Customer Reviews

Vienna

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

 

 

I know it's heresy to say this, but this music hasn't been sung so beautifully by a tenor since the great Fritz Wunderlich.

What is it about Jerry Hadley that no matter what he sings, he seems to be just right for the music.

Oh, yeah - I forgot. It's because he is a fabulous musician and probably the most underrated singer in the world today.

I also have a feeling that no small measure of the success of this effort is the incandescent conducting of Richard Bonynge.

The recent loss of Jerry Hadley is a tragedy all around but the world of opera and operetta has lost a shining light. This CD of absolutely beautiful music is a wonderful showcase of Mr Hadley's supreme talent. This is a wonderful selection of the best in Operetta and Mr Hadley's lyric tenor sings them all with feeling and emotion. His diction and pronunciation is close to perfection, I have never heard any foreign tenor sing these songs better. If this CD is ever available again, do yourself a favor and add it to your collection - you will not be sorry. Mr Hadley you will surely be missed and I am honored to have this CD in my collection.

I never doubted the loss the MUSIC (not just grand opera) world suffered with the premature passing of Jerry Hadley, but this really "hit home" with my purchase of this out-of-print import gem after Town Hall, NYC's Summer 2008 "Evening at the Operetta" that brought tears to my 44-year young (considering the average audience age) eyes. "Vienna" adds Lehar, Kalman and Eysler to the Romberg, Friml and Herbert of Hadley's "Golden Days" - giving 2 new "operetta bookends" to my CD collection. Hadley's crystal-clear diction and passion that betrays his Germanic-rooted Midwestern US roots, with Richard Bonynge's conducting, make "Vienna" a must-own, whatever the cost, on any light opera lover's shelf. We all know Gedda, Schwarzkopf, et al "could do it"; Jerry Hadley tells us forever that native-born Americans such as himself and Frederica von Stade can as well, and then some. What a loss!