Oh dear. Why is it
that opera stars feel the need to do
this sort of thing? It may be pressure
from the record companies, but I can’t
imagine an artist as phenomenally successful
as Terfel has been for DG, needing to
bow to such pressure. That leaves the
possibility that he actually wanted
to do something like this. We know how
Terfel likes to be thought of as everybody’s
mate, the lad from the valleys made
good, but whom you could still have
a pint and a singsong with. Well, that
may or may not be true, but musically
a large part of this disc just doesn’t
work.
Of course, the sort
of public this is squarely aimed at
will not question the things that bother
me. But when I compare it to the lighter
albums he’s done in the past, where
great show songs were treated with the
respect they deserved, most of the stuff
on here seems all wrong. Too many of
the small items, particularly the traditional
and folksongs, are given the Hollywood
treatment by producer Chris Hazell.
You know the sort of thing – a rich
sheen of sumptuous string tone, heavenly
choirs, any opportunity for pan pipes
– that simply overwhelm the material.
This is not Terfel’s fault; his musicality
would shine through whatever, and I
reckon he would ultimately prefer simple,
straightforward accompaniments that
would suit the music far better. In
other places we get the nightmare mix
of the Hollywood arrangement and the
voice plainly not suiting the song,
as in the embarrassing Titanic tune
(here given extra gravitas by being
called Il Mio Cuore Va), or the
chirpy Howard Goodall hymn from The
Vicar of Dibley. Honestly, I’m not
being a sourpuss to say that this grand,
overblown approach does nothing for
this sort of material, even something
as slight as those mentioned.
Terfel’s trademark
attention to diction, as well as his
(sometimes over-used?) whispered pianissimos,
does pay dividends in some numbers.
But a superb little gem like Tchaikovsky’s
None But the Lonely Heart does
not need anything more than a piano
and an intelligent singer to work, and
Terfel’s admirably unforced rendition
is swamped by the ridiculous cushion
of sound around it.
Predictably, the couple
of ‘straight’ opera items work best,
at least for me. Terfel makes a swaggering,
commanding toreador to open the disc,
and I enjoyed the Pearl Fishers
duet far more than I expected. I am
no fan of the tremulously light, pop-orientated
tenor of Andrea Bocelli, but his tone
actually suits the Gallic lyricism of
this aria, and the two voices blend
mellifluously together. The orchestra
and conductor (the admirable Barry Wordsworth)
also seem more inspired here, playing
original stuff in its original guise.
As I’ve already said,
those to whom this disc will appeal
will not be put off by what I’ve written
(if they even bother to read it). So-called
‘crossover’ albums are here to stay,
and it seems everyone has to have a
go. The booklet note has a short (and
not very successful) stab at justifying
the integrity of the disc, but at least
DG give us full texts (as embarrassing
as the arrangements, in some cases).
One for Granny’s birthday present, I
think.
Tony Haywood