Search - Vincenzo Bellini, Ingrid Surgenor, Dennis O'Neill :: Bellini: Songs

Another Wonderful Performance By Dennis O'Neill

Timothy Kearney | Hull, MA United States | 03/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tenor Dennis O'Neill, who recently released a recording of songs by Giuseppe Verdi, treads similar territory in this collection of songs by Vincenzo Bellini. Like the Verdi collection, O'Neill has a beautiful voice that does the music justice, but in some ways this collection has a bit more gusto, due not to a better vocal performance as much as the songs themselves. For many, Bellini cannot be compared to Verdi, who is usually regarded as the better composer with a tremendous appreciation to what will and will not work on a stage and an ability to challenge lovers of greet music and entertain the masses at the same time. Perhaps for this reason we expect a bit more from Verdi's song collection. In the case of Bellini, critics have attacked his orchestration (I happen to like it, but that's me) or point out his style was a bit outdated and he's an all but forgotten composer, coming to greatness after Rossini and being eclipsed by Verdi. Still, he knew how to produce vocal fireworks and there are moments when most opera lovers crave pure Bel Canto and only NORMA, I PURITANI, or LA SONAMBULA can do the trick. For me, these songs demonstrate Bellini's ability to create great music for the voice and the piano accompaniment highlights this when a full orchestra could drown out the beauty of these pieces. It should also be noted that the quality of this CD is due in no small part to the talents of accompanist Ingrid Surgenor. Of course the CD, like so many Naxos releases is a bargain and I'm sure it will bring hours of listening pleasure to anyone who loves good vocal music."

Important project... but

M. Montenegro | mexico | 05/06/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The naxos company is working on a serie of songs by bel canto composers with tenor Dennis O'Neill; this project by itself is more than welcome since this kind of repertoire has been sort of ignored for the big names (lables and singers)... The problem is that these recordings are just a sample of each composer in the repertoire and we only have a chance to hear but a small selection of the full work... I wish this project would be complete, just as naxos (and other names) has been working on Schubert and Schumman, I think bel canto composers deserve more serious treatment. And, just a note about the tenor. Dennis O'Neill is a solid singer and artist, but, at this moment in his career, he is far from ideal in this repertoire. This music is bel canto, it needs a voice with that kind of style and beauty; a voice like Ramon Vargas, to set an example."

Overmatched but welcome

Ivan W. Caine | Richmond, MA United States | 01/31/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Those hoping for vocal splendor comparable to Bellini opera will be disappointed. This is not great music, but it is welcome. Dennis O,Neill is not graced with an outstanding voice. His recording of Tosti had texts, which are difficult to find, and he does little damage. His songs by Verdi and Donizetti seem more successful than this disk. The absence of bilingual texts is execrable.

Naxos boasts of success in a difficult market, but the prices rise while the presentation declines.

Rebecca Evans is better on her debut disk for EMI and the texts to four of these songs can be found on their website. The single song by Bergonzi for Sony is in an entirely different class."