ORFEO 9

"Orfeo9" is a famous Italian "rock opera" that straight from the gate reminded me of the clips I'd seen of "Hair" or "Jesus Christ Superstar." It was first presented in January of 1970 making it the earliest example of the rock-opera from Italy to my knowledge. Composed by Tito Schipa Jr., son of the famous tenor of the same name, Orfeo9 is a truly joyful celebration of singing and a very enjoyable experience. It brings to mind the Dalton/Paciana Story of a few years later, mixed with some Moody Blues, Beatles, and Opus AVantra. The album, which came well after the stage performance, was recorded between fall 1971 and summer 1972, putting it on the early side of the classic RPI period. While not a completely progressive album by any means you can certainly hear the influence in the arrangements, manic style shifts, and lyrical themes. It is accurately described in the liner notes as a "complex avant-garde rock opera with symphonic and jazz ingredients, dramatic performances, and meloncholic melodies." Schipa is using the character of Orfeo as a means to study the human condition, life, and happiness. Another reviewer has stated you need to be able to understand the Italian language to enjoy the album. While I acknowledge there is a complex story here that I miss out on an English-speaking listener, I reject the claim that it is necessary. I enjoyed this very much for the music and the wondrous singing--if I need to follow a story I have a whole wall of books and English CDs for that fix. Foreign language prog, even the rock-opera, is but another experience for those with open minds.

What really knocks me on my can here are not amazing proggy guitar leads or interstellar spacey keyboard fireworks, but a most human connection. This journey is a string of one dynamite vocal after another: each one unique, each packing stark, real, and touching feelings from one person to another, artists to listener. The vocal and music styles are different and engaging, and come at your relentlessly. Male vocals, female vocals, feisty choruses, opera, spoken word, and folksy singalongs. The music is wide ranging itself venturing from enthusiastic orchestration to rock to blues, soul, folk, and jazz. Spirited organ runs, acid guitar leads, lovely piano, gentle acoustic guitar interludes, and spoken word narration fill in the crevices between our singing storytellers. Some Caribbean rhythms even find their way into the generous soup of variety. "Seguici" ("Follow Us") offers gypsy-like male/female vocals over sitar and tablas. There is a repeating and very catchy melody that comes and goes often throughout the long two discs giving it a sense of continuity. Tito performs on VCS-3 While Oscar winner Bill Conti plays piano and Moog througout and handles the orchestrations. As mentioned this is not an album to buy for prog shredding but all of the musicians handle their parts with great care and competence. It's a near flawlessly executed project from start to finish.

Another BTF classic reissue here deserving of accolades. Orfeo is presented in its original glory with a 2-CD, gatefold mini-lp sleeve edition. It features very good sound (for the period) along with handsome discs embossed with the "eyes" art on the cover, plus a huge booklet with the complete script in Italian and Bio in both languages. It would have been nice to have the script translated to English but I'm sure the costs were prohibitive. Orfeo is at the same time both dated and yet fresh--of the period, yet timeless in the human connection of voice. And as I said above, if you don't speak Italian just relax and enjoy the emotion. Learn to hear music in a new way.

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