Search - Barbara Hendricks :: Christmas Songs & Disney Songs

The magic of Walt Disney and the miracle of Christmas are evoked here by Barbara Hendricks. As she says, the Disney songs 'span my childhood and that of my own children ... forever inviting children all over the world, young and old, to dare to dream'. The multilingual Christmas collection - recorded in Sweden, where the soprano now makes her home - unites favourite carols from all over Europe and the Americas. Barbara Hendricks' voice -- particularly suited to Mozart, Debussy, Fauré, and the lighter roles of Puccini and Richard Strauss -- has a warm, crystalline quality that has kept her in demand on stage and in recording studios. Her performances have embraced everything from contemporary music to popular standards, including songs of Duke Ellington and several world premieres. She has been careful with her choices of repertoire, avoiding roles that would overextend her essentially lyric instrument. Aside from music, she is deeply committed to humanitarian work, with a particular concern for refugees and those in war or poverty zones. She sang a concert in Sarajevo in 1993 while the city was being shelled, in which she had to wear a bulletproof vest and helmet. Hendricks has appeared on nearly 80 recordings spread over a variety of major labels. Her first of many recordings for EMI was in the small part of the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo in 1978. For nearly twenty years her solo recordings have been made exclusively for EMI Classics.