Bellini: Il pirata

Advantages: Fantastic album,no "bad" songs,excellent voices
Disadvantages: None if you like the combination opera-pop

...My wife was going on and on about how wonderful this new group-IL DIVO- are in their video clip on Classic FM TV so I logon to 101cd.co.uk and ordered it for her, the day that their cd was released.(1st of November). (£8.95. They accept paypal.) 5th of November and the cd still not with us. This afternoon I had to go for some shopping to the local Asda and as I pass from the cd section I saw their cd so I decided to buy it there and then (with £9.77) and surprise my wife. I thought I could cancel my order as after 5 days I think their service there in 101cd.co.uk is really slow. I picked my wife with the car. I had the first track on the cd player. She was really happy and she was quiet all the way home listening to them. 7 hours later, the cd is still playing in the house non stop. We prepare our meal, listening to it, we... Read review

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Advantages: Fun and lively comic opera sung in English
Disadvantages: Not in the original language

...The Barber of Seville, Il barbiere di Siviglia is a comic opera full of vitality and fun. Composed by Gioachino Rossini in 1816, it is his most popular opera. Originally entitled Almaviva after the character from the play. The CD released by the label, Chandos as part of its Opera in English Series, on 21st February 2000 presents the opera in full recorded on 2 discs. The CD is available from most good music stores for the price of £17.99. The Opera in English series was launched in 1995 in collaboration with the Peter Moores’ Foundation’s believe that "to enjoy opera to the full, there must be no language barrier”. Rossini wrote the opera as a commission for the manager of the Argentina Theatre, Rome where it was first preformed in the February of 1816. The libretto was written by Cesare Sterbini based upon Beaumarchais' play... Read review

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Advantages: Virtuosic operatic vocalism, unusual repertoire, mad scenes...
Disadvantages: Fleming's voice is maybe not best suited for this...

...Mr Summers and his band. Tracks 10-13 - Bellini - "I pirata" Scena ed Aria, Act 2: In a 19th century "Pirates of the Caribbean" style opera, heroine Imogene finds herself in a bit of a pickle. Her lover Gualtiero - leader of the pirates (unfortunately there aren't many tenors who look like Johnny Depp) has killed her husband Ernesto, whom she still kind of loved as well. So it is no wonder we get a wonderful prima donna mad scene where Imogene comes on stage with her young son to a highly intense orchestral introduction and then tells her son to address his dying father with the "smile of innocence". The final blow to her sanity comes when the offstage chorus announces that Gualtiero is to be put to death. As her insanity takes over the vocal histrionics become more and more extreme. This is my No. 1 favourite moment... Read review

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