Customer Reviews

Prelude to a Dream

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3 star:		(1)
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I'm sure most visitors to this page came because they saw Jackie Evancho perform on America's Got Talent. That was true for me--I'd never heard of her before now. I sure have now, and I will buy this album when more are made.

That said, you should realize that you won't be hearing the soulful adult voice soaring out of a ten year old child's mouth that astonished viewers on AGT. This is her voice a year earlier. Here she sounds like a gifted child--an extraordinarily gifted child with near-perfect pitch, one of the best vibratos I've ever heard in anyone regardless of age, and an exquisite musical sensibility--but a child for all that.

So if you'll only be satisfied with what you heard on AGT, wait for her next album. But if, like me, you've become a diehard fan in the two minutes she sang on AGT; if you've gone to YouTube and listened to everything else she's done--then you'll want to make the small investment needed to get this historical record of where a great star of the future came from.

What we really need is a DVD of her performing. Then you could see something that isn't fully brought across by just an audio track--which is the fact that she's "inside the music." Meaning that she isn't just singing--she's channelling the composer's soul from deep within the essence of the piece.

I don't want to go too far with this. Evancho has the strengths and weaknesses of a happy childhood with what appear to be great parents and siblings--surrounded by love and acceptance. Compare this with, say, Christina Aguilera, another very talented singer, who first started singing in her bedroom to try to drown out the screams of her mother as her drunken father beat her mother (and then deserted them when Aguilera was still young). Aguilera at age 8 was a growly blues singer with a very adult understanding of pain and loss.

What Evancho does understand, though, is soulfulness. Some call her a spinto soprano, which soprano Rosalind Plowright has described as someone with the timbre of a lower register. That is, Evancho hits really high notes effortlessly--and without having to slide up to them to find the pitch. She just nails them. Yet her vocal texture is that of a contralto--dark and rich, like a night-blooming flower. It's the difference between Placido Domingo, a tenor with the timbre of a baritone, and Pavarotti, a pure tenor.

This gives Evancho the feeling of someone who isn't just a musical athlete, producing the notes perfectly but not necessarily much more than that--and delivering a feeling with the notes that makes you want to stop in your tracks and think/feel about what's really important in life.

Another vote for a DVD is that if you can imagine Joe Cocker as a 10 year old girl, you'll get a feel for the curious facial and gestural mechanics of her amazing musical production. But this is part of her being inside the music. If she were an athlete I'd say she was in the zone--in a place where the world, the audience disappears, and it's just you and the art you're embodying, where you become a window between the audience and powerful artistic experiences.

I should add some response to the many comments I've seen elsewhere that assume she was lip-synching either herself or someone else, or that her parents are pushing her, yada yada. I understand where such cynicism comes from. I was raised by a drunk and a deadbeat, with a family life a lot closer to that of Christina Aguilera than of the Evancho household. Being forced to grow up in a corrosive environment can easily make you cynical. But I grew to realize that my experiences were not universal, and the goodness I failed to find at home does exist in others' homes--and I'm certain that this is true of the Evanchos. I don't think they're pushing her at all. If anything, I think they're trying to make sure that someone as driven as she is is NOT pushed. And that she doesn't do a Janis Joplin to her instrument.

And though I'm not a vocal coach myself, I'm pretty sure she isn't straining or overdoing it. She's just better than the rest of us. Her whole life people are going to be attracted to her because she's so extraordinarily talented, as well as beautiful, and charming. Some people just get all the goodies when the genetic dice are rolled, and she's one of them. You can either admire that or become envious. I prefer the former. You'll live longer if you go that way, BTW.

Bottom line: buy this album, even though it's an earlier stage of her development. Her family isn't rich. Her dad has some kind of security camera franchise in Pittsburgh, so they're not poor either. But she needs the best vocal coaches that can be found to protect and develop her instrument properly, and supporting someone like her is something Jews call a mitzvah--a Good Thing. Do it.

NOTE AS OF MARCH 26, 2010: Jackie's family withdrew this CD from the market last year, and the only copy being offered on Amazon is just that--a copy being passed off as the original. It is possible to download "Prelude to a Dream"'s tracks online if you rummage around online, and on Amazon's Jackie forum her mother gave us permission to do so. But do not under any circumstances give money to a scam artist. Meanwhile we can get Jackie's "O Holy Night" CD/DVD combination today, and her new CD is due in June. I've heard many of the songs on it from low-fi YouTube clips of songs she's performing in concerts now, and her growth even since America's Got Talent simply beggars the imagination. She is not a "child singer," as is every single other child out there today who's singing. Jackie is a singer.

Despite obvious comparisons to the Welsh singer Charlotte Church, who got her first national exposure at the age of 11 years, I would rate 10-year-old Jackie Evancho as having even more potential. She's had the benefit of wise parents who have gotten her professional training that makes the most of her amazing instrument and her deep feeling for music. She doesn't force her voice to do anything it can't accomplish naturally, and she has a delightfully genuine personality.

Comparing this CD, recorded at the tender age of nine, to Jackie's "coming-out party" a year later on the television show "America's Got Talent," I can only observe that her control has improved and the timbre of her voice has deepened. Her pitch is perfect and her phrasing impeccable. She still tends toward breathiness, but this is to be expected of a young child whose lungs don't yet have the capacity they will attain during her teenage years.

I give this CD four stars because of the relative immaturity of Jackie's voice at the time it was recorded and because of the hit-or-miss song selection, but I anticipate giving a full five stars to her next release. She has a very bright future in front of her. I hope she sticks with classical music, a repertoire for which her voice is far better suited, rather than going the pop route as Church did.

A complete listing of the tracks on this album with timing:

1. Everytime -- 3:42

2. Concrete Angel -- 4:03

3. Teaching Angels How to Fly -- 5:18

4. Starry Starry Night (Vincent) -- 4:43

5. Think of Me -- 3:09

6. Memory -- 3:53

7. To Where You Are -- 3:52

8. The River of Dreams -- 4:23

9. Dark Waltz -- 4:21

10. The Prayer -- 4:30

11. Amazing Grace -- 4:43

12. Ave Maria -- 4:52

13. O Mio Babbino Caro -- 4:04

14. Con Te Partiro -- 3:54

Just to clarify:

This is not my favorite kind of music.

I don't particularly like child singers.

I even feel a bit uncomfortable with the whole idea of child prodigies in general, fearing there may be way too much pressure on the child before he or she has the psychological maturity to handle it. What if the child DOESN'T develop into a superstar?

I'm NOT a pervert (well, not that way, anyway...), i do NOT "like" little girls -- or little boys, for that matter.

All of that goes out the window with Jackie Evancho, though, because this little girl is the real deal. When she takes the stage on Dec 2nd, she will be the youngest female vocal soloist in the 119 year history of Carnegie Hall. That's the right way to look at her talent. Does that make her the greatest singer in the history of the United States? Of course not. Not yet. Am i potentially contradicting what i said above, what if she doesn't become a star? Yeah, maybe.

This album is obviously not great in itself, for the reasons others have mentioned, plus the immaturity of Jackie's voice. What's interesting is to hear how her voice developed over such a short time. Jackie loves singing in Italian (she insists on singing Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" in that language). If you make the assumption that the last songs on the album, the ones in Italian, were recorded last, something happened to her voice during the summer of 2009 (if you do the math, that's when it was likely recorded). She went from being a very good child singer to having a much bigger voice, almost adult-like. Then by the time of Jackie's concert a few months later, in December 2009 at the Highmark Company in Pittsburgh, she'd developed astonishing richness, a truly amazing sound. At this writing, another 8 months later, her voice is bigger still.

Of course, she makes mistakes, she's unpolished, she has a bad tendency to get thin & nasal-palatal sometimes, & she lacks the kind of style so may others have: Christina Aguilera at age 8, Whitney Houston at 11, & especially Bianca Ryan, the winner of American's Got Talent 2006, at 11 (all on YouTube). Beyonce had a bit of style at 8. But in terms of vocal quality, timbre, & depth, the stuff that's so hard to learn (most of it has to be God-given), Jackie's got them all beat--by miles.

Her vocal quality now is far superior to ALL of the adult amateur singers uncovered on American Idol, Britain's Got Talent, all of them. Forget about Susan Boyle, Paul Potts, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, all the others, Jackie's tone quality is far richer. Only a handful of ADULT female popular singers can match her tone now, and she's ten--TEN! And she's not a child who's reaching puberty years earlier than her peers, she's still a little girl. Was Maria Callas this good at ten? Leontyne Price? Mature sopranos now of course have richer voices--but just wait. Jackie's parents are smart enough to have hired experienced voice teachers who'll be sure she doesn't ruin her voice. With a few more years' growth, practice & polish, we'll all be even more astonished than we are now.

Her rendition of "O Mio Babbino Caro" on AGT was actually sub-par, not nearly as good as the version on this album. They lowered the key (by a minor 3rd) for her, but she still tried too hard to sound "adult" & lapsed into that nasal-palatal twang that British singers like Sarah Brightman & Charlotte Church sometimes fall/fell into.

After much searching, i've found one -- ONE -- child singer who was in Jackie's league at the time. Her name was Belle "Bubbles" Silverman, singing in the mid to late 30s. She grew up to be Beverly Sills, one of the greatest opera stars of the 20th century. And Jackie is way past her now.

Of course it may all fall apart, but IMHO it won't, Jackie will grow up to be a superstar, even if her voice lowers into the mezzo-soprano or contralto range. Then we can all listen back to Prelude to a Dream & recall the magic.

In my 6o plus years of life I have heard many sounds that have stired my imagination, but I was never brought to tears, until now. What a wonderful gift this child has and how lucky we are to hear her.

Jerry

this little girl has a sound that is beyond her years - a sound that usually takes years of practice to achieve. i am very impressed. check out all of her youtube videos ... she keeps getting better and better! i can't wait to hear more!

I agree completely with Tom Davis that this young lady has a very bright future. Indeed, I also hope that she steers toward classical music. However, classics are being written even now. She is a musical genius of the highest order and will inspire composers to write for her. Not only the voice, but she has the heart, soul and mind to let us hear true musical beauty, and it seems that she will just keep on getting better. And yes, I weep when I hear her...

Listening to her sing is inspirational and moving, to say the least. Her talent and appeal is not able to be fully understood until you can hear her sing, completely. The album is well worth the $7.99 spent. Had I known, I would have been willing to pay three times as much, probably more. This kid is going straight to the top. She will be making millions long before she reaches adolescence. An unbelievable experience, just to hear her sing as presented on this album.

After watching this child on AGT, I went searching for more. This is normally not the kind of music that I listen to often, but this voice has brought tears of wonder to my eyes and filled my heart. She is truly a blessing. I can't wait to have her next album.

The only down side to this album is the music that is backing her. As others have said, it tends to overpower her.

Listening to this recording, at age nine and hearing her again tonight on AGT, it is amazing to me just how much improvement she has made in so short a time.

One can only imagine that the future is bright for this wonderful and delightful young STAR.

To Jackie Evancho I would give five stars and then some. Her voice is pure and angelic. Simply amazing and getting even better with time. The instrumentals in this album are a different story. The accompaniment is way too loud. It walks all over and covers Jackie's voice. It is way too busy. It is as if you are sitting in the same room with the musicians while Jackie Evancho is singing in a different room. If this album were re-recorded with the caliber of accompaniment Jackie had in her America's Got Talent debut, then I would certainly give it five stars. I bought this digital album, but to be honest I would recommend to others that they wait for her next album.

I wept the very same minute I heard this little girl sing. (I am not usually a "crier")

I am not a music professional so I can only say that I believe her talent is amazing and it shocks me that a ten-year-old would have such a wonderful gift to share with the world.