Disco de Charlotte Church: “Enchantment”

I visited the local music store to sample her work (will NOT purchase), and I agree completely with Music Fan from CT. Like all novelty acts, Church should stay in her homeland and perform "tribute" concerts covering the work of true artists. Better yet, she should go abroad to entertain the British soldiers serving as peacekeepers in Afghanistan, if they will have her. Then she should grow up.

I always fear for the future of musical child prodigies, especially those whose vocal gifts are taken advantage of with punishing numbers of concerts and premature recordings. Certainly, I was impressed by Miss Church as an eleven-year-old and hoped that, after an initial airing, her voice would be nurtured and held back to mature. Unfortunately, this was not to be, and just a few years later, no longer merely precocious, she runs the risk of being judged on her scanty merits. How sad it is to hear the strain in her young, thin voice as she reaches for notes she cannot dependably attain, much less sustain. The "glam" CD photo of this young lady says it all. In a sagging music industry, it offers unknowing consumers the "buy me" temptation of a pretty face and a fashionable mane of blond hair. Miss Church's CD was anything but an "enchantment." Such a pity.

Charlotte Church still sounds the same... Cold and boring...

After 3 albums, I expect this album to be a lot better, but after listening to it, I find it (still) a disappointment... Where's the improvement?

I think the main problem with this album is the choice of songs. I think Miss Church would do better singing songs specially written for her (like a pop star?). Most of the songs she sing in this album have better versions, sang by more mature singers with better interpretation and techniques.

Her version of "Habanera" is especially weak. I would prefer it if she sings the original version of this famous aria... With notes and orchestral accompaniment exactly the same as the one Bizet had written. However, I don't think Miss Church would sound very good singing the original version either. Her voice is still of a boy-soprano quality which would not be strong and expressive enough for this aria which is demanding ---usually sang by more mature and established opera singers. She is trying to sound more mature here... But I think it wasn't that successful...

Her version of "The Little Horses" is a bit too slow for me and the accompaniment seems too loud. I would like this track better if she did it a little faster. However, I still think that a singer which much lower and deeper voice would do this song better. :-)

"The Laughing Song" is straining... Especially on those high notes!!! EEEEEKKKKKSSSS!!!!

The more outstanding tracks (I think) are "Carrickfergus" and "Papa Can You Hear Me?"... Other than that, the other tracks just isn't too well sung to leave a deep impression....

I hope Miss Church's next album would be better....

Charlotte Church is about to encounter the ugly reality that faces nearly all child prodigies at some point: she has to grow up.

15 is an awkward age for anyone, and changing vocal chords is not always conducive to the most pleasant of sounds. Evidence: much of this album.

Some prodigies survive puberty. After all, Joshua Bell is still going strong, and Franz Schubert managed to get over his childhood choirboy stardom to produce some pretty decent music.

Ms. Church wants us to begin taking her seriously, not just as a freakish little girl who can sing really well, but as a mature, accomplished future...opera singer? pop star? brassy Broadway belter? Hmm...it would seem, from the repertoire she has chosen, that she can't decide which one she wants to be. The odd assortment of songs thrown together here smacks of commericialism and overexploitation, of someone trying to squeeze the most out of her 15 minutes.

Hence, the bizarre combination of songs on this album, which attempts to cover all of these categories, with a little bit of Celtic-chic thrown in to remind us that yes, she is still in touch with her roots. Ms. Church ostensibly wants to show us that she can do it all, when in reality, she can't. And that is no tragedy. Would you really like to hear a Kathleen Battle dance album or Britney Spears doing Madame Butterfly? Let's hope not.

The problem, as many people have noted, is that she's just not ready to sing most of these songs. Most female opera singers do not hit their prime until 35 or after. Ms. Church still has 20 years to go before she can produce a passably good "Habanera". Or at least, let's hope she will, so that we can forget the tripe that's on this record. Maybe by then she will have decided what genre she wants to sing, and her voice will have held up well enough to sing it.

I have followed Charlotte since she broke on to the music scene and was captivated by her first album, which lead me to believe that we had seen the birth of the next superstar. I passed, however, on her next two albums, when she did not improve on any of those technical faults in her singing, despite the fact the selections on those albums were an improvement over #1. I cannot begin to tell you how dissappointed I was when I heard this #4 album. Instead of attempting to correct her faulted singing, she drops down into a vocal range where she lacks the strength that made her unique and attempts to take on song classics from stage and screen, which even divas 3 times her age have found challenging. The result is a disaster of unprecedented proportions. The pieces attempted, which include "Tonight" "Habanera", and "The Prayer", where they run in American phenom, Josh Groban, as a duet partner in an attempt to right the ship, only show how inept she is attempting anything outside her forte. An uninformed listener would think he/she is hearing to a recital from a grade-school musical audition as opposed to a Columbia Masterwork. And, if she continues to attempt works so far beyond her ability, she should in fact limit them to the aforementioned grade-school musicals rather than attempting to pass them off to an unsuspecting public as professional works.