The list of singers from the classical sphere who can put popular songs across well is quite a bit shorter than one might think. Renée Fleming, who had early experience in jazz, can do it, and a few others, but it's rarely done as well as it is here by baritone Thomas Oliemans, who grew up with the French popular chanson. In one way, he moves away from his classical training; his purring lower register is not that of an operatic baritone but that of a crooner, a distinctly pop phenomenon. Consider his version of Barbara's L ...
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The list of singers from the classical sphere who can put popular songs across well is quite a bit shorter than one might think. Renée Fleming, who had early experience in jazz, can do it, and a few others, but it's rarely done as well as it is here by baritone Thomas Oliemans, who grew up with the French popular chanson. In one way, he moves away from his classical training; his purring lower register is not that of an operatic baritone but that of a crooner, a distinctly pop phenomenon. Consider his version of Barbara's L'Île aux mimosas, where he has to hang out at the bottom for most of the song and seems absolutely comfortable there. In another way, though, this is a classical album and not an attempt to crack the pop charts (although it certainly could do so if marketed that way). Relying on a variety of arrangers, Oliemans brings lovely chamber orchestra renditions of these French song classics by the likes of Jacques Brel, Charles Trenet, and Michel Legrand, accompanied by the Amsterdam...
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Add this copy of Formidable! to cart. $38.95, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published by Channel Classics.
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