Placido Domingo/Renee Fleming's Star Crossed Lovers

Here's a recipe to try the next time you want to make a CD: take the world's most famous opera singer (Plácido Domingo) and pair him with an up-and-coming, talented American soprano (Renée Fleming). Add, as accompaniment, one of America's Big Five orchestras (the Chicago Symphony). Have their world-renowned music director (Daniel Barenboim), who can, conveniently, also play the piano for the smaller numbers, conduct. Now, take a universal theme (star-crossed lovers) from a famous play (Romeo and Juliet). Finally, make sure there's something on the recording to appeal to the masses (Duke Ellington, West Side Story). Program works in five European languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German).

What do these ingredients produce? An odd, contrived mishmash. Giving audiences a common theme and motive upon which to build a program sells CDs--but it doesn't necessarily guarantee a quality product.

Still, this recording is far from terrible. With artists of this stature, it's difficult not to find good qualities. Domingo, as always, is amazing. His voice is exquisite, his phrasing lovely. The Chicago Symphony is a pleasant accompaniment. The orchestra's brass section is the best in the world and it shows--the little that the orchestra plays is solid and appealing.

Fleming does not quite match the level of Domingo. Her jazz style, which, maybe unfortunately, is not what we usually hear from her, is surprisingly wonderful, and the Bernstein and Ellington definitely have character, but it seems strange and out of place for an opera singer to carry these "pop" affectations into Verdi.

Star Crossed Lovers raises the question of whether commercialism belongs in classical music. The increased attention that classical music is getting and the resulting increased revenue it's bringing in are crucial to the preservation and perpetuation of the genre. The goal, however, should be to preserve it without compromising it, and this CD does not always rise to the challenge. (London)

--Evan Bialostozky

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