Customer Reviews

My Name is Barbara

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Oh dear.

Oh no.

I am a firm admirer of Barbara Bonney's exquisitely radiant voice. I own many of her recordings, and consider her singing of Faurè's great sacred work to be unsurpassed. Her recordings of Wolf & Strauss Lieder, of Mendelssohn's Lieder, of Mozart's Lieder - just beautiful. Her Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier - perhaps the loveliest interpretation of that role ever sung. She is an enchanting Susannah; her Pamina is the best I've ever heard. Her album of American songs - perfectly sung, beautiful.

So what has gone amiss here?

I truly, truly, truly hope this is a one-off bad recording. I hope with all my heart that it is not a harbinger of what is to continue to happen in Barbara Bonney's voice. It's the first time in which this lovely singer has disappointed me - and done so with such resounding thoroughness.

The vowels are so horribly distorted in the first few songs and in some of the other tracks that I was unable to work out what she was singing. The distortion affected the timbre badly. The actual sound was different to anything I've heard emanate from Ms Bonney's throat before. The songs on this CD were sung with a "hammy" approach that, again, is not representative of anything previously sung by Barbara Bonney.

In short, I am not able to recommend this recording. I bought it without checking beforehand, because it's Barbara Bonney. I am concerned that in future I will need to hear samples before purchasing her new recordings.

Please let this be an unrepresentative recording. Please let the Barbara the world has long loved appear again to delight us.

Voices age in different ways, with negative results as you rise up the scale. Deep basso voices can remain intact well into a singer's sixties and beyond, but coloratura sopranos are rarely delightful past fifty. Barbara Bonney's lustrous voice has lost much of its bloom and gained some huskiness as well as a wobble under pressure. Also, the other reviewer here is right to point out how poorly Bonney pronounces the text in the Quilter songs; she swallows syllables everywhere else, too. But it's too harsh to deny this singer her acclaimed musicality and intelligence. This isn't the best of Bonney's solo recitals, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and welcome the chance to hear a major singer in the Britten songs, and a non-Anglo style in the Quilter.

As the others have noted, those accustomed to Bonney's slender, silvery voice from her previous recordings might be in for a shock here. On this most recent recording of hers, she sounds much darker, richer, and creamier than in anything she's done before--practically unrecognizable to anyone who's familiar with her earlier stuff. I have to say, though, that I really like what I've heard on this CD. I guess I'm one of the few who often found her sound too thin and lightweight most of the time, gorgeous though it was. For those who like fuller-sounding voices (as I do) and have avoided this gifted singer's recordings in the past, you might want to give this CD a try. Her musicality and musicianship are still very much in evidence, and this particular song repertoire is gorgeous and compelling.

It is always such a thrill to hear recordings of top singers early in their careers when their voices are still fresh, energetic, full of flexibility and vitality and the technique is solid. Unfortunately, for some singers, the cost of being at the top is the toll on the voice, managing the impossible performing schedule most top singers confront. This recording sounds like a singer who is vocally exausted. Consequently, the technical care with which Ms. Bonney recorded her first recordings is sadly lacking here. As a voice professor I play samples of Ms. Bonney's earlier recordings as "what one should do". With this recording, I now find I am playing examples of "what one should not do". I purchased this recording for the value of the unique repertoire. I was terribly disappointed in the execution.