Mario Frangoulis - Feggari Erotevmeno (9 tracks) +Album Reviews

Great Mario Concert CD And Wonderful Greek Songs

04/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered "Fengari Erotevmeno" (FE) when Mario's "Sometimes I Dream" (SID) quickly became my all-time favorite. I am very impressed that at the age 35, Mario is already a seasoned musician and actor. He has performed in Music Theater, opera, Greek tragedy; won high level singing competitions; and trained for opera singing at Jiulliard School of Music and with the late opera singer Alfredo Kraus. I had confidence to buy FE because I found "Ton Eafto Tou Paidi" in SID a very beautiful Greek song and one of the best in SID. I'd describe the style of the 21 Greek songs as between folk and contemporary Greek art-songs. Lots of them sound more folk than Ton Eafto Tou Paidi. They are contemporary songs or modern classics. Some lyrics are written by great poets, including a Nobel Prize-winning poet. These Greek songs are very refreshing to me. Some of them are soft and thoughtful. Some are powerful and passionate. And some tell a story. Mario handled every song with the touch of a real master. I love Mario's version of the two Broadway songs (CD2, Tracks 1 & 2, refer to listing below). No doubt we think of the original cast when we listen to them. For me, there is room for interpretations by other great artists. Mario has performed Raoul in "Phantom of the Opera" and Marius in "Les Miserables" and more leading roles in other musicals in a cast as well respected as the Broadway cast. Mario is often picked to portray romantic roles and is very good at it. I would not compare Mario with other great Music Theater performers in the original cast. Each of them is great in their own ways. Listen for yourself. FE is definitely a challenge since it's ALL GREEK to me. Luckily, I got help from some very gracious Greek ladies who posted explanations and lyric translations on Mario's Sony forum. I put together some statistics and track listings, since I had a hard time finding them myself.

By song count: 2 CDs and
31 songs. By language: 4 in English,
1 in French,
1 in Spanish,
4 in Italian, and the rest
21 in Greek. By singer: 23 Mario (MF) solos.
5 Mario/Deborah (MF/DM) duets and
3 Deborah Meyers (DM) solos. The following track listing was done with the help of a Greek lady:CD1:
1. Granada - MF, Spanish
2. Con te Partiro - MF/DM, Italian
3. To domatio (The room) - MF, Greek
4. Spente le stelle - DM, Italian
5. Mia poli magiki (A magic town) - MF, Greek
6. T'asteri tou Voria (The North Star) - MF, Greek
7. O Kemal (O Kemal)- MF, Greek
8. Tin ikona sou (Your image) - MF, Greek
9. Omorfi Poli (Beautiful Town) - MF, Greek
10. Anigo to stoma mou (I open my mouth) - MF, Greek
11. Dromoi Palioi (Old streets) - MF, Greek
12. S'akoloutho (I follow you) - MF, Greek
13. Fata Morgana (Fata Morgana) - MF, Greek
14. Vosporos (The Bosphorus) - MF, Greek
15. Mikri patrida (Small country) - MF, Greek
16. Selida lefki (Blank Page) - MF, Greek
17. Ton eafto tou paidi (Himself as a child) - MF, GreekCD2:
1. The Phantom of the Opera - MF/DM, English
2. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - MF, English
3. Summertime - DM, English
4. Canzone Arrabbiata - MF/DM, Italian
5. Ne me quitte pas - MF, French
6. Ebben? Ne andro lontana...- DM, Italian
7. I ballada tou Ouri (Uri's ballad) - MF, Greek
8. O Karagiozis (Karagiozis) - MF, Greek
9. To Karadi (Karadi) - MF, Greek
10. Fengari Erotevmeno (Moon in love) - MF, Greek
11. Marrakesh night market - MF/DM, English
12. Na me thymasse (Remember me) - MF, Greek
13. Ohi, den prepei (No, we shouldn't) - MF/DM, Greek
14. Sto 'pa kai sto xanaleo (I told you before and I'm telling you again) - MF, GreekMiscellaneous information and advice in case you are looking for them:1. The key is that you like Mario as a vocalist well enough to want to know his earlier works in Greek. FE is not a "classical crossover" CD as SID is.

2. If you are open to music from other culture, like the sound of Greek in "Ton Eafto Tou Paidi" (Track 7, SID), and you have an ear for folk songs, you got a good starting piont.3. A life concert CD does not have the sound quality of studio recordings, but you can hear the cheers of the crowd. And you can hear them sing along in the last song. 4. I would not buy the 31 songs for the 9 non-Greek tracks, or the 4 English songs, although I like them quite well. 5. Complete lyrics are provided in the liner. But they are in original languages and not translated into English. FE is an import and not an international release. Your resources are Mario's official forum and interest groups. 6. The two songs also in SID ("Ton eafto tou paidi" and "Canzone Arrabbiata") are quite different in FE. It's up to you to decide which version you like better.I gave FE high marks because the Greek songs are very well written and because Mario gave life to them. I can recognize a few Greek words here and there from the CD by now. I owe my thanks to a special Greek friend who I got to know because of Mario's beautiful music."

I prefer Mario's American release

yakimuckus | Seattle, WA | 01/13/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'm sure it's just me, because I'm not a huge fan of pure Mediterranean, but I didn't enjoy these CDs as much as "Sometimes I Dream". Mario is still incredible, and his passion and talent is breathtaking. The recording is okay, sometimes his voice fades in and out too much as he tries to temper his his belted-out notes with his softer lines. And the live recording is distracting, with applause even in the middle of songs a couple times. But I would say that if you are a Mario Frangoulis fan or are a Mediterranean music purist you it is definitely worth getting. I'm glad that I bought it and it will probably grow on me. What I might do is take the half of his songs that I like more and make my own CD of them. I love many of the songs.Mario is extremely versitile, and I was very pleased with his two pieces from Phantom and Les Mis. I wish I could have been at one of the Les Mis preformances where he played Marius. As far as his female counterpart goes, she's okay. Not a Sarah Brightman or anything.Whatever you do, do not pass up Mario Frangoulis! At least buy "Sometimes I Dream". He blows away the other cross-over singers out there, in my opinion."

One of my favorite CDs

11/14/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you liked the international debut album of Frangoulis, "Sometimes I dream", you'll be astonished by this double CD. It has more warmth, more passion, and more songs. It features songs in Greek, Italian, English and French, all performed live.The high point of this album is reached at the end of the first CD when he performs songs such as "Small homeland" (mikri patrida), "White page" (selida lefki) and the song "Ton eafto tou paidi". At this point, his warm passionate voice overwhelms the listener with emotions. Also worth noting is his performance of the French classic "Ne me quitte pas" from Jacques Brel and the dark "Empty chairs at empty tables" at the beginning of the second CD.My only criticism to this CD is perhaps the less interesting performance of his female co-singer, which simply does not always match his own talent.Nevertheless, I consider this CD as one of the most beautiful CDs I own."

I understand that for Americans it's hard....

Shantimar | Greece | 09/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am half Greek, live in Greece and I had attended the exciting concerts in Iera Odos from which Fengari Erotevmeno was taken. It was awe-inspiring. His first personal concert in Greece, the first time the public had the chance to listen to his full non-operatic range. And it was a triumph.

It's very normal that the CD didn't have the technical quality of studio made S.I.D., as it was elaborated on a live performance (two, actually). I find it was much warmer and had much more feeling than SID. And it doesn't have these non-descript, soft /easy listening songs that the American public is so fond of, and that mostly I find all the same. And Follow Your Heart is again that same style. Reading the reviews of Fengari Erotevmeno I understand that probably Sony is right in making him sing this stuff, the American public will love them.

I am not saying that ALL the Greek songs in Fengari erotevmeno are of equal quality (I also skip some when I listen to the CD), but for Greeks it's a pick of the best.

Please bear in mind that none of them, except for Sto' pa kai sto xanaleo, is folk music. They are all by composers such as Theodorakis and Hatzidakis, who are considered the best - and best loved - 20th century composers of high quality popular music. The late Manos Hatzidakis is also internationally known by the Zorbas music and Melina Merkouri songs like "The children of Pireus" and "T'asteri tou voria" in Elia Kazan's film "America America", although they are not his best.

The song by Savvopoulos, "Karagiozis" (which was also heard in the closing ceremony of the Olympics, a ceremony in which he unfortunately chose to participate, although most of the other artists were not of his artistic standard)is inspired by a folk art hero (the shadow theatre hero, Karagiozis), but it's clearly the work of an intellectual, musing on the meaning of this emblem of the poor, cunning, resilient Greek people. It is a much-loved song in Greece, it stirs so many feelings that I understand cannot be shared by an international audience, who just listens to the tune and that's all.

Same for Hatzidakis' nostalgic fairy-tale like "Kemal", about a young boy who wanted to save the world but was sentenced to death. The melody is nice but it repeats itself, so if you cannot follow the meaning, there's not much meat to it after a while. It's one of my favourites, makes me want to cry. I've never known I loved the song so much until I heard Mario sing it.

As for the Italian "Canzone arrabbiata", it comes from Lina Wertmueller's satiric, political '70s film "Film d'amore e d'anarchia" (Film of love and anarchy), starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. It's a very dark bitter song of revolt. Should be sung passionately, with rage. Not with a smile on the face, not with a good mood, not quickly, not dancing on stage. It's a political song. I don't think Mario's interpretation is valid. I hate to hear it as a lighthearted song, I believe it's a betrayal. Yet, here in Greece it's one of his greatests success. Maybe because the Greek public doesn't have a clue of the meaning of the words. But Mario does, and I wonder why he chose to belittle it this way (he's done the same thing for the nostalgic Neapolitan song "Luna rossa" in the Acropolis concert CD).

Anyway. This to say that "Mediterranean folk music" it waaaay off the mark to describe the genre of these songs. It means that whoever wrote it has never listened to Mediterranean folk music. There's nothing wrong with it, I also am not acquainted with all folk music from other cultures. But I also don't venture to assign genres to things I know nothing about!

If you like to see translations of lyrics, you can join

mariofrangoulisfans in yahoo groups. They have very rich archives.

"

Extraordinarily versatile performer. I love this CD!!!!

joylucky | Florida | 01/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the second CD album I bought of Mario Frangoulis. If you were captivated with the "Sometimes I Dream" CD/DVD title, I urge you to buy this one too. There are 31 songs (encore included)with different styles - from musicals (Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera), Greek Songs (beautiful melodies and rhythm), to Spanish, Italian and French. He delivers them all with passion and ease. Adding this CD to my growing collection of classical x-over singers is gratifying. I cannot get enough of him, so I bought the Acropolis Concert album too, []should also provide. For you music lovers out there who truly appreciate the best kind there is, buy this CD.
Caution: This is purely a live recording from his concerts - not the best high-tech kind of thing, but Mario belted out the songs superbly, as he always does. I sure wish he gets the success and recognition here in the USA he rightly deserves."

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