Album title: A Tribute to Mario Lanza
Artist: Mark Vincent
Genre: Classical
Nationality: Australian
Release date: April 14
Position in Discography: Seventh
Estimated Rating:
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Classical, yes; vocal classical, no
Average RYM Score: N/A
Who hasn't heard of Mario Lanza? One of the best, if not the best tenor voices to come out of Italy, Lanza ruled the airwaves and the film screens too in the 1940s and 1950s, and I guess one of the first real superstars of opera. Not sure how, but the first track is noted as being “with Mario Lanza”, and as he's a long time passed away I guess it must be spliced digitally or something. I know a few of these songs, though I'm no fan of opera: “Nessun Dorma” I think everyone knows, then there's the other Italian favourite “O Sole Mio” (if nothing else, you'll know it from Elvis's reworking it into “It's Now Or Never”) and I think I also know “Arrivederchi Roma”, though that's probably from watching
The Simpsons! This guy Vincent has of course a wonderful tenor voice, so if you're into Pavarotti, Bocelli or any of the greats, or even the likes of Josh Groban, you'll probably enjoy this.
Review-wise, there's not a lot I can say. It's very very pleasant to listen to, and does remind me of former times, when diction was really important to singers, and they were always backed by a full orchestra; a time fading away, almost gone now, but there's definitely a certain grandeur and majesty to such music, though whether Vincent uses an orchestra here or it's just synthesiser-backed I don't know (I would suspect the former). I defy anyone not to get chills on the last notes of “Nessun Dorma”, and mostly it's powerful, sweeping music that reminds you what it used to mean to actually have a proper, trained, powerful singing voice (many of these people sung without microphones, imagine that!) and to have to really work to make your music heard.
Bellisimo!
Check out more from this artist? Probably not; it's not really my thing, but you never know
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes
Actual Rating:
