This made-in-Toronto Christmas album is a guaranteed smile-maker for any opera or musical-theatre fan. Its secret? Making the music suit the voices and personalities of its singers rather than the other way around.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
We all know of unfortunate recordings where an opera singer has decided to tackle some pop or musical theatre songs: either they hide their vocal light under a bushel or they blow the poor little songs out of the water with their vocal power.
So along came three local musical magi — Brian Finley, Peter Tiefenbach and Peter Phoa — who brought the gift of opera (and/or big musical theatre) to a clutch of Christmastide classics, bringing the music up to the scale of the three singing maids featured on this album’s 14 tracks.
Big voices meeting big music is a good start. Sopranos Virginia Hatfield and Joni Henson and mezzo Megan Latham not only have voices to fill an opera house, but they sound fabulous, too. They sing with conviction and expression. They put their physical and emotional all into these songs, so when Latham offers to give her heart at the end of “In the Bleak Midwinter,” we have to nod in total agreement.
Each song has been recast by one of the three arrangers, giving it a fresh sound somehow totally appropriate to its mood and message. Eight of the 14 carols and songs are for all three vocalists, but the apportioning of duties never sounds overwrought or contrived.
Best of all, humour and sentiment live in happy harmony — nowhere more so than in a medley entitled “Born Is The King” arranged by Phoa. Its opening carol, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” is oh-so-cleverly bedecked in shimmery, tonally slippery echoes of Richard Strauss’ Rosenkavalier. It’s brilliant.
Tiefenbach accompanies everything with panache at the piano — except in his own arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne,” which closes the album in a flourish of rich a cappella singing.
These are big, bold Christmas carols not for a quiet evening of glowing fireplace embers, but of convivial celebrations around a roaring hearth, fueled by bubbling champagne.
My only quibble about this wonderful addition to anyone’s Yuletide listening is the audio quality, which is studio-dry. A bit more bloom would have made it even more festive. But don’t pass this treat by because of that.
You can find out all the details here.
Arranger Brian Finley, co-artistic director of the Westben Festival in Cambellford, hosts the three divas in concert at Westben on Saturday afternoon — as a fundraiser for the summer festival. Details here.
As a teaser, here is Phoa’s arrangement of Swedish “Koppangen,” the most Broadway-esque of the songs on the album:
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
