This weeks Opera CDs reviewed

ERWIN SCHROTT: OPERA ARIAS
Orquestra de la Communitat Valenciana. Conductor: Riccardo Frizza Decca 4780473****

A bass-baritone blessed with good looks and considerable charisma, Erwin Schrott has enjoyed big successes as Don Giovanni and Figaro in the past few years. In this album he sings arias from these signature roles plus other great arias from the bass-baritone repertoire. It's an eclectic mix, designed to showcase the power and range of Schrott's voice. The voice is impressive, especially in the lower range, and comes across on disc as being a big voice - larger, indeed, than experienced in the opera house. Schrott's presentation of the Mozart arias here is somewhat perfunctory, but his singing of the Verdi arias has great power and sensitivity, particularly the great monologue from Don Carlos, delivered in the original French. This is a gifted young singer with enormous potential. COLMAN MORRISSEY