Mondo Trash [Import]

Product Description
Second Album from the Solo Project of Katokunnlee. With Kim (Izanami), Marcellus Nealy, Zakia, Midorin (Soil and "Pimp" Sessions), Yuiave and Others. Includes a Version of Chaka Khan's "Through the Fire".

Tracks:

Norma: Casta Diva (Short Version)
Samson & Dalila: S'apre Per Te Il Mio Cuor
Tosca: Vissi D'arte
Carmen: Habanera
Gianni Schicchi: O Mio Babbino Caro
Ave Maria
La Traviata: Addio Del Passato
Lost Boys Calling
You Are The One (Sotto Le Stelle)
Dissonanze (Mondo Trash)
Maria (By The Sea)
Casta Diva (Extended Version)

Amazon.com

This eponymous album from the Italian singer Filippa Giordano confounds expectations. Released on the classical label Erato, Giordano mixes arias with contemporary songs such as the Ennio Morricone-Roger Waters "Lost Boys Calling" from the 1999 Golden Globe-winning movie The Legend of 1900. Using a conventional orchestra sometimes supplemented by electronic keyboards and occasional drums, the production achieves a slick and glossy chart-friendly sound that will find favor with fans of Whitney Houston and Céline Dion. Key to the album are two versions of "Casta Diva" from Bellini's Norma, between which arias from Samson and Dalila, Tosca, Carmen, and La Traviata sit rather uncomfortably alongside several pop anthems. With the vocal flavor of Broadway and a hint of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the intention seems to be to add contemporary crossover appeal to opera in much the same way that Andrea Bocelli has done with such conspicuous success. It's doubtful that serious opera aficionados will care much for Filippa Giordano, though music lovers in general may well find the album an attractive entry into the sometimes-forbidding world of the classical diva. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

Understand this album for what it is, and what it is not........2007-02-02

Opera aficianados take note - she is not an opera singer. It is pointless to consider her as one. You might as well snipe at a nasturtium for not being a rose. She is a pop singer. If you are looking for nuanced interpretations of classic bel canto opera, why the heck did you pick this album up in the first place? You know where to look already.

I completely disagree with the opera buffs who say that it is a travesty that she recorded these albums and besmirched the great masters. She did not record this for *you*. She recorded this for listeners of pop music. Have you heard what passes for pop music? Evidently not, or you would realize her albums far surpass everything currently in play... and if that is damning to pop music, well, so it is.

If one person... a single soul... listens to this album and is inspired enough to go out and listen to "the real thing" then Filippa Giordano has done them a great service and made the world a richer place. Opera aficionados are not born knowing and appreciating opera. One must be exposed to the music in the first place. Many people grow up having NEVER heard opera. This sort of album has a chance at being played in venues where Callas and Fleming couldn't get feet in the door. To the uninitiated, opera can seem bewildering and unintelligible, full of unfamiliar conventions. Filippa Giordano uses pop conventions to put these arias in musical terms that pop music lovers can grasp. Melodic familiarity goes miles toward connecting people to the emotional core of an operatic performance. Before you spew venom, consider that you are potentially thwarting a pathway that may lead to genuine appreciation of "real" opera down the pike. Bite your tongue. Go listen to your own recordings of the masters. You are right. They are infinitely more sophisticated. But this album has considerable value despite its flaws, and it wasn't created for you.

Opera Geeks, get a life.......2006-05-05

This is an album by a gifted pop singer singing some beautiful classical arias. Now, opera geeks are going apoplectic that this woman has the temerity to do so. I listen to opera, and I am occasionally relieved to hear CDs like this. It's nice not to hear a singer sounding like several people are tightening her Wagnerian corset so hard that she is expelling air through every orifice in her body. It is not the music that keeps opera unaccessible to everyone except pretentious pseudo-intellectuals (you don't need a Ph.D. to appreciate it). No, what has kept opera out of the mainstream is the constipated sounds too many opera singers make. If you like beautiful music sung well, if not brilliantly, you will like this CD. And for the record, I loathe C?line Dion's and Whitney Houston's music passionately, so don't let the first reviewer's comments dissuade you from this CD.

Distasteful...........2006-03-07

Do Banshees really exist ?. Yes they do.....and this abomination of musical history is proof of this....I cannot believe that a record company actually thought that they would even remotely break even on the sales of this grievous, flavorless, repellent and not to mention nauseous anathema of a recording. Shame on you young lady for destroying what were once, beautiful arias. A sad and unpassionate insult to great musical workmanship....

Not really opera, but fun anyway.......2006-02-03

As previous reviewers have said, "purist" opera fans would probably not consider this album to be opera, but it's still very enjoyable. Filippa Giordano will not likely be cast in a Wagnerian role anytime soon; she has a beautiful voice, but it does sound rather thin at times (she's no Maria Callas or Renee Fleming, in other words). It would be very easy to compare her to those other "(p)opera" divas, Sarah Brightman and Charlotte Church, but Filippa's sound is considerably more playful than Sarah's, and more sophisticated than Charlotte's. The highlights of this album are her renditions of "Casta Diva" and "Habanera," and I would recommend it for those two songs alone, but the rest of the album is also very good. This would be a great way to introduce a young person to the genre, as many of the songs could pass for pop songs.

Ummmm...........2005-11-29

Thousand pardons and all, but what on earth is she doing? If she wants to sing like this, fine and well, but why take perfectly fine operatic pieces that are special to some people and absolutely desecrate them by singing them like they are pop?
People who want to sing pop music should not go about advertising themselves as operatic singers, Giordano has the capacity to sing contemp. if she wants, but she obviously has not an operatic voice. If you like people being wormy and stealing from other genres, you will love this cd. If you like opera, you will not.

Average customer rating:

Mondo Trash
Playa
Manufacturer: Disk Union
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000B63F6Y
Release Date: 2005-10-31

Album Details

Second Album from the Solo Project of Katokunnlee. With Kim (Izanami), Marcellus Nealy, Zakia, Midorin (Soil and "Pimp" Sessions), Yuiave and Others. Includes a Version of Chaka Khan's "Through the Fire".

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