René Pape’s 2012-13 Season Offers Recital Debut at La Scala; Wotan in Berlin; Plus Solti Centennial Concerts in New York & Chicago

“The world’s most charismatic bass.” – Opera News

After kicking off his 2012-13 season this month as Phillip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Vienna State Opera, René Pape made his recital debut at La Scala in Milan on Sunday (September 16)  singing Schubert, Schumann, and Wolf lieder, with fellow Dresdener Camillo Radicke at the piano. Up next, Pape travels to Germany to reprise his acclaimed Wotan at the Berlin State Opera, in a production of Wagner’s Die Walküre conducted by Daniel Barenboim (Oct 4-14). For concerts celebrating the centennial of Sir Georg Solti’s birth, the singer joins conductor Valery Gergiev and the World Orchestra for Peace at Carnegie Hall (Oct 19) and in Chicago (Oct 21). Pape returns to La Scala in December to open its opera season, portraying King Heinrich in Wagner’s Lohengrin, together with his friend Jonas Kaufmann and frequent musical partner Daniel Barenboim (Dec 7-17). On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, the “black diamond bass” (Opera News) re-joins Barenboim for performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Staatskapelle Berlin. And in 2013, to help mark the bicentennial of Wagner’s birth, Pape sings his signature Gurnemanz in the new François Girard production of Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Daniele Gatti (Feb 15-March 8).

Pape’s season also takes in performances at the Berlin State Opera as Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. It was that role that put him on the operatic map, thanks to Solti selecting him for the part in a high-profile production at the 1995 Salzburg Festival – a key reason for the singer’s participation in the conductor’s centennial concerts this year at Carnegie Hall and in Chicago.

The Schubert, Schumann, and Wolf lieder of Pape’s La Scala recital debut echoes the program from his Los Angeles recital debut in 2011. In his glowing review of that performance, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times declared the singer “the finest bass of his generation,” and mused on the qualities Pape shares with voices from the Golden Age, writing that “what he conveys is that same unforced intensity of expression heard on old recordings of the great singers of the past.” Swed added, “Vocally, Pape is a complete singer. His lows vibrate with a satisfying subterranean buzz, his highs have a baritonal smoothness.” But execution matters, too; Swed noted one particularly impressive interpretation: “Schubert describes a surging storm as a metaphor for the swelling of a broken heart. Pape delivered lyrics with the shocking immediacy of tweets reporting devastation the second it happens.”

For those wanting a preview of the marvels Pape can manage in Die Walküre, Lohengrin, and Parsifal, there is his album Wagner, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2011. That recording – with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin – presents the bass as Gurnemanz in Parsifal and Wotan in Die Walküre, as well as King Heinrich in Lohengrin. The disc was featured as an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, where Arnold Whittall’s review summed up this singer’s appeal: “It’s not often we hear this music so gorgeously intoned… When it comes to sheer vocal refinement and the purest Wagnerian gravitas, René Pape is hard to beat.” Wagner won Pape his second ECHO Klassik award, the German equivalent of a Grammy, for Opera Recording of the Year. And WQXR, New York’s classical station, declared the album to be “a must for any Wagnerite.”

René Pape: 2012-13 engagements

Sept 16

Milan, Italy

Teatro alla Scala

Schubert, Schumann, & Wolf

Camillo Radicke, piano

Oct 4, 7, & 14

Berlin, Germany

Berlin State Opera

Wagner: Die Walküre (Wotan)

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Oct 19

New York, NY

Carnegie Hall

Solti Centennial Concert: Arias by Mozart & Verdi

World Orchestra for Peace; Valery Gergiev, conductor

Oct 21

Chicago, IL

Symphony Center

Solti Centennial Concert: Arias by Mozart & Verdi

World Orchestra for Peace; Valery Gergiev, conductor

Oct 28; Nov 1, 4, 7, & 10

Berlin, Germany

Berlin State Opera

Verdi: Don Carlos (Philipp II)

Massimo Zanetti, conductor

Nov 9

Berlin, Germany

Berlin State Opera

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro)

Alexander Soddy, conductor

Dec 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, & 27

Milan, Italy

Teatro alla Scala

Wagner: Lohengrin (King Heinrich)

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Dec 29

Berlin, Germany

Berlin State Opera

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro)

Julien Salemkour, conductor

Dec 31; Jan 1

Berlin, Germany

Staatskapelle Berlin

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Feb 15, 18, 21, & 27; March 2, 5, & 8

New York, NY

Metropolitan Opera

Wagner: Parsifal (Gurnemanz)

Daniele Gatti, conductor