Customer Reviews

Kiri Te Kanawa - Sole e amore (Puccini Arias) / Kent Nagano

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

 

 

What? Kiri with a froggy tone and wobbly voice? Never! Okay, maybe there is some inconsistency in the occasional part of an aria, but who could sustain that amount of vocal stamina and incredible beauty, for an entire career? It's not her greatest CD, as her voice does sound a bit tired on the odd occasion, but you just need to listen to listen to any other singer (Sarah Brightman for example) to realise that she has the most beautiful voice of them all. Never can it be said that Te Kanawa has terrible tone - it's never been in doubt, and it's proved by this CD and by everything she sings. She moves you with the way she expresses herself in arias like O Mio (her greatest!) and the way she mourns, through Un bel di, and Liu's arias from Turandot. I haven't given this album a five star, but I would give any of her other albums 5 without second thought. If your looking for a brilliant album, go for 'Essential Kiri' or 'Hear My Prayer' or if your looking for her operas, go for her Otello, she's an incredible Desdemona. A great artist - she sings like velvet.

Kiri Te Kanawa continues to shine in this album of Puccini arias. As was stated in one of the other reviews, we hear the music, not the singer. As a performer, Ms. Te Kanawa knows how to get out of the way so we don't get caught up in who she is, but we truly hear the music and all its emotion. My young children have even found this album engaging which is pretty significant for opera! Te Kanawa will always be a class act with a fine voice and a passion not readily apparent in others of lesser fame. The two orchestral pieces on the album are wonderful as well. Bravo Puccini! Brava Te Kanawa! Bravo Nagano!

I tend to agree with most of the reviews, with perhaps some small ambivalence with the views of Kate and ofthekosmos. I see that the reviewer Operaman! is now wearing a white hat of benevolence, in sharp contrast with his review of the video "Kiri at Christmas" (VHS), wherein he makes a blanket assertion denying merit in anything Kiri has done or will do. " . . . her bland presentation and mediocrity re all things musical." His version of Kiri is not the person I've listened to and watched for many years -- the Kiri I know. Not satisfied with that denunciation, all manner of irrelevancies are cited. She had a lapse of memory years ago at the Met -- as if that has not happened to the best of opera stars. None of the irrelevancies had anything to do with her singing in this performance, which is the only thing a review should consider. After reading his 'review' -- diatribe? -- I find it amusing that the he takes refuge with the thought that those who disagree with him are "so biased in their admiration for Kiri that it gets in the way of a critical review of her recording." Come again, who's biased?

Marketing phenomenon? No mystery here. If you have a product that people want, they'll beat a path to your door.

I'm four months shy of my 86th birth date, have lived through the Great Depression and survived WW2 and Korea. But now in the words of a 1930's ditty, "I don't get around much any more." That doesn't matter: I have my Kiri collection to keep me company. Eight operas, six recitals, three bios and some miscellany on DVD; her earlier ones I had converted from VHS format. In addition there are over thirty CDs, the earliest one, "The Young Kiri" dating from her pre-opera days. So you can see I know a bit about the woman and her work.

I'm not a newcomer to opera. In the year 1944, on furlough from flying missions over Germany, I saw my first opera in London.-- "Rosalinde". In their understandable foolishness, the British had renamed Die Fledermaus to Rosalinde. Couldn't very well have the so Teutonic title emblazoned on billboards throughout London. But as I discovered later, "The Bat" was in every essential the original Strauss opera. I fell in love with the medium, and later bought countless records, but could not afford the prices of live opera. One memorable event of opera, however, lives in memory. Many years ago the reigning queen of American opera, Lily Pons gave a free concert at Grant Park in Chicago -- I lived most of my early years in Chicago. I've forgotten most of the arias Lily Pons sang that evening but one title is still sharp in memory. O Mio Babbino Caro. As everyone knows, it is Kiri's trademark.

Invariably, my mornings begin with breakfast with Kiri. I may awake cranky and out of sorts, as the aged are prone to do; however the face, the voice, the sheer presence of Kiri will always set the world aright.

Late last year Kiri gave a recital in Nashville. I did not learn about it until the day before the performance. Perhaps the Gods of Opera smiled down on me -- the ticket I bought blindly turned out to be a seat on the very first row. I don't know how that happened, the recital was a sellout; yes, this center of country music does have a hard core of opera lovers. My seat was perhaps fifteen or twenty feet from the stage. Kiri was magnificent. Lovely as ever and so tall, so composed and stately. Her dress, manner, voice and delivery exquisite. Alas, she sang but one of my favorites -- Depuis le Jour -- but she more than made up for the lapse with her trademark encore, O Mio Babbino Caro. Nashville opera lovers are not usually very demonstrative, but from the wild reaction you'd have thought this was a country music performance! This was the only time I have seen Kiri live and I'll carry the memory to the end of my days.

Did this performance tell me if Kiri is in decline? No. Mind you, Kiri was sixty years of age last year --amazing! -- so a 'decline' is very possible. But if anything, she did sound better than any of my CDs or DVDs. Of course, the excellent acoustics in the hall and Kiri's so manifest presence did make any judgement impossible. It does not matter, so long as I have my DVDs and CDs -- frozen in time -- Kiri will never decline, will never age, will never die.

This is one of my favorite CD's. In the midst of a tense day, I put this in my computer's CD ROM drive and let Kiri Te Kanawa's lush voice roll over me like a soothing balm. She captures every nuance of feeling and with impeccable clarity gently delivers it to the listener. There is none of the forced, and glitzy technique of the three tenors albums (although they are great fun). Instead, Kiri Te Kanawa has such mastery of her craft that it becomes transparent. You hear the music more than you hear her. This album is a real treat.

Although Kiri Te Kanawa does not have one of the most distinctive voies of all time, she is extremely pleasant to listen to. The gentle, hence effective, way she builds her crescendos and climaxes are beautiful. Her voice warms the heart and her dramatics successfully can move the patient listener. I must disagree with the reviewer below who found her voice "foggy." I think, for the most part, she is vocally splendid in most of the selections on this album.

That said, I'm not sure she is has an ideal voice for the heavier Puccini roles. Her voice is effective in Liu's arias as well as Mimi's. Her "Ch'il bel sogno di Doretta" from La Rondine and Lauretta's "O mio babbino caro" are unrivaled (especially the former---only Price's version of this aria is comparable in my mind), and "Sola, perduta, abandonnata" is another highlight of this album that comes to mind.

The Butterfly selections, as well as the "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca seemed to be a bit beyond her fach. I do not consider them memorable when compared to other historic performances.

I do recommend this CD simply because the first selections I mentioned are so beautiful. There were really only a few pieces that I felt fell flat, and the more lyric pieces are worth the price of the album.

This album can make you cry from the sheer loveliness. I understand that even divas who have sung Madame Butterfly (some selections from that on the album) many times say it is difficult to get through a performance without weeping. I'm amazed that anyone ever does. The booklet that comes with this album translates the Italian lyrics into English, French, and German, as well as providing an introduction to Puccini. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a living treasure! The passion in O mio babbino caro will levitate the furniture. Thank God, sincerely, for movie sound tracks that leave clues to those of us from culturally limited backgrounds that beauty like this exists. Well worth owning.

I am an opera lover who always held Kiri Te Kanawa in high regard. I have had the good fortune to be a long time subscriber to the Metropolitan Opera and heard Dame Kiri in performance when her voice was still quite beautiful.

Fast forwarding to the present, I received this CD as a gift from a family member. Unfortunately, Ms. Te Kanawa's voice is showing its age on this recording. After listening to the disc once, I doubt I'll play it again. I found the singing a little hard to listen to. Her voice sounds somewhat harsh at times and almost always a bit too wobbly for my taste. On a positive note, Kiri's many years of experience shine through in her phrasing and interpretation and she gives a very artful performance.

To hear Dame Kiri at her best, you might want to buy some recordings from her earlier years. For starters, try the compilation disc KIRI, Portrait of Kiri Te Kanawa or her stunning Great Performances recording of Verdi and Puccini which also contains a fine Mozart track or two and a few other very nice selections. Absolutely lovely!

Not really a bad disc, but just not nearly as satisfying as her earlier work.

Kiri was my first diva, and it was at her concert seven years ago that I became enthralled with opera. However, I find this album difficult to listen to because nearly all of the arias have already been recorded, and were recorded when she was in her prime. This album was recorded when she was 52-53. Get her 1983 album "Verdi and Puccini", where she sings seven Puccini arias (including "Un bel di", Doretta's song, "O mio babbino caro," "Vissi d'arte") with astounding beauty and ease. However, if you are a big Kiri fan, you will enjoy "Sole e amore," as it includes three Puccini songs which she had not previously recorded and for which her voice is ideal. Also, the arias from "Manon Lescaut" are superbly performed.

Puccini's are my favorite operas and to have these arias sung by Kiri Te Kanawa made my heart soar! Beautiful music by purely talented people!!

I've never been a fan of Kiri Te Kanawa's, but recently her voice has worsened. A few of these arias are performed decently enough, but Te Kanawa's wobbly vibrato and frog-like tone destroy the rest of them.