Christmas with Bocelli and Foster

Just the mere thought that David Foster should have brought Andrea Bocelli with him for his local David Foster and Friends gig is like asking for the moon. Bocelli did join Foster in perhaps one or two or more of the US shows. He is there in the big selling David Foster and Friends DVD but having the Italian tenor in the line-up of Foster’s friends on tour would have sent ticket prices through the roof with only the privileged few or the money launderers able to afford them.

But there is no need for fans to despair. You can now bring Bocelli and Foster home together along with great music, fantastic voices and the timeless message of joy and peace in one great package. This is the Andrea Bocelli-David Foster My Christmas, the DVD edition of Bocelli’s My Christmas CD, which came out last year. That one is beautiful and I have been listening to it again. Can you just imagine how wonderful it is to see all those songs and performers come to life on the screen as they bring the Christmas feeling into your homes?

Foster put the show, which was filmed before a live audience, together. I have always seen him as a Christmas person from the time I heard The David Foster Christmas Album. There are plenty of good producers and arrangers around, but somehow, Foster’s work with Christmas recordings has this extra sparkle. Must be because he grew up in Victoria, British Columbia where the Yuletide celebration is very Victorian, as in like Victorian England, which was the setting for Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and which has become the idealized Christmas background for many parts of the world.

My idea was proven by his subsequent productions for the likes of Celine Dion and Josh Groban, who both have great Christmas songs produced by Foster. And now he has done the same for Bocelli. His Christmas touch remains sure. Both the My Christmas CD and DVD are treasures to be cherished for many years. Truth to tell, watching the DVD, which by the way is of excellent sound and picture quality, has put me in a very Christmasy mood.

That Bocelli sounds great is a given and I like how his classical tenor acquired a pop feel in some of the songs. What I find truly remarkable is the guest list. These personalities were no doubt chosen because they can sound as great as Bocelli. That is, save for The Muppets, of course. But then, Miss Piggy and Kermit and all those other guys do not really need voice training to impress the audience. In fact their Jingle Bells with Andrea is such a total delight that they got the only standing ovation of the evening.

Then as Foster himself says it during the show, the singing of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the closest thing to heaven. More so I suppose when they are doing a majestic Our Father with Bocelli. And what impeccable vocalists the female guests are. Natalie Cole for The Christmas Song; Did you know that she recorded the original version of Foster’s beautiful Grown-Up Christmas List? Newcomer Katherine Jenkins is also impressive in I Believe.

But the ones who really got me were country music diva Reba McEntire and hip-hop star, Mary J. Blige. I seldom listen to country music, so hearing Reba’s dreamy vocals in White Christmas feels like a wondrous surprise. As for Mary, she rode What Child Is This? to glory with perfect pipes.

Also included are Angels We Have Heard On High; Santa Claus Is Coming To Town; Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle, an old Italian carol; Cantique De Noel, O Holy Night in French; Caro Jesu Bambino, another Italian Carol; O Tannenbaum; Adeste Fidelis; God Bless Us Everyone from the soundtrack of the animated film version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; Silent Night; and to close, White Christmas.

I think anybody who loves beautiful music should have both the CD and the DVD around to enjoy during the Holidays. If the budget does not allow that, choose the DVD, you get Foster’s twinkling Carol Of The Bells and the moving Ave Maria.