he has a superb voice which he uses intelligently and sensitively...Once you adjust to the pronounced echo, there is plenty of pleasure to be had here - from his singing and adventurous choice of repertoire alike...his dying Don Quichotte is especially fine.

The best of his voice - a dark vocal plushness in his mid-range - emerges in the Toreador Song's verse portion, though beyond that he pushes for low notes that aren't really there...Declamatory passages go well for Schrott, especially when the language is Italian - one reason why some of the early Verdi arias are among the more convincing moments on the disc.

on disc, his pleasing lyric bass is a good fit for the characters he plays...this is far from the random bran-tub selection one now almost invariably encounters on recorded solo opera programmes of this type...[Don Quichotte's] valedictory music inspires some of Schrott's most sensitive singing...one of the most plausible champions of this repertoire in today's opera firmament.

Schrott finds perhaps his most rewarding role as Mefistofele in Boito's version of the Faust myth, reaching a feverish pitch of disgust as he derides mankind in "Ave Signor" and "Ecco il Mondo".

It's a bit of a mixed bag but, unlike some of his previous recordings, the best of it does capture the mixture of raunchiness and dramatic power he can generate in the theatre...[Pluses] include an electrifying Scintille Diamant from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann; excerpts from Verdi's I Lombardi and Attila, in which his sense of line is magnificent; Mefistofele's principal monologues, savagely ironic...Flawed but highly recommended.

The wide range and changing tones are distinctive in this selection from Verdi, Boito, Gounod, Massenet, Bizet and beyond. One minute Schrott’s exploring the ocean depths of his register; the next he’s bobbing on the surface, bright as any tenor.