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Emma Shapplin: Carmine Meo

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: EMI Classics
Released: 1997
Time:
 54:27
Category: Classical
Producer(s): Jean-Patrick Capdeveille
Rating: ********** (10/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.emma-shapplin.net
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2000.09.29
Price in €: 19,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] De l´abime au rivage (J-P.Capdevielle) - 1:12
[2] Spente le stelle (Marie Ange Chapelain) - 4:27
[3] Vedi, maria... (A.Casanegra - J-P.Capdevielle) - 4:04
[4] Carmine meo (A San Giovanni/M-A Chapelain - A San Giovanni) - 4:17
[5] Cuor senza sangue (A San Giovann - A San Giovanni) - 4:03
[6] Favopa breve (A.Casanegra - A.Casanegra) - 4:32
[7] Reprendo mai piú... (M-A Chapelain/G.di Murta - A San Giovanni/Vincent di Constanzo) - 3:44
[8] Une ombre dans le ciel (J-P Capdevielle) - 0:58
[9] Lucifero, quel giorno... (A.Casanegra - A San Giovanni) - 3:34
[10] Ira di dio (M-A Chapelain - J-P Capdevielle) - 4:35
[11] Miserere, venere (A San Giovanni - Jonathan Capdevielle) - 3:54
[12] Á la frontiére du réve (J-P Capdevielle) - 1:19

Movie and radio songs:
[13] Dolce veneno (M-A Chapelain - J-P Capdevielle) - 4:30
[14] Fera ventura (M-A Chapelain - J-P Capdevielle) - 4:33
[15] Discovering yourself (M-A Chapelain - J-P Capdevielle) - 3:49

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Emma Shapplin - Vocals

Choeur de Francais d'Opera (Dir.: Marina Yotova)
Cordes (Dir.: Regis Dupre)
Vincent Perrot - Bass
Christophe Deschamps - Drums
Bertrand Lajudie - Piano, Orchestral and Choral Arrangement

Jonathan Capdevielle - Orchestral and Choral Arrangents
Vic Emerson - Orchestral and Choral Arrangents

Jean-Patrick Capdeveille - Producer
Jean-Yves Legrand - Recording
Alix Ewald - Recording, Assistant Mixing
Patrice Küng - Mixing
Jean-Marc Lavaleeé - Assistant Mixing
André Perriat - Mastering
Michel de Folligne - Coordination
Yael Benzaquen - Vocal Coach
Carina Landehag - Makeup

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s

Carmine Meo and Carmine Meo 2 is a new opera written by J.P. It is about a kingdom at the time when its vampire princess goes up to the stake with her lover, the thief of the remote seas... At that precise moment, the kingdom volcano island explodes and everybody is submerged and flooded. The whole population of the kingdom becomes prisoner of the Goddess of the Cold, Queen of the Abyss (a very insane Lady !!!), who, of course, falls in love with the thief of the remote seas. Jealous, she will transform the Princess first into a Siren, then in marine Monster... But the Princess was pregnant and her child will change the course of the destiny...

from Carmine Meo site



OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD IN EUROPE! EMMA SHAPPLIN IS A FEMALE VERSION OF ANDREA BOCELLI, DOING POP VERSIONS OF OPERA CLASSICS. THE BEST SELLING FRENCH ALBUM OF THIS YEAR.

CDNow.com



Every year or two somebody from the classical world gets the bright idea to record a classical album with a little something extra for the groundlings: some percussion, some sound effects, maybe some strings. Sometimes the result is insulting, sometimes it's just gilding the lily, and sometimes it works. Carmine Meo, however, sidesteps this problematic phenomenon altogether by making up its own classical music and then turning it into pop. That's right, most of the numbers on the album, even though they sound like lush, romantic arias, are originals. And despite the disheveled-hair packaging of Shapplin and the truly bad poem she contributes to the liner notes, it works. Why? Because Shapplin, notwithstanding her less-than-opera-caliber voice, sings with absolute conviction, and because her team is determined to entertain. So what if "Cuor Senza Sange" borrows its opening from Peter Gabriel, or if the synthesizer from "Favola Breve" is right off of Who's Next?. None of that matters because "Spente le Stelle" truly reaches for the stars, and so do many of the other tracks. To be sure, the classical music aficionado is going to hear this album as slightly "off" in much the same way that "Adiemus," for all of its glorious aspirations, sounds slightly "off." But the composers, producers, and Shapplin are to be congratulated on creating something better than the alt-rock perversities and syrupy ballads that seem to have dominated the airwaves. Excelsior!

Kurt Keefner - All Music Guide



Es ist der wahnsinn, daß es endlich jemandem gelungen ist, Pop und Klassik so zu vereinen, das es immernoch schön klingt u. nicht kitschig, überladen wirkt. Ein Fest für die Sinne zu fast jeder Gelegenheit. Die Stimme ist nicht aufdringlich, klingt voll und harmoniert gut mit dem Backgroundchor. Das Cover ist schön u. nicht zu bunt. Der Titel der CD gut. Einfach perfekt! Man kann sie ohne Zweifel an alle weiter empfehlen oder sogar verschenken. Ein echter Volltreffer für alle Ohren.

Moderne Klassik. Die Sängerin, mit einer prima Sopran Stimme ausgestattet, singt auf dieser CD Stücke aus dem Grenzbereich zwischen Pop und Klassik. Lediglich das instrumentale Stück am Anfang der CD fällt etwas ab. Auch für Klassik und Jazz Hörer sehr zu empfehlen.

Emma Shapplin versteht es, mit allen Mitteln der weiblichen Verfuehrung fuer ihre Musik zu begeistern. Ihre Songs verbinden die klassische Musik mit neuzeitlichen Elementen, jedoch dominiert stets die brilliante Stimme von Emma Shapplin - fuer mich eine CD zum Geniessen.



A close friend from London who suggested we try the Aria's self-titled album and pointed us to Pilgrimage's Nine Songs Of Ecstacy brought Emma Shapplin's Carmine Meo album to visit with him last week. After one playing that evening we knew it needed a lot more listening. He graciously left it with us and agreed to get another one for himself! The Aria and Pilgrimage albums have a vague similarity to Emma Shapplin's album, but Carmine Meo is a at least two steps further away from progressive, alternative, new age or ambient (we dare you to try categorise Aria and Pilgrimage) and three steps closer to opera. Maybe our tastes are maturing.

This is a very difficult review to prepare because anything we write here can not possibly be an adequate reflection of the outstanding talent Emma Shapplin presents in her debut album, Carmine Meo. Although we enjoy female vocals in quite a few musical genres, we're just not well enough qualified in this one to write an informed review of Emma's material because it's far from what we typically listen to. We absolutely adore the album and are obviously not alone because the CD has done very well in both European and Canadian markets as supported by regular high ranking chart positions. We've currently rated it just over three stars (***+) and it's definitely worth a journey. In time it may earn another star.

A short paragraph on a Dutch EMI web page at one time provided a glimpse into the artist's background. We've made a very vague attempt at translating some of the comments EMI make about the album:

Emma Shapplin is currently living and working from Paris. In her early years while other children were playing, she sang Mozart non-stop. By the age of nineteen, she was with a hard rock group, was a telephone receptionist and worked as a model. Her debut album has twelve songs, nine of them original melodies with rhythmic loops, drums and bass. Lyrics are either in Latin or fourteenth century Italian.

I'd like to hear her work with that hard rock group now. Although there's no word in the online press about it, she may still be modelling. Photos in the well-produced accompanying booklet provide the evidence. The booklet also includes lyrics in the languages the songs are sung in, various writing and performing credits and other related information, in French.

The style of this album interesting, but different. Although it's not classic opera per se, the vocal style is highly operatic. And it's recorded to give Emma's voice prominence over anything else put down on the album to support it. The supporting instrumentals make the music far more accessible and perhaps give it a more "popular" feel. Supporting vocals by a choir on some tracks seem to underscore the operatic influence.

Emma's vocals are - in a word - terrific. She easily covers a vast range of octaves and her vocal power is nothing short of incredible. Although it's a travesty to try to make a comparison, the closest to her overall sound is Sarah Brightman in her most recent Timeless album. Although there are elements reminiscent of Sarah Brightman's Fly album in here, it's the similarity to Timeless that we're most comfortable making at this time. However, Emma Shapplin is a better and stronger vocalist than Sarah Brightman. The album style might also be compared to Annie Haslam and Louis Clark's Still Life which put Betty Thatcher's poems to well known classical pieces. Emma's album is more operatic, not in English, and the musical themes are likely less well known to the average listener.

Aside from the vocals and the underpinning instrumentals, there are a few significant sound effects, including thunder claps and other natural effects that likely relate to the song themes. Solos often precede the instrumentals and support the overall theme of the album where vocals lead and instruments follow. There are recognisable themes that appear throughout the album and perhaps with further eduction we can cite them properly.

This album is now generally available through most online sources and good local CD shops worldwide. Since original release a couple of singles have emerged and a 1999 reissue contains two bonus tracks not available on the initial pressing.

© Russell W Elliot, 24 August 1998



Emma Shapplin - Camine Meo

Spicy French diva Emma Shapplin has given opera sex appeal and taken it to the top of the charts.

EMMA Shapplin is young, beautiful and going places.

The 24-year-old Parisienne, recently voted by a French magazine one of the sexiest women in France is turning not just heads but ears as well.

She has the sensual allure of Madonna or Shania Twain but hers is not a conventional approach to music.

Behind the sweetly innocent smile lurks a queen of the night who has reinvented the passion, tragedy and swirling emotional drama of opera and taken it to the top of the charts.

"Sexy, you think I'm sexy," she giggles in response to a question about whether she minds being promoted as the sexy new face of opera. "I do not understand your question. My English is not very good."

There's a pregnant pause, and then she giggles again.

"Yes, well it's very flattering, but I don't know what to say. Maybe a part of what people like is how I look and maybe a part of it is the music. I hope it is the music."

Strictly speaking, Shapplin is not the new face of opera. Yes, she's a genuine soprano and yes she would one day like to sing opera proper, but Carmine Meo, her debut album which was co-written and produced by former French pop star Jean-Patric Capdvielle is as much a pop album as it is classical.

It's written in 14th century Italian with male choruses sung in Latin.

However, the queen of the night enters her fantasy world to the strains of dance beats, synthesiser sweeps and dramatic string melodies.

"This album is something free, something very close to me," Shapplin says. "I don't ask myself whether it is wrong or right, I just want to express myself. One day, when I am ready to sing opera or something classical then I will be really strict with the technique."

When Shapplin asked Capdvielle to write her an album, he resisted at first pointing out he was not Verdi. She responded that she was not a proper classical singer. They then proceeded to mix different styles of music to no avail.

"At the end he just said, you are going to sing the way you sing," Shapplin says. "And we are going to build the music around something you like."

Thus each sound on Carmine Meo represents something Shapplin likes - opera, tragedy, romance, nature and popular music.

"When we had all of those elements in place, we decided not to use the structure of an aria but of a song," Shapplin says. "We chose old Italian to convey the mood because I wanted a language that was poetic and that you could feel more than understand."

As odd as it might seem, Shapplin's love affair with bel canto and soprano started with a little red bull and a television commercial for rice. The bull was a trademark for a brand of rice from Camargue and whenever it appeared on screen it was accompanied by Mozart's enchanting melody La reine de la Nuit.

"That's when I fell in love with singing for the first time," Shapplin says. "I knew then I wanted to sing like that. That was the music of my soul."

Three years later, when she was 14, Shapplin met a mysterious old lady, who taught her about opera and how to use her voice. She still doesn't known her mentor's name, but her teacher opened up the world of drama and opera to an eager Shapplin, who would later do what she needed to, including a stint as a singer with a heavy metal group, to earn enough money to continue with her singing lessons.

That's when her other mentor, Capdvielle entered stage right. They connected at once. He brought with him enthusiasm and a certain jaded cynicism as someone who seemed to have seen it all, she her love affair with that little red bull and her dreams of becoming a singer.

"For the second time in my life, I met someone who totally believed in me," Shapplin says. "He encouraged me to believe that none of my dreams were impossible. I am still learning, but for now I am very happy one of my dreams has come true."

© New York Times
 

 L y r i c s


CUOR SENZA SANGUE

La pluie bat l'onde...
Entre les pierres, des soupirs...
Cette terre me fut hostile
Dès que je la vis

Ô soleil céleste,
Souffle des choses mentales,
Sans les paroles
Dont la douceur me blesse,
Je ne vivrais pas...

Paroles douloureuses
Destin vain
Tu verras,
Qu'un c ... ur privé de sang
Ne peut plus chanter

Moitié hiver, moitié été...
Exilée, privée de vous
Ma vie s'enfuit
Et me rend esclave du fleuve

Je ris et je pleure,
La vie me dégoûte
Et je me déteste
Celui que je voudrais aimer
Me fait la guerre

Réponds-moi Seigneur,
Réponds-moi !
Je ne peux plus parler...

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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