Holding in hands the third record Hälfte des Lebens (Half Of Life), this full-length also marks my very first encounter with mezzo-soprano Dörthe Flemming and her solo project BACIO DI TOSCA. I have to admit that I first was skeptical. I really love classic music but in combination with Gothic and opera singers it often backfires. Luckily BACIO DI TOSCA proves me wrong and disabuse.
Dark romantic and melancholically Dörthe Flemming sets texts of known German poets of the 19th century to music (lied, art song). Lyrics are always embedded in classic orchestration, opulent and soundtrack-like as in Lamentation, but also with unobtrusive Dark Wave influences as in the first both tracks Das Herz ist mir bedrückt and Hälfte des Lebens, or later in Vergebens, where synth sounds, vibrant beats and a subtle, distorted male voices add a special atmosphere and loosen classic song structures. Above all is the beautiful and darkly-tinged voice of Dörthe Flemming, expressive, full of emotions and multifarious.
Hälfte des Lebens is not a pure classic piece of music. But if you don’t like Classic, opera voices and German poets such as Heine, Hölderlein, Hebbel or Hesse (if you speak German at all), you will hardly access this kind of music and BACIO DI TOSCA.