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Rated: Exempt
Staring:
Andrea Bocelli,
Sarah Brightman
Director:
David Amphlett
Part concert, part documentary, part travelogue, this video hit duplicates the success of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli's albums and underscores his unique crossover appeal. Critical response to Bocelli has been confined to fusillades of scorn from classical and opera writers, but the bullet-proof superstar is better understood in the context of a mainland European tradition of pop-classical fusion. Bocelli cheerfully ignores the supposed wall between high (classical) art and low (pop) kitsch with his mix of operatic chestnuts, soft pop and traditional Italian songs.Indeed, despite interview segments in which he proclaims his love of opera or proudly recalls an apprenti...
 Andrea Bocelli - A Night In Tuscany [1997], 2007-11-09
This DVD is worth it for the last 2 tracks alone. Duets with Zuccero and Sarah Brightman, the rest is a bonus. As for the poor picture quality mentioned in a previous review - it is shot in high contrast - for effect in my opinion. I am a photographer so picture quality is important to me. This is within DVD quality tolerance.
Summary: - WONDERFUL - BUY IT.
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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £8.00
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Artist:
Paul Carrack & The SWR Big Band
Great Music, 2009-12-16
Bought this as a present to myself. Love Paul Carrack's voice and wanted to get in the Xmas mood. It certainly does that and more the big band are great. One to listen to in the car on a long journey home for Xmas holidays.
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £5.77
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Artist:
Andrea Bocelli
Opera is in fashion, and the woods are full of pop vocalists who think they have the chops to sing arias. The best contender so far is Andrea Bocelli, who at least has a real voice, if a small one, and sometimes manages a really exciting tenor sound. Unfortunately, he is inconsistent in his tone and production, and, despite the fact that he's singing in his native language, he often sounds as though he has only the barest idea of what the words mean. The Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev, plays stodgily. Anyone with a real interest in tenor arias would be much better advised to check out recordings by the young Luciano Pavarotti. --Sarah ...
The Album Viaggio Italiano, 2003-11-22
A fantastic selection of classic songs sang by one of the world's foremost singers. Bocelli doesn't try to alter the sound of such classics as O Sole Mio and Ave Maria he simply graces these songs with his vocal richness. An important note, the UK version is a must as it features The Pearl Fisher's Duet which in its self is worth the price of the album.
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List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £2.68
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Artist:
Russell Watson
On Reprise, his third album, Russell Watson continues to bring together classical pieces with light songs--have Bizet and "Bohemian Rhapsody" ever shared a disc before? Probably not, and with good reason--it's rather unsettling to hear Leoncavallo's devestating "Vesti la giubba" (from Pagliacci) tagged on after a dreary rendition of the aforementioned Queen hit. He may have been dubbed "the people's tenor", but Watson is at his best--and most comfortable--at the lighter end of the repertory. He sings the lilting "That's Amore" with charm and humour, a smooth performance which compares to Robbie Williams on Swing When You're Winning. Nicholas Dod...
Russell Watson, 3rd Album (Reprise), 2008-08-15
This is an Australian import version, with unspecified bonus track, of Russell Watson's Reprise album released in 2002. Reprise I think represents a more confident and self assured singer than on his previous `The Voice' and `Encore'albums, thanks to his increasingly successful concert touring and life in the limelight.
But it was also a worrying time during which he suffered a throat polyp, threatening to end his singing career, which was thankfully removed without causing long term problems to his voice.
The songs are a mix of classical, opera and popular, with a distinctly more dramatic feel to those opera choices, the best example being the version of `Granada' which takes on epic proportions with the orchestral score and an individual vocal interpretation which, while straying from the conventional, certainly works.
Notable also are Ave Maria (Schubert's version) and a lovely performance of `The Pearl Fisher's duet (oddly no mention of who the duet was with, I suspect both voices are Russell Watson's!)
Bohemian Rhapsody is a bold choice let down by lame electronic backing, which is a shame for it represents one of Russell's best recorded examples of his talent for singing rock music. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash offered Watson the job of Velvet Revolver frontman, which he declined, but I'm sure he could handle `Sweet Child o' Mine'.
In fact, on the strength of this album's wide ranging style of music, he can probably make a good job of almost everything.
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List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £0.26
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MAYBE THE BEST TENOR OF 2OTH. CENTURY, 2010-05-29
Mario Lanza: The Ultimate Collection
This recording is truly great, showing of the great Lanza's remarkable command of the operatic and more modern genre of singing.
Poor Mario, he was exploited badly by the Holywood star mincing machine and never really believed that he had the luck to have this wonderful voice and a truly marvellous voice it was.
I was about eleven years old, I think (I am now sixty-six) when I first heard him on the radio and remember being totally and wholly fascinated that such a voice could issue from a human throat. He was compared to the great Caruso and his voice was, in fact, mistakenly thought to be Caruso's on more than one occasion.
He chose (or more likely was coerced) to go into films rather than onto the operatic stage and, who knows, if he had taken the other course, he may have lived longer and would have been able to leave us more of his wonderful gift? I do believe that, because Mario was of a naturally robust build, which incidentally made for his better singing, the pressure of Holywood forcing him to diet to look slimmer for his films, caused a lot of his health problems. He actually died from a pulmonary embolism at the very young age of thirty-seven, which could have resulted from his constant dieting having a dilatory effect on his circulation.
I remember when I heard that he had died ( I was fifteen) I felt quite devastated and found it hardly believable. What a tragedy and an unnecessary waste.
The Three Tenors, Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras have all said that he was their idol when they first came into the operatic world; for these three greats to say this, says a great deal about Mario's heart-breaking voice, doesn't it?
Buy this recording and his others as they are all wonderful and in a lot of cases heart-rending with the sweetness of his articulation and delivery. In my opinion they have never been bettered even by Pavarotti and that's saying a lot in my book.
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List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £2.68
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List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £7.08
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Artist:
Janet Baker
Dame Janet Baker, 2002-08-02
This is a wonderful CD of classic English folk songs that with be remembered by many who where at school in the 60's. The track "linden lea" by Vaughn Williams is the quintessential English country folk song full of late summer warmth and longing for days gone by. Dame Jane's' voice is perfection personified and will bring a tear to the eye, well worth every penny.
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List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £4.22
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Artist:
Destiny's Child
I'd never want to visit Destiny's Child's homes for the holidays, if their nonsensically named holiday album 8 Days of Christmas is any indication of what they've got under the tree. Chilly, forced and overdone, this mixed bag of modern classics, tarted-up traditional carols and a trio of tunes penned by Beyoncé Knowles doesn't conjure up a single warm-and-fuzzy image of chestnuts roasting on an open fire or Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Rather, it's just another forum to showcase the band's Gucci bag of vocal gymnastics and crass materialism. The Texas trio takes seasonal classics such as Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", "Silent Night" and "Little Drummer Bo...
Not typical of what I listen to but interesting, 2009-09-09
I like many different types of music including pop, rock, country, jazz, folk, classical and R+B. When it comes to R+B, I am mainly interested in the old stuff, particularly of the fifties, sixties and seventies. This album dates from the late nineties and is, of course, recorded in a much more recent style of R+B. With its distinctive funky rhythms much more to the fore than on most Christmas albums, it is certainly different for any of the music that I normally listen to.
The song titles are certainly familiar but have you heard them interpreted anything like this before? 8 days of Christmas (the title track) is a re-working of 12 days of Christmas. I'm guessing that they cut it from 12 to 8 because a full-length version would have been too long given the way that they do it. Opera of the bells is actually their reworking of Carol of the bells. I can't even guess the reason for the title change here, since it certainly doesn't sound very operatic to my ears. My favorite here is probably Silent night, precisely because I've heard so many versions of this well-worn chestnut. I appreciate hearing this very different, but still recognizable, version.
As a change from what I normally listen to, this is great. Nevertheless, it won't cause me to get excited about contemporary R+B on a large scale. Still, I may dabble in it occasionally as I did with this. If you are one of those people who buy music based on what I like, I strongly recommend that you hear samples before committing yourself.
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £1.64
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Rated: Exempt
Artist:
Pope John Paul II
 disappointment, 2008-01-07
Purchased as a gift for a dedicated RC friend. She was reluctant to pass comment as it was a gift but felt she should say that this DVD was nothing like the review - hard to follow and the clips difficult to understand. I viewed this as well and was upset that I had thought it would be of great interest to her. The continuity was hard to follow and the filming very poor
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List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £1.24
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The Ultimate in listening pleasure, 2009-07-04
there are few words that can describe the wonderful voice of Pavarotti. He will be sadly missed.
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List Price: £17.99
Our Price: £11.37
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![Andrea Bocelli - A Night In Tuscany [DVD] [1997]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YW79P7MwL._SL160_.jpg "Andrea Bocelli - A Night In Tuscany [DVD] [1997]")
![Pope John Paul II - Santo Subito! [DVD] [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PbxiDpSpL._SL160_.jpg "Pope John Paul II - Santo Subito! [DVD] [2007]")
