Customer Rating: Summary: Superb! Comment: I have grown to love Katherine Jenkins during the past few months for I think she is one of the best singers around at the moment.
I bought this CD for one reason, and one reason only, the track Vide Cor Meum. This duet was used in the film Hannibal, and also during the death scene of the Leper King Baldwin IV in the film Kingdom of Heaven. Here, Katherine sings the duet along with the Welsh singer Rhys Meiron. It is a divine work, beautifully played and sung.
But, to my absolute joy, I also discovered that this CD has numerous other wonderful tracks which are a joy to listen to. I loved it throughout, especially the tracks:
Time To Say Goodbye; O Sole Mio; Song To The Moon; and Mozart's little gem: Laudate Dominum.
It is a wonderful CD, and I am so glad I purchased it. I noticed other reviewers have mixed feelings about this disc; some claiming that Katherine is an opera singer. Others claiming that she is not. She is just a singer, and a great one at that.
If you enjoy good music and good singing, you will enjoy this. As for the whingers, maybe they should find something else to do.
Very good sound on the disc by the way. Customer Rating: Summary: Beautiful music Comment: I am really pleased that I bought this album. Not being a fan of classical music, I am always scared of buying a CD just in case I don't like it. This CD is beautiful and what made it even better for me is that one of my favourite songs "Calon Lan" is on there. This is a song I have loved since a child and haven't heard it sung since then. It conjured up memories of childhood.
If you are like me and not really sure of classical music then I would recommend this one to you. You may not recognise the titles of the songs but you will know them once you hear them. Customer Rating: Summary: Katherine Jenkins Comment: I issue a challenge: why is Katherine Jenkins called an opera singer? She is no such thing. I challenge any person to name an opera in which she has appeared, and with which opera company.
I'm afraid she would not pass first audition with any reputable opera company. Her voice is raw, with a dreadfully closed throat sound in the lower register.
She claims to have been a singing teacher - at her age? Who is she trying to kid? Nobody at her age could possibly know enough about her own voice, let alone train others.
I'm afraid she is yet another here today, gone tomorrow "pop-classic" icon picked up by "Classic" FM. The same happened with Russell Watson, Lesley Garrett, Andrea Bocelli and other d-listers. Only Bocelli saw the light, had his voice trained and is now much better, although still not an opera singer.
Pretty? Yes, Katherine is certainly that. Opera singer? Not in a million years.
Customer Rating: Summary: My favourite Comment: This is my best Katherine cover. She wearing a super sexy red dress and she is so tremendous. I never see a woman such beautiful as Katherine. When I see this beautiful cover I know immediate that I got to buy the CD. I do not know Katherine until 2006 and in one year I buy all her DVDs and CDs. I am amaze that such beautiful woman can be in the music today and I say thank you to England and thank you to God who create her. I so sad when i see England football team lose in the Euro gualify and I hope Katherine not cry. I say to England, is true that you got crap football team but it don't matter you got Katherine and I wish that we got womans in Holland as beautiful as Katherine but I never see.It fantastic to see that Katherine so popular and not get a big head and truely lovely woman who is fantastic roll model for young childrens.
I say to you this!
1) Katherine do not do the drugs!
2) Katherine do not do the alcohol!
3) Katherine do not do the swear and bad langauge!
This proof that Katherine is fantastic roll model for young childrens. Katherine go to Iraq and visit troops which show she incredible courage and brave and what a fantastic woman she is and so super sexy and hot. She is most beautiful woman in the music today, I hope she do TV show at Christmas and this will make a wonderful Christmas for me. I like to say hello and best wishes to all katherine fans. Customer Rating: Summary: First Class Second Nature Comment: Second Nature is the second CD released by Katherine Jenkins in 2004. Like the first, the album achieved chart success, hitting the No. 1 spot in the classical music charts and reaching No. 16 in the UK album chart. It was also awarded Album of the Year at the Classical BRIT awards on 25th May 2005.
The cover artwork is an improvement on the previous album which I think didn't make the best of the singer's appearance. The girl next door look is discarded in favour of a bolder more glamorous operatic image.
Like the first album, the choice of music will have a broad appeal, for it is another carefully chosen selection of classical, opera, traditional and crossover styles with some modern works thrown in. Many of the established classics are here, including works by Verdi, Rodrigo, Bizet, Dvorak, Offenbach and Mozart, but my favourites are the more surprising and unusual inclusions.
`Time to Say Goodbye' is an Italian operatic pop song, composed by Francesco Sartori and first performed by Andrea Bocelli in 1995. It didn't achieve widespread success until a second recording of the song was made, this time pairing Bocelli and soprano Sarah Brightman, after which it achieved major record sales when released as a single.
It has now been widely recorded and performed, and this version, which opens the CD, is a song I've seen Katherine Jenkins use to great effect as the closing number on her live concerts.
`Vide cor Meum'( See my heart) is an operatic duet with Welsh tenor Rhys Meirion, composed by Patrick Cassidy for the film `Hannibal' where it was used in the outdoor opera scene to brilliant effect by marking the realization (to Inspector Pazzi) that Dr Hannibal Lector was sitting in the audience. The extreme contrast between the sheer operatic beauty of the music and Hannibal's concealed violence makes this piece, for me, unforgettable.
`Hymn to the Fallen' is another cinematic score, this time by John Williams for the 1998 film `Saving Private Ryan'. I always thought the music was poorly placed in the film, at the end while the credits rolled, so that cinema audiences were too busy exiting to fully appreciate it. This version I think improves on the original one, benefiting from the extra vocal emotion provided by the use of a single soprano voice (Jenkins) backed by choir (Czech Film Orchestra). This is my favourite of the CD.
This is another successful 2004 release by Katherine Jenkins, which will appeal to fans of her first album, Premiere, as well as a wider audience amongst the (so-called) crossover genre thanks to the inclusion of some non-classical tracks.
