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But she's only 13 years old so I'm sure that her interpretive skills will grow in time. I do agree with an earlier poster that it would have been better for her to wait and record some of this repertoire when she is older. Of course, it will make an interesting comparison when she sings these roles later.

I loved the way that she sings "The Last Rose of Summer." She seemed very connected to the song and her high notes have a floaty quality about them. All in all, it's an enjoyable disc. Church doesn't do anything that is vocally offensive.

When you've heard singers like Ileana Cotrubas sing "O mio babbino" and Mirella Freni singing "The Jewel Song," it's very hard NOT to compare them with Church. I don't think that it was the best idea of her agents and producers to set her up for this kind of critiquing by having her perform these arias.

And shame on Sony for not including translations of the pieces in foreign languages. For people who are interested, "O mio babbino caro" is sung by Lauretta, a young girl begging her father to find a way to help her marry the man she loves. Lauretta's plea is irresistable and her father does help her. The Jewel Song is sung when Marguerite, a young country maiden, discovers a casket of jewels left for her. "I laugh to see how beautiful I look in the mirror! Is it you, Marguerite?" She imagines how beautiful Faust would find her in her jewels, "Ah, if only he were here. He would find me a beautiful lady."

I hope that people continue to enjoy Charlotte Church. And maybe consider giving some other sopranos a try: Natalie Dessay, Renee Fleming, Ruth Ann Swenson, Angela Gheorghiu, Renata Tebladi, Beverly Sills, Lucia Popp......there are so many other beautiful singers out there. Perhaps Ms. Church is on her way to becoming like one of these enduring artists.


Bland performances   November 21, 1999
 77 out of 111 found this review helpful

I found Charlotte's interpretations to be extremely one-color and lacking in characterization. "Summertime" is sung without portamento and there is not one touch of tenderness or spirit in her tone. "O mio babbino caro" and "The Jewel Song" are ridiculous choices for a young teenage voice. Church has no sense of Puccini styling and the words have no meaning when she sings them. "The Jewel Song" is tremendously chopped up, only 2 minutes long! Her runs sound mechanical and labored. The high B at the end is lackluster and thin. Her Marguerite has no joie de vivre. The aria should be playful, spontaneous, and sparkling. It is none of these things.

I agree with an earlier poster about the tackiness of singing duets with oneself. The "Barcarolle" from Hoffmann needs the contrast between a soprano and a mezzo voice. Rossini's "Pastorella" is sung with a reedy, white tone. It doesn't fit. Her staccati seem labored. The entire song has a stilted quality about it.

"Voi che sapete" was not a bad choice for her. I would have preferred to have heard the aria sung in Italian but at least it's a sensible selection. Again, however, her Cherubino needs to burn with more passion and yearning.

"The Last Rose of Summer" and "She Moved Through the Fair" were the two best items on the CD. Charlotte Church's voice is aptly suited for these songs with a Celtic feeling about them. Church can be lovely in repertoire that suits her. A young girl should just not be plowing through arias. There are plenty of beautiful art songs out there for her to explore. It just seems like no time went into working on making the songs come to life. I did not feel as if I were hearing someone who loves to sing. (And I'm sure that she does.) I heard an extremely careful singer who took no risks. They do not even offer translations of the songs/arias in foreign languages. It's as if there is no effort whatsoever to commmunicate anything with the audience. That's a shame.

Church's earlier CD showcased her voice much better. The choices were far more appropriate. Sony and her coaches are doing just what I was hoping that they would not do. They are pushing Church into exceedingly difficult repertoire prematurely.

Most of what you will hear on this CD has been recorded elsewhere far superiorly Not recommended.


More comments   July 4, 2000
 47 out of 55 found this review helpful

It is funny how the Charlotte Church phenomenon has spawned a never ending debate at this site!

After listening to this album I have a few comments to make, technical and otherwise (I am a singer myself and a great fan of sopranos so like to think I know a bit about what I'm talking about!).

I strongly recommend this CD for people who do not have an appreciation for classical music. As a reviewer below mentioned, Charlotte certainly cannot be classified as an 'opera singer' (because she's never sung an operatic role in her life!) but she does belong in a category of her own. She has a pure voice that delights people unfamiliar with soprano voices and will hopefully lead them to experiment with more classical. The songs are beautiful that she sings, classics in the true sense of the word.

However, I have noticed that the majority of people who think this album is "heaven sent" are not fans of classical music. In fact, most of them profess not to have liked classical at all before Charlotte came around. This is good in one sense: Charlotte has made a realm of music formerly reserved for a minority of people accessable to a larger majority. However, we must also note that these people who have never spent any time listening to sopranos or opera can not possibly be qualified to judge the quality of Charlotte's voice.

Here's the mean (although realistic) part of this review, coming from a person who spends 90% of her day engaged in this incredible art form:

Charlotte does not have a spectacular technique, and if you know something of what great voices are supposed to sound like, I think you will be disappointed. She has absolutely no sense of how an art song or an aria is supposed to sound (understandably of course, she is only in her early teens) and thus, if you were to compare her versions to those of seasoned singers you would see the startling difference. Technically speaking, her intonation is poor, and her support of high notes is shakey. Her attack of high notes is always extreme. Not once on this album did she succeed in building to a crescendo using soft tones as well as loud ones, and I never heard her produce a soft "angelic" tone in the high range, only loud overly belted out ones that have a tendency to become sharp. Her runs in the coloratura pieces are unclean, and she has no sense of vocal colour. I found her timbre surprisingly ordinary and this habit she has of swallowing her tongue to produce a 'dark' tone quality is not at all healthy (I know---I tried it for years and ended up having to take a break from singing to recover and come up with a safer and more natural vocal approach). Every song on this album sounds exactly the same, because she attacks all her notes in an identical manner. Marguerite from Gounod's Faust is not supposed to sound the same as Lauretta from Gianni Schicchi, and these characters should certainly not sound the same as Cherubino from Figaro! A poster below remarked that sopranos frequently sounds angry or sad, and thus unpleasant to the majority when they sing these songs. Well, he/she is right. These arias, particularly the Puccini and Gounod pieces, are highly dramatic songs written to be sung by an a singer of high calibre. They are not happy songs in the least (well, Marguerite's is, but the story turns rough very fast so even the light happy jewel song must be sung with a sense of foreboding doom) and if Charlotte makes them sound happy (which I believe she does) she is doing a serious disservice to the music. The only thing that makes a singer different from an instrumentalist is the fact that music written for singers has WORDS. It has drama, tragedy, comedy, etc. Charlotte doesn't seem to have any idea of the words she is singing, even in the pieces that have been translated (most unprofessional, by the way) into English.

But all these criticisms are understandable. Charlotte is very young and I have never heard a singer of her age who is able to tackle the Jewel song or O mio babbino caro in a way that makes them worth listening to. Besides being damaging for the voice at such a young age, these songs require more than a pretty voice and the ability to execute high notes to make them sound good.

If you have any knowledge of the history of opera, you will understand that when Monteverdi and the others decided to write down what opera should involve, they did not make space for people like Charlotte. Opera is an art that has extremely defined boundaries that are the product of time and space (history, in other words). Simply said, if you do not follow the rules, you are not a good opera singer. So while Charlotte has a pretty voice that is obviously appealing to a lot of people, the fact that she labels herself an "opera singer" is utterly preposterous. As I said earlier, she is something else. Appealing to some and not to others.

I actually feel that perhaps my critique of her vocal technique was unjust simply because she is so young and obviously could not possibly achieve such control over her instrument. However, I feel they might also illustrate that if you are expecting to discover an operatic soprano in this recording, you are going to be very disappointed. If you are expecting to be charmed by a pretty voice and a celebrity personality, or know very little of classical music, you will probably enjoy this recording. I do find it offensive that Charlotte describes herself as an opera singer, however. Opera is about drama and performance, at the heart of which lies the aria. The aria is a climax that involves, for the audience, a final outburst of emotion. Composers were, for the most part, not very creative in this respect. Nearly all arias involve a climax of basic human emotions: anger or pain. Sometimes love, but then, at the root of the love there is almost always angst and pain :) Like it or not, an opera singer must have a voice that is "angry" sounding, or what many people here have described as "unpleasant." If you don't like such voices, that's perfectly fine, maybe Charlotte is an alternative for people who do not like opera. But please do not make the mistake of thinking you like opera simply because you like Charlotte Church.


Impressive Development in 2nd CD   December 14, 1999
 40 out of 40 found this review helpful

I had purchased the 1st CD after seeing the PBS special, and was impressed with the sheer talent, in spite of the mediocre quality of the recording. Her voice in this CD shows tremendous growth, essaying a broader range with greater depth, color, and staying power. Gershwin's "Summertime" was my favorite of the disk. It's sung without dialect, and has a wistful, haunting quality I found quite charming. The lead track, "Just Wave Hello", was written for her, and showcases her talents and increasing range. She may also create a market for operatic-pop crossovers on the strength of this cut alone. She seems most at home in the final six tracks, moving from the charming "She Moved Through the Fair", into the ethereal "Last Rose of Summer", and a powerful "Men of Harlech". I would have bought the CD for these selections alone.

The opera selections were a mixed bag. Anna Rossi's review here at Amazon provides a better technical review than I can offer. I would suggest checking it out. If Voice of an Angel was an introduction, this CD is a quality resume. The only real problem I think this created for her was it brought her squarely into the gun sights of opera purists, and opened her up for the inevitable comparisons with veteran sopranos who've been singing these roles for years. It was probably necessary for Sony to cement her place in the firmament, but it also exposes her to some unfair panning.

Cuts from two of my favorite operas, Faust and Marriage of Figaro, were included. I was prepared to dislike the Jewel Song, but thought it was nicely done. She handles the upper ranges well, and each note in the middle runs is delivered cleanly... well enough to show she's got the chops to play with the big girls. I just wished it hadn't been cut to two minutes.

The Marriage of Figaro track, "Tell Me What Love Is" was less satisfactory. The decision to do the English translation undercut the nuances of the original song, and I think she is a bit tender to convey the emotional content. It came across a little flat to me.

The only cut I outright didn't care for was the "duet", Barcarolle, The second role would have been better sung by a mezzo-soprano, (which I think it calls for). That would have helped draw attention to Charlotte's vaulting high notes in that aria.

The best operatic cuts were the Puccini's "O mio babbino caro" and Handel's "Lascia ch'io pianga". The Handel, in particular, is sweet and nicely done. The Rossini "La Pastorella" does a good job of showing her vocal development, and of providing a snapshot of her technical mastery at this time. I would like to hear this track recorded again in a few years in order to provide a measure of how far she's come.

I would recommend this CD to both serious opera fans and casual listeners. She offers us all something that doesn't happen very often... she's getting music that normally heard only in dusty opera halls and art-house soundtracks out in the real world. Perhaps some of the popular enthusiasm for this young lady will carry over into the opera world at large and get some new faces into regional houses.

I think Charlotte is well on her way to a stellar career, and I am looking forward to the day when she takes her place on stage...provided that is what she chooses to do.


One man's opinion   November 29, 1999
 36 out of 39 found this review helpful

This CD is much better technically than the first which sounded like it was done in a garage using an old tape recorder. Ms. Church is also better technically. I enjoyed most of the cuts on the CD because I find listening to her to be relaxing. I do not expect perfection in her 13 year old voice; what I find is a lovely voice worth listening to coupled with a certain charm and innocence. If you want the voice of a 40 year old soprano DO NOT BUY THIS CD you will be disappointed. If you want sweetness in an uncloying way this might be your choice.