Editor Reviews:

Description:
A recital by Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw is one of the most versatile and talented of a new generation of American singers, equally at home on the concert platform and the musical stage.

In this specially recorded late-night recital from the Royal Albert Hall during the 1996 Promenade Concerts, Dawn Upshaw ranges widely over the gamut of American operatic arias and popular songs from the 1920s to the present day. Ms Upshaw gives a truly wonderful performance, full of expression, harmony and sublime singing.

Bernstein: Lonely Town, I Feel Pretty, Somewhere, Times Square, Village Vortex
Copland: Laurie’s Song
Weill: Lonely House, The Saga Of Jenny
Sondheim: What More Do I Need?, There Won’t Be Trumpets
Rodgers: Manhattan, It Never Entered My Mind, Why Can’t I?, I Could Write A Book, Nobody’s Heart / Little Girl Blue, He Was Too Good To Me
Gershwin: Someone To Watch Over Me, Do Do Do

Blitzstein: I Wish It So

Fred Hersch, Piano
London Sinfonietta, Conductor Eric Stern

Rating : - Excellent DVD - Dawn at her best!
My wife and I are both big fans of Dawn Upshaw, particularly her non-classical performances of songs by Sondheim, Bernstein, Vernon Duke, etc. This DVD has a terrific collection of such pieces (taped in 1996) and is very enjoyable to watch. Both picture and audio quality are stellar. Note that the audio is recorded in uncompressed 48 KHz PCM instead of compressed Dolby Digital, which makes it particularly easy on the ears but may confuse some DVD players. We had to adjust a setting on our DVD player in order to hear the audio track properly. Only one negative point to note: the disc's menus have annoying background music using a short repeating sound clip of Upshaw's own performance -- quite obnoxious, but we can forgive this given how enjoyable the recordings themselves are.