Katharine Jenkins is singing to wildlife

Katharine Jenkins is singing to wildlife

News

norman lebrecht

August 08, 2021

We’ve missed the much-recorded ‘opera star’ during Covid so it’s good to see she’s out and about again.

Singing at a safari park in Yorkshire.

‘I have heard a lot about YWP and am a big supporter of all its conservation and welfare work, trying to protect some of the world’s most beautiful and endangered species from extinction,’ she says.

One endangered species to another.

 

Comments

  • Alexander says:

    Catherine of Cambridge also helps to save endangered species from extinction, so why her (almost) namesake shouldn’t ? 😉

  • marcus says:

    Jenkins is never going to trouble Flagsted in the reputational stakes, but so what? This is pretty sneery and mean spirited.

  • Colin says:

    What is the benefit to anyone of this website’s snide comments about Katherine Jenkins?

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    A thoroughly pleasant woman, even if her voice doesn’t particularly appeal. She’s admired by millions. How many of us can say that?

  • As popular singers go, Katharine Jenkin’s voice isn’t all that bad. She’s quite a bit better than Andrea Bocelli. Lot’s a kitsch, but that’s the modern world.

    The real source of the criticism of her is that in order to fulfill its traditional social function, classical music must signify and reinforce class superiority. Jenkins commits the cardinal sin of popularizing classical oriented music-making, of removing it from its high pedestal. She is thus pilloried so that we can reassert our elite superiority.

    Jenkins and Bocelli.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABj7gxsbAjY

    • Allen says:

      That’s one interpretation.

      Another is that when she dabbles in the classical repertoire, she’s just not very good.

      Take your pick.

  • Gunther says:

    Oh Norman, did you miss her singing for that Police memorial unveiling the other week…so off key even the rain stopped

  • M McAlpine says:

    Kate is giving people entertainment and enjoyment. She also gives the high brow the opportunity to exert their fancied superiority by turning their noses up at her. So everyone wins all round. Well done, Kate!

    • Allen says:

      Opera singers are compared and criticised relentlessly, and expected to compete with great voices on record. It goes with the job.

      KJ should expect the same when she ventures into the same repertoire. If it comes as a surprise to her or her fans, it simply proves that they don’t understand the genre. Are you suggesting she should have some sort of immunity? If so, why?

      Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras were torn to pieces in some quarters when they recorded West Side Story in the 1980s. I don’t recall them whining about it.

    • Dragonetti says:

      Exactly! She’s the vocal equivalent of André Rieu. Personally I loathe both of them from an artistic point of view but as ever, will defend what they achieve. They bring something half way cheerful and decent to a world that is riddled with a popular culture that is truly dreadful and perpetuated by talentless goons.

  • Andrew says:

    Norman being snide again. Like clockwork…

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