Follow Your Heart

Import exclusive album finds the Greek tenor lending his sensual voice to a soulful collection of smooth pop ballads & classically flavored songs. Sony. 2004.

Rhodesian-born, Greek-raised, London-schooled, Juilliard-scholarshipped, Maria Callas Prize Winner Mario Frangoulis is a pop singer with operatic training. The voice is a high baritone/low tenor. It's very appealing, and decidedly non-operatic sounding--Bocelli, for example, is a true opera singer compared to Frangoulis. His first CD, Sometimes I Dream, was a smash hit. This one is certain to be as well. There's little here to please the classical music lover--an arrangement, with love-song lyrics, of Verdi's "Va,pensiero" chorus from Nabucco is as close to opera as he comes. But what he has to offer is a type of introspection which he puts across with gentle sincerity, and he is as adept singing in English as he is in Italian, Spanish and Greek. Most of the selections here are slow and pensive, but a spirited duet with Spanish singer Aleyandro Fernandez and "Cu' mme," a duet with the singer Melody, with an infectious beat, stand out from the rest. Years ago, this was the type of album couples slow-danced and made out to--there's no reason why the tradition shouldn't continue. If your tastes run to Josh Groban and Russell Watson, which is to say, pop singers with classical training and amazing suaveness, then you'll find Frangoulis irresistible. --Robert Levine