The
opera singer on Sing Verdi Very Loud (Verdi's La
donna e mobile from Rigoletto) is told to "stop!"
and encouraged to "sing Verdi very loud/Do what the
divas do/Shatter a glass or two". In It's the Same
Every Verse (Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King),
singers count down 17 verses as they build to a vigorous
crescendo. Children are told to listen and hear it,
"there is music in the river/there is music in the
sea" in the "fishy" tale, Schubert's Trout
(Schubert's Trout Quintet). Dvorak the Czechoslovak
chronicles the composer's travels that inspired his piece,
Humoresque. The tongue-in-cheek Wow What a Wedding Cake
(Mendelssohn's Wedding March) claims that the "real
star" of the wedding is the cake that "took a year
to bake/nine months for the icing to dry". Hilarious!
The
recording's lighthearted, short parodies of classical works
are followed by instrumentals of the featured pieces. Thus,
the recording doubles as a sort of "greatest hits" of classical
recordings, and gives kids the opportunity to sample orchestral performances
of the original works after enjoying them with energetic vocals.
More
background singers are used on Beethoven's Wig 2, giving the
recording even more vigor and interactivity. See also our
review of the first title, Beethoven's
Wig.
The CD insert includes lyrics, questions about the composers (with answers
at the back), and a few suggested extension activities.
