Michael Amante

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Music reviews of Michael Amante

Music Review: Oh my goodness.. this is awful
Rating: 1 Stars

Now, I'm not an opera buff and I'm not some music purist who worships at the alter of Bjorling or Pavarotti and thinks the world is coming to an end just because a non-opera singer "dares" to venture into sacred opera territory. I'm just a casual listener of both pop and some classical singing so I won't criticize based on extreme standards. I'll just explain the specific reasons I thought this was bad singing...

First of all, as someone here already said: the voice does NOT match the face! Judging from Amante's rugged facial features, you'd expect a super deep and powerful voice right? WRONG! Insead he's got a very meek, higher-toned, wimpy voice (think Mario Lanza minus the testosterone). The studio engineers tried to compensate by recording Amante's vocal with a very unnatural "echo" effect just to add a sense of presence. But the moment he sings the first word of "La Donna e Mobile", his lack of personality and command is fully exposed regardless of the studio echo... Amante continues the rest of the piece in a timid fashion even though the accompanying orchestra thunders vigorously behind him. I thought at any moment he was going to be literally swallowed up by the orchestra!

I would have forgiven his lack of strength and conviction if he had brought something else to the piece such as a pleasing, natural tone. But Amante doesn't have that as I explained before. His voice ends up sounding very generic and forgetable...

Secondly, his terrible diction. On almost all the songs here he trips over pronunciations and mangles more than a few words... I guess for people unfamiliar with these pieces it's a non-issue, but the mistakes really stuck out for me. I assumed Amante's last name would indicate some ethnic background in either Italian or Spanish and therefore, some familiarity with either of these 2 languages, but instead it sounds like this CD was Amante's very first exposure to these foreign words. Just the simple detail of not being able to "roll" an r is enough to make most people who understand these languages either laugh or frown in contempt. Also, Amante has the WORST Spanish diction I've ever heard on any CD and this is possibly the WORST rendition of "Granada" ever! In this 1 song alone he completely mispronounces word after word to a point it becomes like comedy... how can they allow such awful pronunciation on a recording that's going to be heard by so many? It's safe to say there were no Spanish-speaking engineers in the studio! And "Granada" is a well-known classic and has been recorded countless times before.

Third, his lack of much needed technique. About the only positive for Amante is his ability to hit a high note (though he doesn't always hit it with confidence)... but when a quick scale of middle notes are called for (ex. "La Donna E Mobile" final run) he just loses it. But even some of his high notes sound like they are obviously making Amante strain (ex. the obvious push right before the final high note in "Nessun Dorma").

Some final thoughts, it's really unfair to put Michael Amante in the same category as Andrea Bocelli... I know all about Bocelli's vocal shortcomings, but let's get real! Bocelli at least has received SOME positive recognition for performances in his opera music recordings by more than a few serious music critics in respected publications and other media. And even some less-than-kind critics have admitted Bocelli is able to perform convincingly at times and that there are some aspects of this demanding type of singing he does very well. I seriously, seriously doubt Michael Amante would get that level of critical praise based on this CD.

Instead, I'd rate Michale Amante below Russell Watson (who I don't like either) because even though Watson also sounds bad singing opera music, at least I can hear an actual personality there.

Description of Michael Amante

Classical CDs

• Music > Styles
• World Music
• Pop