from the first notes of "Finch'han dal vino,"
Mattei establishes himself as a natural
Mozart singer: confident, lyrical, agile, and fluent in the subtleties of characterization. Then the two arias from Tannhäuser (not only the requisite "O, du mein holder Abendstern," but "Blick'ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise") show off a loamy, dark, and deeply resonant voice that makes him seem like an ideal Wagnerian baritone. In the arias from Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, and Faust,
Mattei's romantic sensibility comes to the fore, his tone luxuriantly creamy and his bearing fervently passionate. The extended scene from Don Carlo that culminates in the aria, "O Carlo, ascolta," is charged with dramatic urgency. Throughout,
Mattei's tone sounds effortlessly produced and his beautifully controlled vibrato is calibrated to the expressive demands of the music. The
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, under the leadership of
Lawrence Renes, provides a stylistically sensitive accompaniment. The sound of BIS' hybrid SACD is clean, balanced, and immediate, providing an ideal acoustic for showcasing
Mattei's impressive performances.