Rene Pape - Faust - Le Veau d'Or

[elisethora16]

Seeing him perform at the met was so great! This scene was so awesome!

[maxungerua]

Bravo!!!

[Isreal94]

Saw him today at the Met. the man is amaaazingg on stage!

[clown84700]

René , t'es le meilleur!!

[TheSmallBrittain]

Saw him in Faust the other night!

He makes the devil look sexy!

[LordHettrick]

He makes a textual error...the second time, it should be "Le veau d'or...est vainqueur des dieux", not "est toujours debout". Still, great performance.

[Jakovian12345]

22 people got tricked by Mephistopheles.

[rovingdesertfox]

Yuck.

[JoshuaMazur]

@rovingdesertfox Hey, you misspelled "AWESOME"

[Benjaminy2k]

lol, look at his face.

[NYCSizzle]

Opinions are like as*holes. Everybody has one, and thinks everyone else's stinks. PLEASE shut up your insipid whining and bitching and realize that YOU are not the one on stage being paid megabucks for your voice. Divas.... (segue) I smoked a cigarette with him outside of Carnegie's stage door once. So there!

[bodiloto]

Bellissima voce di basso baritono!

René Pape e un bravissimo artista,purtroppo i grandi direttori d'orchestra di 50 anni fa non esistono piu,l'orchestra lirico ancora meno.

Bravo Pape!

[surgeonsinger]

Ghiaurov is the best!!!!

[hagst27]

J'adore le léger sourire (à 1.13) quand il réalise avoir fait une erreur de texte !

[ertzike]

@hagst27

je crois que c'est plutos le sourire sarcastioue de mephysto.

[hagst27]

His French diction is amazingly precise and clear. Many Slavic and Italian singers may have a voice with richer harmonics but they are unable to handle the tricky French sounds.

And René Pape can also sing in Russian, go figure!

[SamiTheVoice]

@hagst27

I think his diction sucks. It is too open. But it IS very difficult for a bass (I'm not talking about baritones, who unfortunately also are singing this role) to sing the top E flats still maintaining the typical closed french vowels...

[milandinic1977]

good france diction :)

[RossiniSoprano]

Compared to many of the other versions of this aria on Youtube, Pape sounds like a baritone, not a bass.

[MTondeleo]

I agree with you 100%. Pape is a marvelous singer and actor, have seen him at the Met as Mephistopheles. But I wanted to hear the roar of the basso, like Furlanetto or Ramey or - and here I agree 100% with Morihirosan - the definitive satanic one, Boris Christoff. When he sang "La bas!" you realy knew he meant, "Down there in hell."

[danyarivw]

@MTondeleo

he is too happy that he has a nice voice, but is an imature Mephisto or Leporello or Don Basilio.

is a nice voice but not a great opera singer

[Fragenoa92]

@danyarivw ma che cazzo dici

[eegreen]

@MTondeleo

Do you really mean that "roar of the basso, like Furlanetto" he is no bass, sorry. Baritone obscuring vocals to sound bass, and he knows it, but Italy is out of basses.

[DanyNicola]

@eegreen What in hell do you expect from a bass? You don't need to be a russian oktavist to be a "true" bass. I bet you are either a frustated baritone or a very cocky basso profondo.

[eegreen]

@DanyNicola

All I meant is that Furlanetto, truely, is not a bass. Rene Pape is... and I have to admit I do notice more power and rage in Furlanetto's interpretation, but I find Pape's one more pleasing because of the color and velvet of the voice.

[DanyNicola]

@eegreen Why not! He's today's leading basso! He's a basso cantante, which is not synonimous of basso-baritono. This is a common misconception. Sadly wikipedia states that. Plus, a basso-baritono STAYS A BASS, unless he deliberately chooses a baritonal reperoire. He's got nothing that makes him similar to a baritone.

[UKbasso22]

@DanyNicola Well he doesn't have much of a low range on O Isis und Osiris, so I'm not sure what makes him similar to a bass either.

[DanyNicola]

@UKbasso22 Furlanetto sang O Isis und Osiris? That's new to me. Anyhow, you should give a try to his Sparafucile and his Fiesco. You'd be surprised. Gorgeous F2s.

[UKbasso22]

@DanyNicola Oh, my fault. I thought you were referring to Rene Pape from the previous comment. I'll have to take a look at the Sparafucile and Fiesco.

[jfsanin]

I agree

[algol22]

Bravissimo bravo!!!

[djjmmm]

I saw him Saturday night in Chicago. He was absolutely incredible. So were Beczala and Meachem (whom I saw as Don Giovanni in Santa Fe).

[joeyhemlock]

Just saw him sing it tonight in Chicago. It was an absolutely stellar show.

[bodiloto]

BRAVO !!!

[Morihirosan]

From all renditions to which I have listened, this one is, I think, the closest to Boris Christoff's. The latter is the one and only Basso Master.

[marcopolette]

J'adore. His French diction is very clear.

[isabelle070209]

Comme beaucoup d'allemand.

[halavey]

Back in 1987 Ramey sang it with Shicoff in Chicago and they brought the house down and now Pape will sing it  in Chicago next month with Beczala, should be a good one.

[comescrittomaestro]

too fast, but still great interpretation. some e-flats are pushed. I guess basses like to sing it in faster then indicated tempo in the score to avoide singing long high notes? and it became tradition to sing it that way. But this aria should sound better with Alegro maestoso and not presto:)

[DIEZAUBERFLOTEMENSCH]

this is a perfect tempo ask any singer

[RawrPianoPlyr]

I agree. On his recent CD release, he sings this piece at a MUCH faster tempo. However it doesn't lose any of the effect and I like it at both speeds. Any slower and it would just drag, in my opinion. I think the faster tempo suits the piece well, being that is one of the Devil's arias.

[WhiteProfondo]

Hm...I think if its that slow, it has more power and the interpret has more options to enjoy the music and bring it better to the audience; it has more power and I don´t think, that a devil wants to kill their opponents quickly; they play with them to show their overwhelming power and strength!:-)

[comescrittomaestro]

off course finaly tempo is a personal choice of an interpreter(Conductore or vocalists in charge of a recital) I guess it's works goodn for his temperment:)

[mkbub]

wow, i just noticed his little stuff-up there in the text. yeah, a little odd for his level, but it doesn't change the fact that HE'S STILL A FREAKING BEAST!!!

[wotan3000]

words slips - these things are inevitable when performing so often

the fact that you don't hear them often and when they do they are well-disguised with him is a testament to his professionalism

remember that opera has a prompter's box for a reason.... it's insanely difficult to do everythign all at once... words, tones, pitches, rhythms, visuals... no one is perfect.

[ILikeOpera]

Just remember we are all human (even Great Opera stars) not machines. You never know what is going through ones mind or what happens before walking on stage.

[SerbianSoprano]

I love Rene, but as Faust George LOndon and Boris Christoff are unsurpased!

[90lysander]

@SerbianSoprano I assume you mean as Mephistopheles?

[mausimama1]

If you think this is good than listen to the version he sings on his CD "Gods, Kings and Demons". That one is georgeous! Faster, better pronounced and of course without any text mistakes. I can only recommend his CD.

[gracek703]

Great voice

He is very charming

[rexeterna]

haha. love how all the chicks in the orchestra are smiling before he starts singing!!!

[OpernDriver]

Nice Singing, but wrong Text, its funny for hes Level :)

[DIEZAUBERFLOTEMENSCH]

why did he change the text at the beginning of the second verse? wtf?

[thrashgg]

bravo!rene pape

[jamiezra]

Good Lord, that man is gorgeous.

[Belcore14]

This is sung very well.

Everyone should be careful when singing this song... it's so easy to push on it, and you can see some straining on the sides of his neck if you look.

[mkbub]

omgosh!! i can't get over how good this guy is. phenomenal singer, fantastic actor. i love the way he snaps his neck right b4 he starts!

[FacePaster]

Gorgeous voice! I'd love to hear him in person.

[WhiteProfondo]

Wooohoo! Thats´s how it´s done ! No problem for forgetting the right text, starting at 2nd strophe after "le veau d´or" ! Things like these just happen, but great done, René ! I love this pause for breath just before "debout" in the 2nd strophe; how I said, the text is wrong, but you did it extremely cool!

[hamster13]

...but this song is allso sung well by

ghiaurov ofcourse. ramey is allso fantastic in this repertoir.

[hamster13]

very good!

right now he is in norway singing in Don Carlo.

[luisamiller]

J'ai eu le privilège de voir René Pape en live dans ce rôle. Non seulement la diction est impeccable, ce qui est rare pour un artiste étranger, mais en plus la voix correspond parfaitement au rôle. Il EST Méphisto. C'est un pur bonheur que de l'écouter dans cet opéra.

[34fgsfgsdtu48w7qtaqt]

Bellissimo!

[quicky281185]

bryn terfel and ramey are the best's. French include

[Aegisth]

I think Samuel Ramey is best. He IS the devil! His French is also much better than Pape's.

[pechorin1841]

if you like ramey, i think you will like cesare siepi as well. Jerome hines also does agreat job with this aria

[DaMum]

Pape is simply the best! What a voice!

[sospello]

Wonderful performance; only wish it had been staged as Pape is so dramatic.

[WiseMonki]

Bravo!!!