Opera Arias & Concert Songs

Opera Arias & Concert Songs

Opera Arias & Concert Songs
List Price: $34.98
Our Price: $26.95
You Save: $8.03 (23%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album


(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Composer: Ruggero Leoncavallo
Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Composer: Umberto Giordano
Composer: Jacques Offenbach
Composer: Georges Bizet
Composer: Charles Gounod
Composer: Richard [Classical] Wagner
Composer: Morris Levine
Composer: Edward German
Composer: Oley Speaks
Composer: Walter Damrosch
Composer: Mortimer
Composer: Samuel A. Ward
Composer: David Guion
Composer: William Steffe
Composer: Paolo Tosti
Composer: Luigi Denza
Composer: Francesco Santoliquido
Composer: Pietro Cimara
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-05-30
Music Label: Lwc
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), opera: Largo al factotum
  2. La Traviata, opera: Di Provenza il mar
  3. Les contes d'Hoffmann, opera in 4 acts
  4. Un ballo in maschera, opera: Eri tu
  5. Carmen, opera: Chanson du toreador
  6. Rigoletto, opera: Cortigiani, vil razza dannata
  7. Otello, opera: Era la notte
Music CD 2
  1. Shenandoah
  2. Low Lands
  3. A Rovin'
  4. Haul-A-Way, Joe
  5. Rolling Down to Rio for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  6. Boots for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  7. On the Road To Mandalay for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  8. Danny Deever for voice & piano, Op. 2
  9. Smugglers' Song
  10. America the Beautiful (original title 'Materna')
  11. Home on the Range for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  12. The Battle Hymn of the Republic ('Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory,' words by Julia Ward Howe; music attributed to Steffe)
  13. Ideale for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  14. Occhi di fata, for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  15. Nel giardino, for voice & piano
  16. Canto Di Primavera for voice & piano
  17. Londonderry Air (Danny Boy), folk song
  18. Mother Machree (from 'Barry of Ballymore')
  19. A Little Bit of Heaven (from 'The Heart of Paddy Whack')
  20. Love's Old Sweet Song
  21. None but the lonely heart, song for voice & piano, Op. 6/6
  22. Parce que (Because), for voice & piano (or orchestra)
  23. The Lord's Prayer

Music reviews of Opera Arias & Concert Songs

Music Review: One of the Richest High Baritones of the Century...
Rating: 5 Stars

Leonard Warren possessed an unusual voice; a lyric baritone with the fullness of a powerful basso cantante. His high notes traveled into the upper baritone stratosphere, with a beauty matched to my ears only by Riccardo Stracciari... and he sang them with an ease most tenors can only envy. (And I love the tenor voice, don't make any mistake about that!) Listening to this two CD set brought one thing forth to my mind- Leonard Warren flat out enjoyed singing and he enjoyed spreading that fabulous feeling far and wide.
Listen to his renditions of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the four sea shanties gracing this disc, and America the Beautiful. How many singers have ever rendered these old songs with such enthusiasm and beauty? To my ears, few can compare. A Little Bit of Heaven is a charming little piece of nostalgia for old Ireland, with perfectly placed high notes that provide a baritone counterpoint to the marvelous Scottish and Irish tenors that have graced our ears throughout this century. The sound on most of the songs is clear, showing off Warren's voice to his and the listeners' advantage.
Now we come to the opera arias and there's a rich assortment on display here. The Gounod Faust aria is from a rare Russian concert recording and is gorgeous, though it's accompanied by a piano. (Nothing against pianos, but I wanted the full orchestra. On other selections in the songs CD, the piano works superbly. Just a matter of personal taste.) The classic Scintille Diamant from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman shows off his upper range, as he hits the high G-sharps with authority and ease. One of my favorites is the great aria from Verdi's MacBeth, in which Warren gets it all together. MacBeth's humanity is rarely on display in this version of the drama, but here it is in spades, along with his arrogance, fear, and anger at being attacked. "Birnam Wood on the march indeed!" The ease and fullness of the high notes, which are all in service to one of Warren's greatest characterizations, are a wonder.
Don't get the idea that only his high notes sounded good, or that Warren was a bellowing beast. He floated a pillowy pianissimo that has to be heard to be believed. The only other baritone voice that compares in this respect, of those whom I have heard, is Cornell MacNeil. I regret that there seems to be no great baritone duets these two great singers could have engaged in, like Verdi provided for bassos in Don Carlos. Does anyone out there remember either of the two great performances by Ghiaurov and Talvela of the King Philip/Grand Inquisitor duets under either Stein or Solti?
Back to Leonard Warren...
In terms of sound on the opera selections, the later, the better, though most of the pieces sound fine. I must agree a bit with an earlier reviewer in the case of Il Balen, from Verdi's Il Trovatore. The sound is fuzzy, bloated, and unclear, at least on my machine... but most all the others sound fine on the same machine. What happened? I had several versions of this great aria on LP, and I do remember one of them being well below the sonic standard of any of the others. The version on the old Cellini conducted complete recording with Bjoerling and Milanov sounded fine, as did the version he recorded with Leontyne Price and Richard Tucker. Why have this one, which does a disservice to the singer and the CD as a whole? And where is his incredible Per me ora fatale from the same opera? Even hearing a badly recorded version of Leonard Warren performing this aria would be a thrill. His singing of Il Balen is excellent- it just sounds foggy. Except for that, I would recommend this set to anyone interested in Warren's singing who might not have many of these recordings on CD. If you have virtually all of them, why bother with this set... unless there's a song you just cannot live without?
The Otello excerpts are exceptional, and there's the treats of his Nemico della patria (Andrea Chenier by Giordano) and Di Provenza (La Traviata) which are my favorite versions of these arias.
To those who might love the singing of Sherrill Milnes and Thomas Hampson, Leonard Warren should be heard and savored for what he was: an American original we can all be proud of.
More Opera Arias & Concert Songs free music reviews:
1 2

Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapes ImageWinterscapes
by London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee ImageThe Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebee
by Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops: $13.98
Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr ImageClassical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs Cdr
Release date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos)) ImageTchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))
by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] ImageJose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]
Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops: $9.99
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] ImageTchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.89
Price in other shops: $29.95
Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] ImageRambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
Winter Music: Composing the North ImageWinter Music: Composing the North
by John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.23
Price in other shops: $25.95
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImagePuccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops: $29.95
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] ImageVerdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]
Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $29.95
Books | DVD Video | VHS Video | Health and Personal Care | Digital Cameras and Photo | Kitchen and Housewares | Tools and Hardware | Sports Equipment | Dresses shirts shoes apparel pants
Copyright © 2004-2007 music-hills.com
Google
 
Web music-hills.com
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles