★★★★★
We can't really hold Engelbert to account for the UK's poor showing in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. OK, finishing above only Norway was a disappointment, but homegrown glory has long been a thing of the past - with only two songs this century scraping into the Top 5 once the juries' points have been tallied...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
When it was premiered at the Met in New York in 1910, less than three weeks after the first performance of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West in the same opera house, Königskinder was hailed as the most important new opera since Parsifal. But in the century since, the most enduring of Humperdinck's stage works has proved to be Hänsel und Gretel, and outside German-speaking countries at least, Königskinder is rarely seen on stage...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2011-03-28
★★★★★
Buy it from Buy the CDEngelbert HumperdinckHumperdinck: DornroschenUlf SchirmerCPO2011 Humperdinck's version of Sleeping Beauty, completed in 1902, is an intriguing but ultimately frustrating rarity. It seems determined to reconfigure the familiar fairytale as a version of Parsifal (for which Humperdinck himself had copied the full score before the Bayreuth premiere)...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2011-02-19
★★★★★
For misguided pop-rock crossovers, it's tough to top Sinatra's cover of "Mrs. Robinson," but Humperdinck's Uber-square croon on Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and the Beatles' "Penny Lane" comes close. So uncool it's almost cool.
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
I confess that I haven't taken the time to get to know this opera until now. Because I started listening to Ada when I was 4, I never felt like a needed a "children's opera." Furthermore, I am a dutiful Wagnerian, not an enthusiastic one, and I haven't jumped at the opportunity to frolic in what I thought was a kind of kinder-Bayreuth. As we age, I believe that we should lose our prejudices, not gain new ones. This attitude is justified by Hnsel und Gretel, a tasty and highly digestible oper...
- www.classical.net
2009-03-22
★★★★★
Humperdinck was discovered in 1967. This is his second album; the year is still 1967. Included here is his chart topping gold record, "The Last Waltz" plus such Englebert standards as "Two Different Worlds" and "Am I that Easy to Forget." Humperdinck's voice is a touch higher (and thinner) here than the velvet tones we all know so well from his more recent late-night-TV album offers...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
After the surprise hit "After the Lovin'," Humperdinck's career was back on track. Miracles By Engelbert Humperdinck was released in 1976, close to its better-selling predecessor. The artist again worked with the songwriters responsible for his big 1976 hit. Although he was never knowing for rocking out, some of the tracks here are stodgy and lack the romantic appeal of his prime work...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Engelbert is a classy and respectable album from the adult contemporary singer featuring one of his three hits from 1968, "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize," with music direction from Les Reed. It's not as easily recognizable as his other eight Top 40 entries, and just bubbling under the Top 30, it was the second-weakest showing of his nine-song chart run...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27