The roles featured on this album are, in more ways than one, truly great ones- and the vocal and interpretational demands on the artist are of an equally high caliber. The fact, as J.M. Fischer writes in the booklet text, that the term “heroic baritone” has established itself in connection with these roles is recognition of the highly technical challenges- and simultaneously an understatement. The parallels with Wagner’s “heroic tenor roles” can be seen in the truly supreme vocal challenges, and yet the bass-baritone protagonist’s role in each of these works also demands even greater control of the dramatic character of the role and, therefore, a more complex musical approach. The enduring fascination of these demanding roles can also be sought in their “tragic awareness,” their undeniably “modern” broken state- something that is highly present in an era which sees itself as “post-heroic.” Michael Volle is the epitome of a singer who has almost untypically by today’s standard continuously grown into these roles and developed them in a serious way to bring out their individual characters. He now performs those great Wagner roles on the most renowned international stages.
