Have been listening to Russell Watson's Encore and Emma Shapplin's Etterna albums. First heard of Russell Watson in Hayley Westenra's Pure where they did a duet on the haunting Pokarekare Ana. According to Amazon.com, "Russell Watson's story is a classic rags-to-riches fairy tale: The former welder, after years of singing in pubs and clubs, traveled from Salford, his hometown, to London. He turned up unannounced at the Decca offices and 
was promptly signed up by one of the most important classical labels in the world."As for Emma Shapplin, I picked up her Etterna CD on a whim. Here, she performs with the London Symphony Orchestra. The tracks are operatic solo arias, all her original compositions. Sung in Italian, considering she is French. There's no doubt that Russell and Emma Shapplin have very good voices, but their songs (or choice of songs) are not. Maybe I have to listen to the albums a few more times to appreciate them better, but at the moment there's only a couple of songs I liked.
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