Customer Reviews

Diva: The 20th Anniversary Edition Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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Yes, it has THAT piano theme on it. Yes, the one when Jules is walking through Paris at dawn with La Diva.

Kosma's atmospheric score for DIVA signalled a turn in soundtracks towards the ambient in 1982 when the stylish French caper hit these shores and redefined set and production design in pop movies. Little label DRG found itself with a hit on its hand, and the thing continues to sell two decades later. Why? It dates well (better than most of the film drivel out there, for sure), has a great version of "La Wally" by Higgins-Fernandez, and includes two versions of the haunting Erik Satie-ish piano-tinkler "Sentimenal Walk".

This new edition includes tracks deleted from the original LP and its CD counterpart, plus a neat booklet of photos and text. Some of the new material is iffy, as if we needed more versions of "La Wally", which are just remixes for my money. But the inclusion of "Ave Maria" and the other three ambient tracks, and the upgrade in sound (the original CD always sounded thin and tinny) make it worth the money.

This was one of those soundtracks I searched high and low for after I saw the movie.

"La Wally" is breathtaking. Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez is the "diva" muse of the film and the voice singing the aria; once you hear her sing you will never forget that voice. Haunting. As well, I particularly enjoy "Sentimental Walk" (an appropriately titled piano work), "Gorodish," and "Zen in the Art of Bread and Butter." "Ground Swell" is the only work that I sometimes skip over, finding it a little too long and too much like Buddhist monks chanting in an underground tunnel. But the order of the songs gives the album wholeness, and the aria from "La Wally" frames the album so well that it is a welcome to hear it every time it comes back in variation.

The influence of traditional Asian music forms is audible throughout, and if I were a musician, I could probably easily identify some of the instruments.

If you don't like new age-y ambient sounds, this may not be the album for you. But if you're like me and often like to work with music playing, then you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

I was rather irritated that the old version didn't have that song; I loved it. Shame that the Diva never finished singing it in the film. In fact, due to the sudden stop, I wonder if she even finished it on this recording. No matter. It's there.
I didn't notice any real difference in the sound quality, but then again I never notice such things.
Also, in the liner notes it has a short interview with composer Vladmir Cosma, in which he explains why there are a bunch of different versions of the aria on the soundtrack when in fact only one version appears in the film.
Anyway, I would say it is fully worth replacing your old copy of the soundtrack with this newer version.

FYI: Just for fans of the opera "La Wally": if you want to hear one of the greatest operatic voices of the 20th century sing this beautiful aria, get a recording of Renata Tebaldi in La Wally, conducted by Arturo Basile. I really like the singer on the Diva album, but Tebaldi is also incandescent.