This new Plácido Domingo pop/sacred crossover album opens with a rather Disney-fied Ave Maria–a vocal arrangement of Mascagni’s “Intermezzo” from Cavalleria rusticana in which the tenor is joined by Norwegian pop singer Sissel (the siren voice of Titanic) who offers a really cheesy, breathy recitation of the “Hail Mary” in the middle section. Next comes Paolo Rustichelli’s “cool” Kyrie, replete with piano, guitar, and synthesizers that’s sure to get your fingers snapping as you contemplate salvation. Sissel returns for a really bland Bist du bei mir (Stölzel, not Bach), but Domingo goes solo for the remainder of the program, which finds him singing at less than his considered best.
Despite booklet notes that profess his love of sacred music (not to mention an insert photo portraying him in a beatific pose, eyes gazing heavenward), Domingo sounds uninspired even in such normally inspiring pieces as Handel’s Ombra mai fu and Franck’s Panis angelicus. He apparently has no feeling for Gounod’s Sanctus, and he appears quite uncomfortable with the high notes in Rossini’s Domine Deus, robbing it of much of its usual zing. The tenor is much more compelling in Gounod’s operatic Repentir (his best track), and offers a generally moving rendition of the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria.
A third Ave Maria is included, this time by Placido Domingo Jr. It’s a pleasant, harmless, quasi-19th century concoction that passes easily from the memory. There are two English-language offerings as well, “Ye people rend your hearts” from Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Domingo’s mildly stirring rendition of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, though I don’t know how anyone figured the latter belonged in an album of sacred songs–unless being sung by a nun in The Sound of Music qualifies a song as “sacred” (in which case we also should have Domingo asking us “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”).
Except for the pop-oriented selections, the recording thankfully adheres to classical music production values by placing Domingo, chorus, and orchestra more or less naturally in the reverberant acoustic of Milan Auditorium. To put the best possible interpretation on it, maybe this album will be a big seller for DG, thereby exposing new listeners to the, er, “extended” sacred music repertory. But, for the classical collector? No way.
