Vienna: City of My Dreams

Placido Domingo (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B000067DNZ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #353,267 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Placido Domingo can do no wrong. He sheds the glory of his voice over whatever he undertakes, whether it's grand opera or more popular fare, and makes its style and idiom his own with total dedication. Here we find him in a London studio in 1985, with an English orchestra and chorus under a Viennese conductor, bringing back the Golden Age of the Vienna operetta, covering composers from Johann Strauss II, b. 1825, to Oscar Straus, d. 1954. Anyone with memories of that time and place, beware! Your heart will melt with nostalgia as this Spanish-born, Mexican-raised tenor sings of his love and longing for the "city of his dreams" and its beautiful girls. Only in the famous title song (which is not part of an operetta) does this combination seem a bit incongruous, especially since Domingo's German, not to mention his Viennese, hardly sounds native. However, you don't have to be Viennese to succumb to the music and the singing. The program includes several familiar favorites, notably three arias by Lehár (much the best composer after Strauss), two by Emmerich Kálmán, a Hungarian adept at writing in gypsy style, a lovely one each by Oscar Straus and Johann Strauss, and two by the lesser-known Leo Fall. Most of the songs are about love, genuine, frivolous, yearning or frustrated, and it is testimony to Domingo's artistry that he does not condescend even to the most banal; indeed he sings the more serious ones with all the passion of a Radames. Only when the irony is inherent in the song itself does he allow a smile to steal into his voice. The anonymous orchestrations seem more at home in Hollywood than in Vienna, but the orchestra plays beautifully. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wiener Schlag, perhaps a little too sweet?, July 8, 2006

By 

Juergen Bahr (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vienna: City of My Dreams (Audio CD)

A much appreciated recording of the classic tenor "arias" of the operetta genre. Good solid recording, excellent orchestra under the baton of Julius Rudel. A must for the operetta fan, as it is not easy to find thoughful and carefully researched collections like this. Placido Domingo is of very good voice and sings these not so challenging material with conviction and commitment. The interpretation of the material is perhaps almost too romantic and over done. Long held phrasing, slurpy singing interferes with the pretty straight forward intent of this material. Perhaps zarzuela meets operetta? But the recording is very enjoyable and does bring back the days of Rudolf Schock and long enjoyable evenings at the Volksoper.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Delivery, March 29, 2009

By 

George L. Rayburn - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vienna: City of My Dreams (Audio CD)

I am totally disappointed with this ordered CD which was never delivered. I have never received any satisfaction although payment was made by credit card on file with Amazon.Com and Amazon has never communicated with me directly to explain the failure of their agent to make the delivery. Very poor service!