Serenade

AMG Review of Serenade

Sharon Mawer
All Music Guide

Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh soprano and multiple Classical Brits winner, released her fourth album aimed at a pop crossover market, and for the second consecutive time saw an album soar into the Top Five of the album charts. Serenade is rather a misnamed title for the album, as Jenkins hardly serenaded anybody but tackled a set of difficult arias, Chanson Bohčme from Bizet (one of her dream roles being to play Carmen live on-stage), O Mio Babbino Caro by Puccini, and Pachelbel's Canon. There is a guest appearance by Kiri Te Kanawa on The Flower Duet, and when she tired of the classics, she included the Mario Lanza favorite "Be My Love," which does lack some of the power coming from a female voice, and covered the pop songs "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" -- sung in Italian as "(Quello Che Faró) Sarŕ Per Te" with Bryan Adams on guitar -- and "The Green Green Grass of Home" with backing vocals by the Treorchy Male Choir. The final songs on the album were of a religious nature, including "The Prayer" and "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind," and the album ends with the old favorite Ave Maria.