Customer Reviews

Etterna

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fantastic American debut album by Emma Shapplin. This album should definetly put her at the top of the classical crossover charts with Sarah Brightman and Josh Groban. The amazingly talented Emma lets her haunting vocals soar over the music. I reccommend this wholeheartedly, especially if you're a fan of new age or classical crossover.

A devoted fan of Sarah Brightman, I stumbled upon this artist, Emma Shapplin. Her voice entranced me at once. When I looked through the booklet I was at once spellbound by this chanteuse. Her album sparkles with imperial music and an angel's voice. This album belongs in every crossover library; it adds theatrics and mystery to every room its music reaches. I was very lucky to discover Saran Brightman, and now I am honoured to have found Emma Shapplin.

Unique, that is the way we can describe Emma Shapplin's "Etterna". The singer reflects her inner growth by delecting us with melodies that go far beyond imagination. Her style can only be compared to Sarah Brightman's "Eden" but Shapplin's voice is sweeter and much more dramatic. Pieces like "Leonora" and "La Silente Riva" reflect that wonderful fascination that Ms. Shapplin shows for barroque Italian, with all of it's dramatism and melancholy. In the the other hand "La Notte Etterna" and "Céltica" make the listener go through different stages of their inner soul, learning about their own way of approaching that elven and magical creature who sings.

This is an amazing album, beautifully recorded. Its pop-ified classic Italian style mixed with the lyrics derived from "old Italian" and hints at classical melody make for a real delight. Extremely powerful vocals that pierce through the dark aesthetic like the beacon of a lighthouse through a dense fog at night. If you're a fan of Opratica, or a fan of Sara Brightman who wishes she would take her lyrics more seriously, you will love this album.
While many compare Emma Shapplin to Sara Brightman, there are some notable differences. First is the raw power of Emma's voice versus that of Sara. While Sara Brightman is an exceptionally talented artist, I would dread her performance without technical augmentation. Emma on the other hand avoids the elaborate digital editing processes to the degree often heard on Brightman albums. Accordingly, it is possible to observe minor performance irregularities. However, such nuanced "flaws" are inherent to all great vocalist, and constitute more of individual stylization than "flaw." The absence of such character in Brightmans recordings simply attests to the overuse of digital augmentation to produce artificially "perfect" recordings, in a fashion akin to air brushing a super model's picture. Played back on high end audio kit you can even here the occasional recoil of a pianos dampening pedal, something which would certainly be edited out of a Brightman recording. All these things attest to the raw and pure integrity of Emma's recording. Additionally, the lyrics, when translated, are much less insipid than the usual Brightman tune. Though Brightman had to marry Andrew Lloyd Webber to launch her career in full, I suspect Emma Shapplin's pure technical talent and more advanced aesthetic sensibility will assure her a successful cross-over career without any such convenient relationships.

You can't. That's the honest truth. The music is sensationally beautiful and it is magnificent that her voice is so gorgeous. I cannot believe her talent! I enjoyed the CD very much so, and as a matter of fact, I thought it was so wonderful that I listened to it for a week in a row! I am very pleased with it. I would recommend this to ANYONE even if they're not an Opera Fan. I personally adore Opera and I think it takes extreme talent to sing like Emma Shapplin or Operatica. I recommend Operatica: Shine and Operatica "O" Vol. 1 to anyone who likes Emma Shapplin as well.

I humbly apologize for my quick judgment several months ago.

Whatever the reasons, I was simply not open to this CD when I wrote a scathing review. Having let the music slowly creep in since then, I can't believe I ever allowed myself to miss the beautiful music on here.

"Un sospir' di voi" starts the album with thunder and Emma's voice emerges slowly from beneath. The song is modern enough and yet contains enough orchestration to keep you guessing whether it's pop or classic...I can play this song 3-4 times per listen...it's that good!

"Aedeus" is also haunting...it has an excellent melody for its chorus...though at times I admit that Emma's voice can be a bit too sharp and piercing.

As for "La notte etterna," I still keep my original opinion: the remix is far better than the original version...a VERY beautiful song.

"Leonora" finds Emma singing against a backdrop of a male choir...entertaining and beautifully composed...as always with Emma, a tinge of pop and classical, sufficient enough to blur the lines.

"La silente riva" is a sweeping song whose chorus sometimes reminds me of waltzing...again, at times, Emma's voice sounds like it's wanting to crack glass...but it's forgiveable.

I can't describe every song without sounding repetitive, but trust me, I've converted and this album really is great. You'll most likely skip over "Finale," and you'll probably skip over the original version of "La notte etterna" preferring instead the remix...but that's all you'll ignore.

A wonderful album indeed...I'm sorry I trashed it before.

Emma Shapplin's voice one of the moest beautyful voices i have ever heard. So lyric, so dramatic, so emotional.
She is the best coloratura soprano i have ever heard.

OK. There are still a lot of spaceship noises starting some of the tracks, but once the songs get going there are some pretty melodies in there. And Emma does have a lovely voice. Not only that, but the album notes include English.

i love the CD, the only problem is with the vidoe format. i'm having a heck of a time just downloading the music part to my computer. it works fine in a CD player, just the audio, but the video comes on automatically when i run it on my main comp. i love the music so i'll figure out to get around this. i'm not much with comp. tech stuff, buit i'll figure it out. once again the music is beautiful.
r

I have been a Sarah Brightman fan for a while, as well as a recent fan of Jackie Evancho. Because of that, I found Emma on: [...]

I have ordered on Amazon everything this young woman produced, and it takes the listener on a joyous journey. Could not recommend higher!!!