Amici Forever - Defined

The five, young, good-looking and classically trained singers who comprise Amici Forever have a lot to offer. They have taste, and they make, for the most part, beautiful sounds (one of the sopranos is wobbly; the other singers--a soprano, two tenors and bass-baritone--are splendid). Their debut CD, The Opera Band, has sold over a million copies. Their arrangements, though somewhat sappy, are attractive, and they're very imaginative with both classical and pop repertoire. I Amici are not just good singers who add a beat to the classics; they think things through. Defined offers a fine arrangement of the Allegretto of Beethoven's 7th Symphony with a text that turns it into a Hymn to Liberty; a Bocelli-Celine Dion duet has been transformed into a densely harmonic quintet; an original work tells a Maori legend; Dalila's "Mon ceur s'ouvre a ta voix," once past the wobbly soprano, becomes a fine blend; Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto and Rodrigo's "Concerto de Aranjuez" form the basis for two other pieces. This is a handsomely produced album which could alert pop fans to some beautiful classical melodies and, in and of itself, it's good listening. --Robert Levine Amazon.com

Copy Bypass

This is an average CD. I do not think it as good as the first. I am really not a fan of The Prayer sung by anyone.

You can bypass the loading of the software by holding down the shift key while the disc loads. Once it stops spinning, it will show up in media player or your other audio program. I am still working to get the software off of my computer, but at least it will not infect any of my other machines. Not that I will purchase any other of this type of disc, ever. August 1, 2007

Classic, with a few cuts of brilliance

All one would of expect of this exceptional emsemble ... with a few pieces that soar. July 27, 2007

Audio Ambrosia

Amici Forever is one of the finest singing groups to come along in many, many years. Their musicality is awe inspiring. January 10, 2007

A fine CD ruined by over-aggressive copy protection

The CD shown here is the infamous disk inflicted upon the listening public by SONY/BMG/RCA which has resulted in several law suits because of its inclusion of a particularly nasty bit of spyware/malware (a "root kit") which is buried in any Windows computer system into which the disk is inserted, innocently or otherwise. It is a spectacularly stupid, sneaky, and downright mean attempt to control copying of the disk's contents, and as such it has earned universal opprobrium after its discovery and publicizing by a third party. This disk has been recalled and owners of it (such as me) may supposedly return it for replacement with a non-infected version.

My first bit of advice on the recording, then, is either to return it for exchange or put a note on it to warn against insertion into a computer. Alternatively, if you have the equipment, software, and ability, you may capture its music by playing it in a regular CD player with a cable connection to your sound card's input. A stereo analog audio cable connection will do, but if you have it, a digital SPDIF connection will do even better. My infected CD, by the way, is labeled as RCA Victor 8 2876 68883-2. (Further information/discussion of the CD's problems can be found on the Internet.)

The replacement version of this CD, the 2006 Australian Tour Edition, with two "bonus" tracks and presumably free of the rootkit, is also listed on Amazon.

I am a newcomer to Amici Forever (though they've been around awhile) and no fan of "fusion" music in general, but I bought the disk because some of my friends are fans and I wanted to see for myself what they were like. In general, I must say that I rather like this disk, though it is obviously something quite distinct from the classical music from which much of it is derived. It is a transformation of familiar classic tunes into a populist genre characterized by strong emotional intensity, highly synthesized and sonically processed sound, and often prominent percussion effects. (The waveforms show clear evidence of volume-limiting, with sustained passages right up to the allowed maximum. This creates the effect of great loudness and intensity, even passion.)

The singers possess fine voices for this idiom, which seems partly an outgrowth of the "Three Tenors" phenomenon. A good bit of the singing is in Italian, but English is well represented, along with bits of Spanish, French, and even background Maori.

I think these pieces should be treated as creations in their own right (even though many are derivative) and judged on their own merits as to musical appeal, imagination, and artistry.

"La Fiamma Sacra" (the sacred flame) is sung in English, despite its Italian title, and tells the story of a low-born man endowed with the gift of a singing voice which destines him to greatness. It is sweet, sentimental (not wishy-washy!), and altogether loveable.

"Nella Fantasia" (in a fantasy or dream) is widely known as a tenor vehicle derived from Morricone's film soundtrack for "The Mission." (I believe Bocelli and Watson, among others, have recorded it.) It is sung in Italian, and is very fine and satisfying in this version.

"The Prayer" (la preghiera), a composed song in Italian and English, is also widely known, especially in the version by Bocelli and Dion. Here it is no less delightful with five voices instead of two.

"Aranjuez Ma Pensée" (Aranjuez my thought) though titled in French is sung in the Spanish appropriate to its subject, the historic town just south of Madrid. The tune is a well-known and gorgeous theme from Joaquín Rodrigo's guitar concerto "Concierto de Aranjuez" set with words to make it a kind of love song for a place. The words are lovely and poetic and the piece is hauntingly and exotically beautiful. (Rodrigo is buried in Aranjuez, and I doubt if this borrowing makes him turn over in his grave.)

"So Far Away" is another love song for a place, this time New Zealand, "the land of the long white cloud." It is a very nice composed song sung in English with ethnic touches (a celtic pipe and background chorus singing in Maori). It has an irresistible loveliness.

"Nostalgia" (la mia nostalgia) is a derivation from Rachmaninov's immensely popular and often quoted second piano concerto. It is a song of loneliness and longing for a past love whose music tells the story without the need to understand the Italian words.

"Core 'Ngrato" (ungrateful heart) is an old Neapolitan chestnut sung in Italian dialect by tenors from as far back as Caruso and on up to today's cohort. It complains of the lover's mistreatment by the unappreciative Catarí. It's a fine, impassioned song, and this group does not stint in its presentation.

"Land & Freedom" (terra e libertà) is perhaps the most surprising inclusion here, for it is a transformation of the supremely beautiful second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 into another song of nostalgia for a beloved place, now distant or even vanished, associated with freedom, music, and poetry. In this Italian language song, the composer uses Beethoven's own exquisite countermelody, along with his strikingly lovely harmonies. With music from such a master, how could this song be anything but transcendant?

"Mon Coeur S'Ouvre À Ta Voix" (at your voice my heart opens) is the most popular aria from Camille Saint-Saëns' opera "Samson and Delilah," sung by Delilah to express her love for Samson (with some response by him). This arrangement, which becomes a duet, preserves much of the original, and is properly ecstatic as sung in the original French.

"Recondita Armonia" (hidden harmony) is another well-known aria, this time the tenor Cavaradossi's song about his fascination with the contrasting beauties of two female figures (from Puccini's opera "Tosca"). Here he gets support from other Amici members, but the music itself is left mostly intact, except for the instrumental accompaniment and vocal expansion. It's quite convincing.

"Adagio" is another borrowing from a purely instrumental classic, the Adagio in G minor attributed to Tomaso Albinoni though actually written in 1949 by Remo Giazotto (who claims he based it on a bass line of Albinoni's). The voices here follow the interweaving melodic lines of the strings, singing the newly-supplied Italian words of a lover's yearning for his absent love, and ending with "I feel beating within me this music which I invented for you." The result of this fusion of the old--or old-fashioned--with new words and vocal/instrumental sounds is likely to be much more accessible to most of today's hip-hop generation than the original, for all its classic elegance and beauty.

"Ocean Heart" (oceano cuore) is another instrumental music adaptation, being a setting of new Italian words to an arrangement of music from Aram Khatchaturian's ballet "Spartacus." The original music here is much less familiar than that of the other two, perhaps emboldening the arranger to take a bit more liberty (a new countermelody is added to the composer's own tune). This attractive, more midstream arrangement may waken many new ears to Khatchaturian's lovely, pensively yearning melody.

In summary, I applaud Amici Forever for their success in translating some of classical music's finest products into a form likely to appeal to a much wider audience than heretofore. This is not for everyone though: classical music purists will likely reject it as overblown, overheated, and just too remote from the original versions. Those with parochial musical tastes may dislike its cosmopolitan nature with untranslated foreign words. Still, youngish people who embrace the world's diversity and who were brought up in the tradition of rock concerts will probably find much enjoyment in the sheer vibrancy and musical pleasure here.

So, within its genre, I give the music of this disk 5 stars, but its physical embodiment in an infected CD merits no stars at all, rather, a big raspberry!
August 12, 2006

Fantastic

These are truely wonderful singing voices,backed up by a beautiful orchestra.The first song actually gave me chills.I can't wait to buy another one of their CD's.I recommend it highly to anyone who loves REAL music. February 26, 2006

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