Edda Dell’Orso:
Al Cinema con Edda Dell’Orso
Dream Within a Dream:
The Incredible Voice
of
Edda Dell’Orso
Acclaimed as “the voice of Italian cinema,” Edda Dell’Orso’s haunting, wordless vocals have stood the test of time as the very embodiment of romance and longing. Prior to the release of these two compilations, Signora Dell’Orso’s appearances on disc were confined to rare, sublime moments on elusive Italian soundtracks. Spanning the late ‘60s-early ‘70s, the moods on these two collections range from carefree heights to the mysterious depths of the supernatural.
Compiled by Claudio Fuiano, the 23-track Al Cinema con Edda Dell’Orso represents many of Italy’s greatest film composers: Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Roberto Pregardio, Piero Piccioni, Armando Trovaioli, Luis Bacalov, and Berto Pisano. Each composer appears equally attuned Dell’Orso’s unique gifts, yielding a seamless program.
It’s fascinating to compare Edda’s vocalise (wordless) take of Piero Piccioni’s “La Volpe dalla coda di veluto” with Shawn Robinson’s pop version on Beat at Cinecitta Vol. 3. Each reveals the singers’ respective strengths: Edda’s ethereal sexuality, Robinson’s earthy soul. Edda’s tremulous, supernal singing on Piero Piccioni’s “Lo Straniero” recalls Miklós Rózsa’s use of the Theremin on The Lost Weekend, and three a cappella tracks reveal her flawless pitch. The minimal instrumentation of Piero Piccioni’s exotica theme to Ciao, Gulliver (1970) exposes the bare beauty of Edda’s quavering voice.
With eight strong previously unreleased cuts, Al Cinema con Edda Dell’Orso keeps redundancy with prior compilations minimal: “Verushka” from Morricone Main Titles Vol. 1 and Women in Lounge, and the graceful “Kill! (To Jean),” heard on Easy Tempo Vol. 8.
Suffused with moments of heart-stopping beauty, Al Cinema con Edda Dell’Orso is a bel canto requiem for the hedonism and romance of the swinging ‘60s. A meticulous transfer captures the high production values and spacious, psychedelic character of the original recordings. While Al Cinema sports spectacular cover graphics, Hexacord provides only the most skeletal track list.
While the Morricone/Argento collaborations have their adherents, these ventures into atonality have not aged as well as Morricone and Dell’Orso’s jet-set pop. Two go-go tunes from Anton Garcia Abril & Marcello Giombini’s 4-3-2-1 Morte (Mission Stardust, 1967) demonstrate Dell’Orso’s ability to electrify even mediocre material, while three selections from Piccioni’s sublime Scacco Alla Regina finds Edda at her most seductive. Italy’s premiere horror soundtrack/progressive rock band Goblin provides Mellotron and guitar accompaniment on an outstanding track from Perché si uccidono (1976).
Dream Within a Dream includes a handful of frequently anthologized Morricone themes from Metti una Sera Cena, La Donna Invisible, and Gui’ la Testa (A Fistful of Dynamite). Edda’s contributions to the widely available A Fistful of Dollars and The Good the Bad and the Ugly are wisely excluded from both compilations.
