Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
signature Upshaw, July 1, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Dawn Upshaw: The World So Wide (Audio CD)
This is a great album. No one but Dawn Upshaw is so original and fresh. She tackles these amazingly difficult pieces and always does a great job. Unfortunately, the Amazon people listed the tracks incorrectly. Here are the real tracks: 1. Laurie's Song ... 2. This is Prophetic ... 3. What a Movie ... 4. Oh Yemanja (Mother's Prayer) ... 5. Willow Song ... 6. Lonely House ... 7. Give Me Some Music ... 8. Ain't it a Pretty Night
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another adventurous collection from the wonderful Ms. Upshaw, August 23, 2006
This review is from: Dawn Upshaw: The World So Wide (Audio CD)
On reflection, it's amazing that Dawn Upshaw has made a major career for herself without recording a note of Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, or Strauss. She's far from being a bread-and-butter soprano, as this marvelous colleciton of mostly obscure arias from mostly obscure American operas displays. The title aria form copland's The Tender Land sets the overall tone of rapt, romatnic charm. Her voice is too light to sing Barber's Celopatra onstage, but it works well in the studio, and the more popsy numbers, such as Delilah's big song from Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, call on Upshaw's excellent crossover skills. Another revelation is how good Joh Adams's Nixon in China music sounds when performed expressively by a major artist.
Renee Fleming released a similar collection on Decca ("I Want Magic"), but the two CDs couldn't be more different. Upshaw is touching, informal, spontaneous, and charming. Fleming tires for the big effects, boosting the music (not too successfully) into the ralms of grand opera.
In all, I'm deeply grateful for every unusual program Upshaw delivers. Now that there are more than a dozen of them, we can see how beautifully she has managed a career devoted to music that few other major stars come close to trying.
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"All velvet and diamonds.", October 7, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Dawn Upshaw: The World So Wide (Audio CD)
"Beautiful" has pretty much gone out of fashion as a much abused and now empty word. And yet, I can't think of a word that would more accurately describe Dawn Upshaw's "The World so Wide." It is just that: sheer beauty. The incredible dynamic range of Upshaw's voice is a perfect match for this thoughtful selection of stylistically very different, and demanding contemporary pieces. Going from ironic, witty grit of Bernstein's "What a movie," to poignant restraint of "Mother's Prayer," and softly romantic exuberance of Moore's "Willow Song," this brilliant this CD doesn't disappoint for even a moment. In its last piece, Floyd's "Ain't it a Pretty Night," where Upshaw sings, literally, to the stars, she seems to effortlessly soar just as high. A great CD, it is indeed "all velvet and diamonds."
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