Enchantment

Charlotte Church

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 9, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00005OWEJ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (502 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #43,104 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Music > Classical > Featured Performers, A-Z > ( C ) > Church, Charlotte
  #37 in	Music > Classical > Featured Composers, A-Z > ( B ) > Bernstein, Leonard
  #47 in	Music > Classical > Featured Composers, A-Z > ( S ) > Satie, Erik

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Of course, we couldn't expect time to freeze its relentless path and forever preserve the Welsh sensation Charlotte Church in a chrysalis of precocious youth. And yet, at 15 and now taking bolder steps into expanding her repertory on Enchantment, the soprano remains a marvel of a prodigy. Here, she scours a wider range of sources than on her previous albums. Church moves with breathtaking ease from classic Broadway (West Side Story, Show Boat, South Pacific) to traditional Celtic, film ballads, and even a couple of high-operatic numbers. Church's straightforward approach to the melody of "La Habanera" may not exactly be what Bizet had in mind for his Carmen, but fans will get double pleasure out of the singer's exquisite duet with herself on the haunting "Flower Duet" from Delibes's Lakmé. What's more, there's a greater freedom of expression and sense of how to shape a phrase in many of these tracks--notice how much there is to savor, for instance, in "The Water Is Wide" and "Carrickfergus." It all adds up to a widely varied course, demonstrating the continued growth of a singularly gifted young artist. --Sarah Chin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

167 of 170 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting?...Not Really, December 28, 2001

By	K. Li (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Compare to her previous albums, this one ranks closer to the bottom. When she was younger, say elevenish, her voice was lovely to listen to. It was a sweet, angelic voice so like a young girl at that age should sound with a potential of becoming a power house in the future. But now in her mid teens, Miss Church has yet to reach that point and one wonders now if she ever will. Her voice has not gotten better nor worse.

Like a previous reviewer said, the strain in her voice is evident and sometimes a little painful to listen to. There are some songs where she's straining towards a range her vocal chords can not handle and there are other times like in "Papa can you here me?" where here voice is just above whisper (cranking the volume is needed). In fact, her pitch is not the same, at least to my ears it isn't. It sounds as if it's been lowered a key or two. Another thing with her singing is that I hear a lot of air before the words come out. Her voice does not come out as clear or pure as it could be. There is just too much whooshing sounds for me to continue listening to this CD.

I love show tunes from time to time and I'm familiar with most of the songs on this album. Although I believe Miss Church did put in a great effort, she missed her mark. If you want to listen to an Opera/Pop/Broadway style of music, I recommend Sarah Brightman (albums: Dive, Eden, or La Luna).

160 of 163 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much...Too Young...Too Late?, January 8, 2002

By	Josh B. (CT USA) - See all my reviews

It's sad for me to see such a young talent head in the direction Charlotte Church is heading. Sitting back and listening to this girl sing songs meant for mature voices, before having been properly trained is egregious.
Charlotte Church is a product of a culture who doesn't care about the long term - a culture bent on instant gratification. Watching Charlotte Church sing gives an indication as to how true this is.
First - her tone is weak and breathy. This is nothing worth faulting her on...it's merely a product of her age. She's too young to be singing what she's being told to sing.
Second - her jaw tension is bad enough to injure those around her. When you watch Charlotte sing her jaw flaps up and down. This is something that needs to be dealt with. Too much jaw tension could very well be this singers undoing (not to mention her collapsed sternum, high breathing and abnormal vowel construction).
Many people will debate that Charlotte Church is undermining the whole of the opera community by instilling false standards on the ears of the public. Ardent singers say that she's a sign of the collapse of classical music. This I will take issue with. If someone is bring opera and classical music to the masses then more power to them, however, this should not be done at the expense of the singer's talents. Charlotte Church is not ready for the amount of, or kind of singing she is being asked to do. Give her a few years and then maybe she can release a CD Worth listening to. If she waits she could be great...but as is, she's just another Andrea Bocceli....or Sarah Brightman - people who try to sing but can't hold a candle to those true operatic singers (i.e. Kiri Takanawa, Renee Flemming, and Sam Ramey).

152 of 155 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Uninspired, January 1, 2002

By	Christopher Farrell (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Other reviewers have complained with some apparent authority about a lack of talent here, but I found Charlotte Church's voice to be fundamentally quite pleasing. It is strong, clean and clear, and seems to have a range more than adequate for the music on this CD. I thought her control was fine (and I do have a musical background, so I am not completely ignorant on these matters).

Where Enchantment fell down for me was not in the technical area, but in the absolute banality of the selections and a lack of any artistic expression throughout. The folk tunes and opera and broadway hits all sound basically the same. The selections themselves are a hodgepodge with no sense of either trying to make a coherent albumn or showcasing Church's talents - I suspect sobody just picked 15 tracks that they thought had the name recognition to sell. And while the technical performance is fine, none of the tracks have any intensity at all. It's all rather bland.

Maybe sometime Church will do her own albumn, somthing that establishes her own identity and on which she can put her own stamp. Until then, I'll take a pass, I think.