Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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87 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
Breathtakingly Brilliant!, 30 Aug 2005
Having recently caught Katherine performing live I was treated to some of the fabulous tracks from her new album - which by the sound of it will be breathtakingly brilliant. Following on from her previous albums Katherine has picked a fantastic choice of songs, all of which suit her style beautifully. 'Nessun Dorma' whilst familiar to millions, sounds fresh and richly enthralling. A simple yet effective version of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' shows yet again what a great song this is, but the most interesting version of an old song on 'Living A Dream' has to be 'Ti Amero Per Sempre (I Will Always Love You)' - a track which was originally written by Dolly Parton and subsequently made famous by Whitney Houston. Katherine gives this song a whole new feel - sung in Italian this beautiful, soaring melody already feels like an old classic, with Katherine's untouchable voice used to its full effect. 'We'll Meet Again' and 'Amazing Grace' both sounded really impressive live and seem to fit in perfectly to the overall feel of the album. After the enormous success of Premiere and Second Nature it is perhaps hard to believe, but it seems that Katherine Jenkins has surpassed her previous efforts and created her greatest album yet.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
An Album of Variety, 27 Dec 2005
Living a dream is a very fine album from this now well established singer; a good balance of traditional, and re shaped classics. I particularly enjoyed "Music of the Night" and her new version of the Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston hit I will always love you which sounds beautiful in Italian. I was surprised to see Nessun Dorma on her disk, however her performance is unique and brings a different quality - in my personal opinion having heard so many versions out there already, Katherine's would rank in the top 3 behind Pavarotti and the new talent of Jon Christos on whose album sings this fantastically. My only slight nag about this album is compared to Second Nature and Premiere, her voice doesn't quite sound as clear which occasionally blurs her diction; I'm no expert but this mainly happens at the top end of the voice. I realise they are different singers but this does not happen to either Keedie, or Hayley Westenra whose voice always sound so effortless throughout her range. I only hope this isn't a sign of a fabulous singer overstretching herself, doing too much too soon. Despite this, Living a Dream is a very good album indeed with songs of different colour, style, emotion - an album to take you on a journey and one I would recommend to anyone.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Sounds good, Looks great, 17 Oct 2007
Living a Dream is the third CD release by Katherine Jenkins, sharing the same chart success as its predecessors by reaching No. 1 in the UK Classical Music charts and No 4 in the UK Album chart in 2005. It was also awarded Album of the Year at the Classical BRIT Awards in 2006, repeating the success of her previous album Second Nature which won the same award the previous year.
Firstly, I was pleased with the much-improved image which the singer has adopted for this album's cover and sleeve artwork. A new photo and design team has given her a much needed glamour boost to something approaching an opera Diva.
It's also good to see a bit more content, with a playing time of just over 60 minutes it's better value than the two previous releases of 45 and 53 minutes duration.
Choice of songs however I have mixed opinions about, for while some songs work others fall flat and to me sound incompatible with the singers style.
The opening track `I will Always Love You' is translated into Italian, with no lyrics shown on the sleeve booklet, and as a consequence loses much of the impact of the original 1973 Dolly Parton version, and when compared to the hugely successful 1992 Whitney Houston version I think it fares even worse. Katherine Jenkins sings it with technically perfect voice control, while Whitney belts it out with emotion, and wins hands down I think.
To the opposite extreme though is the beautifully sung `I Vow To Thee My Country', with an almost ethereal orchestral backing and choir. This is perfect Katherine Jenkins material.
`Nessun Dorma' from Puccini's opera Turandot is an interesting soprano rendition of the now-famous Three Tenors one, but I don't think it comes close to that of Sarah Brightman's on her 1998 album `Eden'.
`All Things Bright and Beautiful', `Amazing Grace' and `Over the Rainbow' will be popular with those wanting some relaxing listening, and although these are brilliantly sung, I'd rather hear them on Songs of Praise on a Sunday afternoon.
Generally though the songs are a well chosen section of classical, opera and traditional pieces with interesting inclusions such as Andrew Lloyd Webbers `Music of the Night' thrown in.
The album closes suitably with `We'll Meet Again', which Katherine Jenkins has adopted, from Dame Vera Lynn, as her `Forces Sweetheart' trademark song dedicating it to the soldiers in Iraq. I've seen her sing it to great effect live, where it's guaranteed to get some of the older generation reaching for their handkerchiefs.
Another winning album.
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