Star Crossed Lovers: Placido Domingo & Renee Fleming

Placido Domingo (Artist), Renée Fleming (Artist), Leonard Bernstein (Composer), Carlos Gardel (Composer), Federico Moreno Torroba (Composer), Charles Gounod (Composer), Edward Duke Ellington (Composer), Franz Lehar (Composer), Daniel Barenboim (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
• Composer: Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Gardel, Federico Moreno Torroba, Charles Gounod, Edward Duke Ellington, et al.
• Audio CD (February 2, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: London/Decca
• ASIN: B00000I088
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,869 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #24 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Fleming, Renée

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Romeo and Juliet were the original star-crossed lovers; Shakespeare coined the phrase in his tragedy about their young love and tragic death. But the expression can be applied to doomed couples of all kinds: Faust and Marguerite, Othello and Desdemona, and of course Tony and Maria in West Side Story, which updates Romeo and Juliet to modern New York. This recording, taped at a gala concert in Chicago in 1998 and videotaped for a telecast on the PBS series Great Performances, presents music about doomed love composed by Leonard Bernstein, Charles Gounod, Franz Lehar, Duke Ellington, and others, including several Spanish songs that show Plácido Domingo in top form. After all the tragedy, there is a duet that signals one happy ending: the Merry Widow waltz. Domingo and Renée Fleming are two of today's greatest singers, and they live up to their reputations. The voices are too operatic for West Side Story, but Bernstein would have disagreed. For his definitive recording of the show, he chose similar voices: José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Below Their Standards, February 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Crossed Lovers: Placido Domingo & Renee Fleming (Audio CD)

While both Domingo and Fleming are among today's outstanding singers, this is a very dissappointing disc. Even in the Othello selection, which comes from their normal operatic repetoire, they are not engaging. The dramatic tension is suprisingly slack. Unless you need to have every disk they made, pass this one up.

2.0 out of 5 stars Like kicking puppies, July 22, 2011

By 

Marsha J Hamilton - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Crossed Lovers: Placido Domingo & Renee Fleming (Audio CD)

To write a bad review of something created by such major talents as Placido Domingo and Renee Fleming feels a little like kicking a puppy, but this really is a terrible CD. Like the people who built the Titanic, you have to wonder how so many talented people could create something that went so horribly, horribly wrong. Domingo and Fleming are mediocre at best in their renditions of West Side Story selections. The operatic selections from 'Faust' and 'Otello', where they should shine, are not selections that listeners would immediately go to mentally when thinking 'love songs' and the interpretations feel like there is no love there. We KNOW these artists are fantastic--that is why this CD is so disappointing. Fleming's renditions of Duke Ellington classics are painful to listen to, both over-blown and seriously missing the emotional context of the lyrics. Domingo's "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" is touching and shows his great vocal skill, but it's hardly worth getting this CD for one selection. Their duet on "Lippen schweigen" from 'The Merry Widow,' which, considering the popularity of the song and their immense talent should be a knock out, is sadly unsatisfying. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra does a fine job with the instrumental prologue from West Side Story, but again, fans would be better served getting the entire WSS sound track elsewhere. There are many excellent versions from which to choose. Several selections have piano accompaniment only, without full orchestra, which gives part of the CD the feeling of a recital recording. In summary, fans should run, not walk, to the nearest outlet that sells this and beg them to stop. These great talents should not be remembered by this lackluster collection. They are so much better than this.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is really very nice!, February 16, 2002

By 

D Dog (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Crossed Lovers: Placido Domingo & Renee Fleming (Audio CD)

I loved this. I thought Renée was just wonderful. It's so wonderful when we have opera singers who grace our ears with doing something out of there element and doing it PHENOMINALLY!! So it's nice to have Renée singing the "Tonight" duet with Domingo in West Side Story. But I do agree with the reviewer below me, in that Domingo sounds a little operatic for this role. After all, it is a musical (not everyone's as versatile as our diva). Her "Somewhere" is just gorgeous, althought, my favorite "Somewhere" is sung by Jessye Norman (for all you West Side Story finatics out there). My personal favorites on this disc are the jazz songs by Renée. Who knew she had such a talent for jazz? I wish there were more Renée Fleming jazz recordings out there.