Looking back to Inferno/Purgatorio and Paradiso
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- Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2006 9:58 am
I purchased Paradiso on the first day it went on sale. I've seen a few comments here, some positive and some very negative. Now that I've heard the entire album several times I thought I'd write my own review. For those interested, I'm reviewing the entire buying process, plus the music. ("here" being Tadream, Nov. 2006)
It was a bit upsetting that Paradiso and the Roadmap to Music special CD went on sale on different web sites. For some unknown reason Paradiso is for sale on Edgar's website and Roadmap to Music on the TDI web site. The trouble with this was that you had to pay for shipping separately for each and shipping to the USA is not cheap. I went ahead and purchased both anyway. To my surprise, they both arrived in the same envelope. I liked this because I had paid for the faster shipping for Paradiso and standard shipping for the Roadmap to music CD. On the other had it was a bit upsetting because I had been forced to pay for shipping twice. To my pleasant surprise, a few days later my shipping for Roadmap was refunded! (My dealings with Eastgate have remained excellent. I live in California and my orders usually arrive within a week or so after ordering.)
As for the CD's, they seemed to be well packaged and arrived in good shape, except the plastic CD case cover for Paradiso was cracked. The Roadmap CD is packaged in one of those CD envelopes. The Paradiso CD cover is very nice. The front cover is also the picture label on disk one and the back cover is the picture label on disk two. The booklet is 8 pages of pictures of the band and orchestra with one page of credits and one page of text briefly explaining the action in Paradiso. Sadly, like the previous Dante releases, there is no libretto included. I think this is a real shame as it would be nice for those of us who couldn't go to any of the shows to know who is singing what and what the words are. I think it would be appropriate to release, as a separate item, a libretto for the entire series. It would be nice to see this, perhaps along with DVDs of the live performances, as a special package. (I still have some hope that TD will release such a package, but those hopes are fading as time passes.)
One of the problems I've had lately with double CD cases is getting the CDs out. Getting these CDs out was particularly difficult and I feared breaking them. That would have been annoying! But I was finally able to get them out undamaged. (The way I deal with this problem now is to get a thick piece of paper, slide it under the edge of the CD, and use it to gain leverage in prying out the CD. Works pretty well.)
The way my life is nowadays, I'm rarely able to listen to an album all the way through. All the more difficult with Paradiso since it clocks at nearly 2.5 hours! Most of the time I listen to music in my car or on my ipod. I've already chronicled by experience with Paradiso on itunes. I've finally corrected the track names so at least I know what I'm listening to (at least I think I do).
(For a time, Paradiso was available in iTunes and Amazon as download. They had the incorrect track listings so if you thought you were buying one song, you were actually buying another. What a pain! Neither iTunes or Amazon currently have Paradiso available as a download, at least here in the USA. Can anyone here tell me if the Membran release corrects this)
Paradiso is truly a complex work and I suppose hearing all 2.5 hours of it for the first time live must have been a bit of a chore. There is a lot in it that has taken me more than one listening to get my head around. Some of it still seems a bit tedious, with what seems to be just opera type singing with incidental music. Not exactly my cup of tea. Still, some of the opera singing parts sound quite ambient (albeit with voices). La Grande Spirale sounds like ambient music played by an orchestra.
One of the reasons I haven't reviewed the album sooner is that the more
accessible "good parts" are so good that they are mostly what I've been listening to. In particular, I consider track 10, "Stars in Distance glow" to be an instant classic. I've listened to it dozens of times and have not gotten tired of it. I think that it works quite well as a stand alone song. (This track is now one of my all time favorite TD tunes. I listen to it frequently and wish there was some way it could be performed live in their current shows. Is that Iris singing the lead...dare I hope?)
Track 9, "La Fonza del Saturna" is an 18-minute track that starts as opera type singing with orchestra. The opera type singing continues but with sequencer background. Then around the 7-minute mark the sequencer speeds up and another singer is introduced. The music, with synthesized didgeridoo, is very ominous sounding. Very cool to listen to loud and at night. ( I've since learned that the "synthesized didgeridoo" is actually Linda playing the instrument live. How cool is that?)
Another track I really like is "No more birth, no more death". The background music on the first part of the track sounds, to me, like an in-tune mellotron. The second part of the song is a very nice piano solo. I have to say I really like the singing and arrangement in the song "Truth Beyond Thoughts". My other favorite tracks are Beyond Sodom and Gomorrha and Jupiter Lightning. If I were to separate my favorite tunes from Paradiso I would have well over an hour of music that I enjoy as much as any TD in my collection. (This is still mostly how I listen to the album. I rarely have the time to sit in front of my stereo for 2.5 hours. My "Best of Paradiso" playlist is played often on my commutes to and from work.)
It seems to me that Edgar has reached into the skills of his entire career to produce this album. I do have favorite parts that I listen to more often, but if you have the time, the entire album has a satisfying completeness to it. Since I live in the USA it looks like I will never be able to hear Paradiso or the other parts of the trilogy performed live. It doesn't seem like there is much chance these pieces, with their limited appeal and expensive staging, have much chance of even breaking even on a major tour. I would say that I consider those of you on this list who were able to see the live performances very lucky. I look forward to the DVD versions of these albums, but having attended many TD concerts I know that this will only give me a taste of what actually transpired at the event. TD music is truly at its best live and in person.
(Unfortunately DVD versions of Purgatorio and Paradiso have not been released. Problem here, as I see it, is just how prolific Edgar has been of late. Is it possible that TD has released 7 albums since Paradiso? And 5 videos of live shows? AND lots of other stuff? My guess is that returning to Dante would consume too much time and right now Edgar is just full of new ideas. No time to look back. Well...maybe this Christmas?)