Album: Bryn Terfel, Bad Boys (Deutsche Grammophon)

As a bass-baritone, Bryn Terfel regularly has to wear the metaphorical black hat in the standard operatic value-system, so this anthology of great bad-guy roles, from Iago and Mephistopheles to Sweeney Todd and Mack The Knife, is custom-built to showcase his dark, brooding qualities.

It includes two Satans and a taunting title presence redolent with sinister insouciance in Boito's Mefistofele. Elsewhere, evil ranges from Donizetti's wheedling snake-oil salesman Dulcamara and Gershwin's drug-dealer Sportin' Life, to the blackly nihilistic Sweeney Todd and Iago. It culminates in Terfel's bravura performance of an excerpt from Don Giovanni in which he plays Il Commendatore, Leporello and Don Giovanni.

Download this Mefistofele; Mack The Knife; Sweeney Todd; Dulcamara; Don Giovanni