<\/p>\n
The Grand Seigneur of Norwegian Opera<\/p>\n
Norway\u2019s foremost baritone Knut Skram had his breakthrough at Glyndebourne in 1969, as Guglielmo in Cos\u00ec. He has done Wagner at Deutsche Oper and Beethoven, Strauss and Verdi at Staatsoper Under den Linden in Berlin, and at the most had more than 60 roles at the ready. At his home stage Knut Skram is a living legend, and was of course in front of presenting the brand new opera house in Oslo in 2008. <\/p>\n
This CD contains concert recordings from Skram\u2019s entire career, with several prominent orchestras and conductors \u2013 and a spectavular duet with soprano Inga Nielsen (Rigoletto) \u2013available for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrand Seigneur\u201d [Opernwelt etter Skram’s Vanderer i Siegfried]<\/p>\n
The entire performance has been dominated by Knut Skram who brought a fantastic Jago. He has a powerful and smooth baritone and his perfomance was one of the intelligent and fascinating kind. [De Standard, Verdi: Otello De Vlaamse Opera 1993]<\/p>\n
The performance of Mozart’s \u2018Le Nozze di Figaro\u2019 at Glyndebourne on Saturday evening was dominated both vocally and dramatically by Knut Skram. [Daily Telegraph 1976]<\/p>\n
Mr. Skram has been the linchpin of this production since it was new, and his Figaro is a classic. [Spectator 1976]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norway\u2019s foremost baritone Knut Skram had his breakthrough at Glyndebourne in 1969, as Guglielmo in Cos\u00ec. He has done Wagner at Deutsche Oper and Beethoven, Strauss and Verdi at Staatsoper Under den Linden in Berlin, and at the most had more than 60 roles at the ready. At his home stage Knut Skram is a living legend, and these days he is in front of presenting the brand new opera house in Oslo. This CD contains concert recordings from Skram\u2019s entire career, available for the first time.<\/p>\n
After his Norwegian debut, Skram continued to make a great impression also internationally. He was invited to Glyndebourne nine times, and achieved great success also in 1973 singing Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro together with three young, relatively unknown singers: Kiri te Kanawa (the Countess), Frederika von Stade (Cherubino) and Ileana Cotrubas (Susanna)! Directed by Peter Hall, the performance is now available on DVD. The 1974-75 season was a veritable Rossini year for Skram. He sang Figaro in The Barber of Seville in Norwegian in the autumn; the same part in English in Johannesburg the following January at which time he was learning the part in Italian for a performance at the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre L\u2019Od\u00e9on in Paris, and the next autumn in German in Bonn.<\/p>\n
Over the years, and with the development of his voice, Skram took on all the major baritone roles, from Germont in La Traviata to Ford in Falstaff; from the title role in Macbeth to Don Carlos in La forza del destino. Among many highlights were performances of Tosca at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and in Oslo with Pl\u00e1cido Domingo as Cavaradossi; and, not least, Simon Boccanegra at the Norwegian National Opera. In 1990, when Knut Skram entered the Arena di Verona as the first Norwegian ever, he intended to leave after Tosca (played by Linda Rourke Strummer) had killed him in the second act in the role of the dreaded Chief of Police. But the renowned Italian baritone Cappucilli told him: \u201cDon\u2019t even think of leaving after the second act! The big ovation comes at the very end!\u201d Skram stayed behind, and at the end 20,000 people rose to their feet shouting \u201cScarpia \u2013 Skaramma! Scarpia \u2013 Skaramma!\u201d<\/p>\n
Skram\u2019s diploma thesis in his architectural studies was called \u201cAn Opera House\u201d, making him ideally suited for the jury of the new opera house in Oslo forty years later. And although he gave his farewell performance at the Norwegian Opera in 2000, with HM King Harald V present, Skram made his debut in Teatro Liceu (Barcelona) this year, and he is of course central in the opening production OperaFest at the new opera house in Oslo.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What first and foremost made him stand out was his superb articulation, his identification with his role characters, his sense of style and his willingness to scale down the volume. At pianissimo he produced soft beautiful tones and a perfect legato. In the long scene from the second act of La traviata he gives ample proof of all these characteristics, inspired no doubt also by the sensitive and involved Violetta of the late lamented Inga Nielsen. There are few more moving readings in my vast collection and Skram\u2019s development from stern brutality to sympathy is well portrayed. <\/p>\n
A worthy tribute to an eminent singer … [Goran Forsling\/MusicWeb]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[180],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-404","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-simax-classics","7":"product_shipping_class-cddvd-shipping","8":"uni_artist_tag-antonio-papano","9":"uni_artist_tag-erik-gard-amundsen","10":"uni_artist_tag-finnish-radio-orchestra","11":"uni_artist_tag-giuseppe-verdi-1813-1901","12":"uni_artist_tag-inga-nielsen","13":"uni_artist_tag-knut-skram","14":"uni_artist_tag-norwegian-opera-orchestra","15":"uni_artist_tag-okku-kamo","16":"uni_artist_tag-oslo-philharmonic-orchestra","17":"uni_artist_tag-per-ake-anderson","18":"uni_artist_tag-richard-wagner-1813-1883","19":"uni_artist_tag-robert-levin","20":"uni_artist_tag-robert-schumann-1810-1856","21":"uni_artist_tag-royal-philharmonic-orchestra","22":"uni_artist_tag-simone-young","23":"uni_artist_tag-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-1756-1791","24":"uni_main_artist_tag-knut-skram","25":"uni_artist_genre-classical","26":"uni_artist_genre-collection","27":"uni_artist_genre-opera","29":"first","30":"instock","31":"taxable","32":"shipping-taxable","33":"purchasable","34":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}