Editorial Product Review: :Anyone discovering this album who had never heard or heard of Luciano Pavarotti would immediately recognize greatness, a one-of-a-kind, one-per-generation (maybe) talent and personality that commands attention, respect, and yes, even love. These 35 selections are an astonishing achievement: Taken, for the most part from the tenor's prime--the 1970s and '80s (although there are four earlier and three from 2003)--what we hear is golden tone, impeccable diction, an innate sense of style and line and where the music should be going, absolutely natural phrasing, ...
Editorial Product Review: :Every track on this CD contains a beautiful melody, many of them easily recognizable, all of them exuding tranquility. 'O mio babbino caro' from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi opens the disc, with Bell delicately accompanied by a harp and spinning the long melody with great sensitivity. Bellini's 'Casta diva' from Norma lives up to its reputation as the epitome of bel canto in Bell's hands; his violin sings. The middle movement of Mozart's 21st Piano Concerto takes well to the violin, and Debussy's 'The Girl ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:From his childhood on the family farm in rural Tuscany to the worldwide stage, Andrea Bocelli has achieved phenomenal success. His singing is only partially the point, and his fame owes much more to the aura of romance and the romantic archetype that's attached to him. Romanza is by far Bocelli's largest success, winning adoration thanks to the swooning vocals and the easy, sometimes lush, always pop-safe instrumental textures and melodies. As far as his opera chops go, Bocelli has won the ...
Editorial Product Review: :The labels that are now gathered under the Universal Classics umbrella have a pretty impressive scorecard in the area of classical compilations. We've seen The Greatest Opera Show on Earth, The Yellow Guide: Classical Music, Best of the Millennium, and now there's The No. 1 Opera Album. But that's no surprise, since Universal has some of the finest interpreters in its catalogue to draw from. This two-CD set (at the price of one), for example, brings together the likes of Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:The score for La Bohème comes to glowing life under Herbert von Karajan's baton, and Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti make beautiful music together as the ill-fated lovers. The smaller parts are wonderfully sung, the comedy sharply profiled, and the pathos contained in such a way that the opera's ending proves remarkably gripping. London's sound is excellent. --Ted Libbey
Editorial Product Review: :This performance is also available on Deutsche Grammophon in an earlier, mid-price incarnation, but this version is clearly the one to own, since the remastered sound is a definite improvement over previous issues. Herbert von Karajan always did a good job with this symphony, and his performances are quite consistent, even down to the very backward-balance of the chorus. By general consensus, though, this is the best of them. --David Hurwitz
Editorial Product Review: :This is a misnomer--not all of these duets are all that famous--but it's a fine compilation nonetheless. You'll hear selections from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers (Nicolai Gedda and Ernest Blanc at their most elegant French), Madama Butterfly (Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto--an impassioned pair), Lucia di Lammermoor (a classy Alfredo Kraus and Edita Gruberova), the lovely Lakme duet, The Presentation of the Silver Rose from Der Rosenkavalier (with the earnest Christa Ludwig and the other-worldly Teresa Stich-Randall), and a fine Trovatore 'Miserere' (with Leontyne ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:Andrea Bocelli's Sogno ('Dream') is a pop album of entirely original compositions that evoke traditional and modern influences. Bocelli himself describes the CD as secular Italian traditional melodic music with a contemporary twist. The album's 14 tracks include 'The Prayer,' a Bocelli and Celine Dion duet produced by David Foster; 'Come un Fiume Tu,' an intriguing collaboration with soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone; 'O Mare e Tu,' a duet with Dulce Pontes; and 'Sogno' (the first single excerpted from the album), a light-as-a-feather, ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:Andrea Bocelli's Sogno ('Dream') is a pop album of entirely original compositions that evoke traditional and modern influences. Bocelli himself describes the CD as secular Italian traditional melodic music with a contemporary twist. The album's 14 tracks include 'The Prayer,' a Bocelli and Celine Dion duet produced by David Foster; 'Come un Fiume Tu,' an intriguing collaboration with soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone; 'O Mare e Tu,' a duet with Dulce Pontes; and 'Sogno' (the first single excerpted from the album), a light-as-a-feather, ...
Editorial Product Review: :Not content with the simplistic 'crossover' formula, superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli has been pursuing alternative paths since he emerged as a vocal phenomenon in the mid-1990s: operatic classics and contemporary popular song. The singer's last few albums have showcased his love for the former (including homages to his beloved Verdi: the Requiem and Verdi aria collection). But Cieli di Toscana ('Tuscan Skies') marks a triumphant return to the pop idiom last explored on Sogno, offering a highly varied series of the kind of beautifully ...
Usually we're fans of Logitech's gaming mice, but its highest-end G9 Laser Mouse is expensive, overly complex, and lacks the ergonomic thought we've come to expect. If you like to brag about dot-per-inch limits, perhaps the G9's 3,200dpi laser will be enough to sell you, but for the price, we expect the design to match.
