Great Voices Sing John Denver
2013; Routledge; Volume: 70; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Diverse Musicological Studies
ResumoGreat Voices Sing John Denver. Danielle de Niese, Patricia Racette, Barbara Padilla, soprano; Dolora Zajick, Denyce Graves, mezzo soprano; Placido Domingo, Placido Domingo Jr., Matthew Polenzani, Daniel Montenegro, Stuart Skelton, tenor; Rod Gilfry, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, baritone; Rene Pape, Shenyang, bass; Lee Holdridge, conductor. (MRI 20286-21395; 68:12)Rhymes and Reasons, Old Guitar, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Sweet Surrender, Eagle and the Hawk, Goodbye Again, Sunshine on My Shoulders, Like a Sad Song, Shanghai Breezes, Fly Away, Follow Me, Per Te, For You, Calypso, Love, Annie's Song.There was no quicker or more certain way to send legendary tenor Jon Vickers into one of his famous tirades than to suggest that John Denver was a modern day Franz Schubert. As far as Vickers was concerned, any such comparison represented nothing less than ruinous artistic compromise. If we start saying John Denver is the Schubert of our day, thundered Vickers in a 1986 Opera News article, then we are lying through our teeth for some kind of gain, or else we don't know what we're talking about. We must not smear the line between art and entertainment. We cannot compromise! That line may have appeared clear and incontestable to Vickers, but one wonders how Schubert himself would have reacted to the notion of an unbridgeable divide between that which is artistic and that which is entertaining. In such a world where would one place a crowd-pleaser like Schubert's Erlkonig? What about Adam Guettel's Light in the Piazza? Where do we position Mr. Vickers's art/entertainment divide in a world where Renee Fleming sings Gershwin and Barbra Streisand sings Reynaldo Hahn? And what about those artists like Andrea Bocelli, Kathleen Jenkins, and others whose entire careers seem to embody the principle that art and entertainment are one and the same? It's a topic that has been repeatedly raised in this column and elsewhere, and it's well worth pondering, even if clear and illuminating answers prove elusive.It is probably best not to listen to Great Voices Sing John Denver with such weighty matters in mind, but to take it for what it is: a celebration of one of America's most gifted and popthese ular singer/songwriters featuring an array of classically trained singers not usually associated with such music. The album was the idea of Rosemary Okun, whose 90 year old husband Milt was the producer for most of John Denver's most successful recordings as well as Placido Domingo's best selling crossover album from 1981, Perhaps Love. This was certainly not the first time a classical vocalist had recorded pop songs, but it was an unexpectedly bold move from as serious an artist as Mr. Domingo, whose musical persona was poles apart from that of John Denver. Despite the misgivings of many, the collaboration was successful in every way and remembered fondly by everyone involved. Ms. Okun envisioned this new album as a similar sort of crossover project that would also serve as a memorial to the popular songwriter who died in a 1997 airplane crash.Placido Domingo was the first artist to be approached, and his enthusiasm for the new project helped pave the way for the signing of other artists such as Dolora Zajick, Patricia Racette, Matthew Polenzani, Thomas Hampson, Nathan Gunn, and Rene Pape. Room was also made for some younger, emerging singers such as Daniel Montenegro, whose resume is still dominated by minor roles like Pong in Puccini's Turandot, but whose work with Domingo in Il postino helped lead to his inclusion in this project. Each of the singers involved was invited to choose the John Denver song that he or she most wanted to sing, and in an incredible stroke of good luck, no one went after the same song. That, in itself, is an indication of just how deep a treasure trove this is. Fortunately, the singers seem to have been drawn to those songs in which a classically trained singer could be comfortable; nobody was foolish enough to attempt Rocky Mountain High or Thank God I'm a Country Boy-although there might have been something perversely entertaining about such efforts. …
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