What people search:
 | Title : Beyond Imagination
Author : Opera Babes
Release Date : 20030114
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $13.99
Amazon.com Price : $9.89
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Editorial Reviews :
Plucked from a wet afternoon of busking Bizet and Puccini to passersby on the Piazza in Covent Garden in the spring of 2001, soprano Rebecca Knight and mezzo Karen England soon found themselves singing in slightly larger venues: the FA Cup and Champions League soccer finals. That the management company doing the plucking had recently performed a similar Cinderella crossover act for Russell Watson offered portent, and indeed the Babes--the moniker began as a joke--were soon on their way to this recording debut. The marketing shtick and its soccer connections may offend purists, but it's the football hooligans that the Babes are trying to win over here; can Borodin soothe the savage Manchester United fan? Their classically trained voices mesh gloriously, with England's warm mezzo showing particular character in her solo turns.
The repertoire choices here cover material that may already be familiar to fans of Charlotte Church (i.e., Delibes 'Flower Duet') and other crossover acts, but they do include some pleasant surprises, like Offenbach's Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann and 'You Live On in My Heart,' a reworking of Ennio Morricone's enchanting Cinema Paradiso theme with lyrics by Knight. But in a rush toward the musical middle of the road, it's the productions themselves that sometimes overwhelm the Babes with bathos ('Ave Maria'), hollow thunder ('Aida 2002'), and electro club kitsch (the 'Vibe Tribe' mix of 'Flower Duet'). Former Art of Noise mainstay Anne Dudley's tastefully restrained coloring of Tchaikovsky's '1001 Nights' is one of the notable exceptions. They're babes, they sing opera--with fair promise--for the masses, and if they turn one in a hundred from football hooliganism to a well-mannered appreciation of Grieg and Dvorák, won't it all have been worth it? --Jerry McCulley
Buyer Reviews :
How can something this eloquently beautiful still be brimming over with pure fun? Please know that I am NOT a musician or schooled in music, but I do know what I like - and am absolutely ENCHANTED. 17 tracks - all LOVELY - include Vittoria from Aida, Stranger in Paradise, Ave Maria and Ode II Joy and the Flower Duet. Cheers to the Opera Babes and their angelic voices and their non-traditional take on this breaktaking music.
(by mamalinde)
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