Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71466 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds
• Running time: 70 minutes

Customer Reviews

100% pure listening magic!
At last a superb operatic collection which is pure pleasure to listen from beginning to end. Baritones tend to be relegated to second position in the recording stakes in comparison to tenors, so this was a real delight for me to listen to this fantastic collection of opera arias as sung by one of today's great English baritones. Subtitled as ' Tales of Opera', Keenlyside captures the drama, humour, pathos, and lyricism within each of the protagonists' aria, bringing them vividly to life. As a baritone his voice is particularly high but still has dark burnished tones giving him added psychological depth. It's almost impossible to choose a favourite piece as all are superb, and I will only add that this is a recording I would gladly take on a desert island. Superb!

Enjoyable and original aria collection from British baritone
Keenlyside is certainly an insightful and imaginative vocal actor: he imbues old showstoppers like Figaro's famous Largo Al Factotum Della Città from Rossini's The Barber of Seville with vigour and virility as well as humour, and gives us an unusually passionate Papageno (from Mozart's Magic Flute) who sounds more ardent than comic.

Between the favourites from Verdi, Mozart and Rossini, however, he finds space to include several rarities. The album's highlight, Vision Fugitive, is from Massenet's under-performed Hérodiade. Here, Keenlyside's lovestruck Herod is all wounded desperation as he yearns for the young Salome.