Amici (friends) Forever is a predominantly British vocal group made up of five classically trained singers who, in addition to possessing voluminous vocal chops, also have pop-star-photogenic looks. In the age of classical/pop crossovers like Bond and Charlotte Church, how could their highly touted debut album, THE OPERA BAND, not be a recipe for stardom?
Though the temptation to belt out an album's worth of operatic versions of pop hits was surely there, Amici Forever didn't choose that route. While there is a bit of pop-oriented material (an Italian-language version of "Unchained Melody," "Requiem for a Soldier [Theme from a Band of Brothers]"), the bulk of the album is classically minded, drawing on such composers as Mozart, Fauré, Dvorak, and, of course, Puccini ("Nessun dorma!" which seems to have become the "Freebird" of the opera world). The music over which the five vocalists strut their collective stuff is a mix of traditional orchestration and more modern, electronics-assisted touches; imagine Andrew Lloyd Webber getting down with David Foster at the Met. THE OPERA BAND finds Amici Forever to be fully prepared for their inevitable world domination.