****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The first time that I heard Australian born Yvonne Kenny was on a 1995 recorded DVD of David Pountey's English National Opera's production of Henry Purcell's "THE FAIRY QUEEN" in which she played the role of Titania opposite the American tenor David Randle. It was a good pairing not only vocally but dramatically for Kenny in her domineering and Randle in is meek, but sneaky role played well off of each otherA quote from Kenny rather explains how this recording "Simple Gifts" came to be: "There's so much in the classical area, so many beautiful, wonderful melodies that people know and remember, but that perhaps aren't recorded any more." And this disc really speaks to exactly what he has proclaimed. As a voice teacher these 20 songs so well performed by Kenny are very representative of much of the traditional repertoire that voice teachers work with in their advanced teaching. And although some have been recorded prior to this, the selections have often been recorded so long ago and are not up to date in quality that one does not want to use them as examples for students.Kenny's voice is resonant, vigorous, with a tasty vibrato and very fine and clear diction. One of the problems with many high sopranos involves communicating the text in a clear and concise manner. The high treble sound tends to be against this and therefore it is good to have an example of a singer who does not have that problem. As to the program it includes many songs that are used as regular repertoire for a variety of voices. Two that I was happy to hear done so well and that I have had problems locating in the past : Delibes "THE MAIDS OF CADIZ" and Canteloube's "Bailero"Suffice it to say that I not only found this useful but I have had many hour of enjoyment from it. The accompanying information in English simplygives basic information about the songs. There are no words of the songs themselves, I do not find that a problem.
