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Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling

While the idea of infusing a weekly TV series with a Broadway musical ethos isn't exactly a new one--think Randy Newman's ambitious Cop Rock--it became something of a turn-of the-century television mini-trend. But few have reached as far--or succeeded--like this November 2001 episode of Fox Network's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Penned by series creator-producer Joss Whedon and performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar and cast, it's a loving, loopy musical pastiche that takes potshots at everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber to alt-rock. Paralleling the show's lovable pop culture tweaking, the musical styles here (the episode's musical conceit is a curse visited upon Buffy's hometown of Sunnydale) range from a patent footlight chorus of demons being interrupted by Gellar's hard-rocking stake thrusts on "Going Through the Motions" to Spike the Vampire's goth-metal complaint "Rest in Peace," with everything from parking tickets and mustard stain removal to climactic duels with the supernatural getting the Broadway send-up. Also includes strong orchestral score-suites from three other episodes, as well as Whedon and wife Kai Cole's demo for "Something to Sing About." --Jerry McCulley

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Futures

Cast Recording;

Soundtrack;

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Customer Review:

Once More...And Again and Again

A must have for any Buffy fan! The majority of BtVS fanatics love the Once More With Feeling episode so, of course, those fans will LOVE to be able to hear the songs from the show. But these songs are awesomely cute (good music too!) and I think would appeal to those who are not even familiar with the show.

Wonderful episode of a Classic and Perfect TV Series.

This CD is a must own for all Buffy Fans. The soundtrack to one of the coolest episodes from The Buffy series is an absolute joy to listen to. Amazon lists The "Main Title" track as track #1 on the CD which is where it should be as that's where it appears in the episode, but that track is actually #19 on the CD, which I thought was odd. If you import the album into iTunes, you can reassign the track numbers and put "The Main Title" in its correct place as track #1.

AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!

Loved this episode. It was....what's the word I used? Oh yeah...AWESOME!!!

Best episode in the series. One of the best in episodic television, period.

The songs moved you, meant something (the lyrics were substantive, emotion-filled, were in-synch with both the characters and what the characters were going through at the time...and rhymed to boot!) and were well paced, crafted and executed. The actors really put their all into it and did an EXCELLENT job. From giles and amber benson's great vocal performances to Sarah M.G.'s dancing at the end. It was just...great. Vocally- Amber Benson stole the show...too bad mr. whedon repaid her by killing off her character a few episodes later!!!!!!!(thank you joss...NOT!!!) Giles can REALLY sing as well..I mean..he puts it down. Everyone does a great job and j.w. really put in work with his lyric authorship.

BTVS pulled off quite a coup with this one!

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Keywords: Pop; Show Tunes; Soundtrack; Soundtracks; Soundtracks & Film Scores; TV Soundtracks; Television Music;

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Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)

Into Broadway's creative vacuum of revivals, movie adaptations, and Hollywood star vehicles comes Rent, the story of squatters, junkies, performance artists, struggling musicians, drag queens, aspiring filmmakers, and HIV-positives (and you thought Miss Saigon's helicopter landing was cool). Undoubtedly among the defining pop cultural events of 1996, Rent has already won four Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. More importantly, it threatens to bring substance back to the Great White Way.

Transposing Puccini's 100-year-old opera La Bohème into modern day Bohemia (19th-century Paris's Left Bank becomes late-20th-century New York's East Village where the scourge of tuberculosis becomes the plague of AIDS) Rent celebrates life among the young, sick, and unconventional. While Broadway shows are hardly the place for authentic portrayals of the latest marginalized hipsters, composer Jonathan Larson (who died at age 36, days before his musical opened) managed to sculpt vivid characters and scenes that bring Avenue A as close as it will ever come to 42nd Street. And by telling a socially relevant story of living without the guarantee of a future (renting, that is), Larson does his own little bit to define an X'ed generation. At worst, Rent is the Hair of the '90s.

For the majority of us who won't be seeing Rent anytime soon, the Original Cast Recording is more than just an after-show souvenir. Well-packaged with a complete libretto, the two-CD set is a worthwhile album separate of live performance. Full of songs that are funny and catchy, inspiring and touching, smart and hip and not overly sentimental, Rent mixes showtune pop with elements of rock, R&B, dance, gospel, and tango to make one of the best albums of the year--certainly the best rock opera in decades. La vie bohème, indeed. --Roni Sarig

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Futures

Cast Recording;

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Customer Review:

Soundtrack - next best thing to a front row seat

Beautifully packaged, great soundtrack. My 9 year old and I love this - we play it and play it. Brings back great memories of seeing it on stage at the Fox in St. Louis.

Perfect before or after the show...

Unbelievable

This soundtrack has some great songs on it, and the show itself is a masterpiece and deserves its Pulitzer. The music in this soundtrack is very touching, and the singers themselves are perfect for the parts that they sing.

The Five Best Tracks In My Opinion

Without You
I'll Cover You
Take Me Or Leave Me
Seasons Of Love
One Song Glory

"RENT" Overated

Don't get me worng I think RENT is a good piece of musical theatre but I mean come on there are only a few stand out songs in the show and the rest are just ok and some songs are just plain awful! I have seen RENT and yes it was worth the time and money but what some people say about this show blows my mind... This Show is not amazing! It is just good. I really dont understand how people love every track on the CD because some you couldnt pay me to listen to! Don't buy the CD unless you have seen the show and know that you will like majority of the music! All in All RENT tries but comes up a tad short.

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Keywords: Cast Recordings; Music Theater; Musical Theater; Pop; Showtunes / B'way;

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Romanza

From his childhood on the family farm in rural Tuscany to the worldwide stage, Andrea Bocelli has achieved phenomenal success. His singing is only partially the point, and his fame owes much more to the aura of romance and the romantic archetype that's attached to him. Romanza is by far Bocelli's largest success, winning adoration thanks to the swooning vocals and the easy, sometimes lush, always pop-safe instrumental textures and melodies. As far as his opera chops go, Bocelli has won the approval of Pavarotti but likely will not wow enthusiasts. The upside is that Bocelli will likely grow the opera pie, convincing labels to take on more operatic projects. --Andrew Bartlett

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Customer Review:

raw and pure

There is something about Bocelli's voice that is completely revealed, raw, yet pure. His songs climax and grow. I have some opera fans who snub his voice because they say it not purely classical, yet that is what I love about him. He is different not completely one or the other- just a beautiful honest voice.

I have been studying singing on my own with singing CDs
"Voice Lessons To Go", by Vaccarino which I gladly recommend as well. I was inspired to improve my own voice by him and Sara Brightman on this CD so that I can sing along with them. I am also signing up for a music appreciating class this fall at the community college for fun! Hey we must enjoy our 40's!

Breakthrough Album

This was the CD that bridged the gap between pop and opera. This is something that no other opera singer was able to do, certainly not on such a grandly successful scale. With his singing diversity of style (alternating between a bluesy pop voice and a clear and powerful operatic one), Andrea Bocelli did a fantastic job of putting together a great collection of first-rate songs and adding his own tremendous voice to them, a simply stunning achievement. Many of the songs are deeply moving with breathtaking moments. If you like Bocelli, you must give Sarah Brightman a chance, another opera diva with an accessible reportoir who does the pop thing very well.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

italian review

Im a freshman at uc berkeley (yeah with that she bangs guy). andrea is MUCH better. i don't mind him going into pop. next pavarotti pretty much, i think. i finished taking upto italian 4 (basically the prereqs for an italian studies major), and this cd helped me review my italian. it has a lot of that subjunctive tense that i hate, but i still remember it through this cd. it's so powerful. especially the song with "fosse dentro te." and then there's that really mellow ballad. i don't know the names of this song cuz i downloaded the whole album off of winmx. oh yeah, "vivo per lei" is also a great song too. the german translation of that song is cool too.

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Keywords: Choral; Classical; Classical Crossover; Classical Vocal Crossover; Classical Vocals; Italy; Sacred Choral Music; Solo Voice(s) and Orchestra; Vocal; Vocal Music;

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Loosely based on the popular Disney theme park audio-animatronic ride, one might expect a modicum of good-natured "Yo-ho-ho-ing"--or maybe a little rousing Korngold/Errol Flynn/Captain Blood orchestral romanticism--here. Instead composer Klaus Badelt initially entices us with some sparing Celtic folk charm, then unleashes a furious broadside of symphonic and choral thunder to rival his ominous score for K-19. The composer's fellow German mentor is an obvious influence throughout (the album is credited with a wink as "Score overproduced by Hans 'Long John' Zimmer") but Badelt brings his own muscular instincts to bear throughout. Perhaps shrewdly realizing that genre cliches are nothing if not for reinventing, Badelt delivers his rhythmically nervous Eurocentric sensibilities--sort of Holst duels Shostakovich on the Spanish Main--with the subtlety of a scorching cannonball. It's seasoned with a little romantic respite in the final act, if a bit gingerly, and could no doubt profit by some of Korngold's sparkling melodic verve. But it's a loud, unabashed Summer Blockbuster score at heart; alert the neighbors. --Jerry McCulley

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Futures

Soundtrack;

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Customer Review:

Modern Orchestral music at it's finest

Even movie scores occasionally stand on their own as orchestral music. This is truly the case with the music from Pirates of the Caribbean. The music is moving and exciting. Even if you've never seen the movie, you can appreciate the rhythms, the melodies, the transposition. A fine piece of modern orchestral music.

Medioca

I agree with many that some tracks befit the film down to a T but in some cases I think the wrong titles have been printed next to the wrong tracks. Apart from 'He's a pirate' and other tracks that play on this theme, I don't think some of the titles are appropriate.

I was dissappointed by the overall playing time of the CD- a measly 43 minutes. Some of the repetive themes in the score become irritating. The title of the film surely allows for a wider scope of variety than composed. I feel like I have wasted my pocket money.

For anyone that has listened to good film music this score can come nowhere near the top five. Yes i must admit when listening (to tracks such as He's a pirate), I am taken to a world of jolly pirates but as the pirates are at each others necks for most of the film- inbetween flirting with Elizabeth- I find it hard to identify which part of the film a track is supposed to be representing. The composer has illustrated the adveturous, dramatic and slightly scary quality of the film, but because of the lack of variety and depth in the score i feel it was not an essential element of the blockbuster. i could have watched it in absolute silence where music is concerned and still felt the same- bored.

When listening to the CD, Zimmer's influences can clearly be heard. This isn't bad at all as I do like the Gladiator sound track.

This is a highly disappointing work when Williams' scores are so easily accessible to compare it with. It is not bad or excellent just simply medioca. The CD would be enjoyed more by people that found the film amazing.

Great Soundtrack

This is one of the greatest soundtracks that I have heard in quite some time. They have a good selection of items from the movie, not leaving much out. The only 2 things i have against the soundtrack is that it is disorganized and that it doesnt contain as much music as it could have (Contains about 43 minutes). But it is still worth picking up if you enjoyed the movie.

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Keywords: Film; Film Music; Original Score; Pop; Soundtrack; Soundtracks & Film Scores;

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