Amici Forever

• Genre: Crossover Classical
• Amici Forever Website

About

Amici Forever are representative of the evolution and popularity of crossover classical music in the early 2000s. Flirting with the same market dominated by such big shots as Charlotte Church, the Three Tenors and Andrea Bocelli, Amici Forever take an interesting tack: the five svelte opera singers (two tenors, two sopranos and one basso, all with boy/girl band good looks) have all the trappings of a rock band (except for their clothing). This rock aesthetic is played up in their marketing, which positions them as "the Opera Band," and in their actual music, which features such covers as "Unchained Melody" mixed in with more traditional material. In other words, Amici Forever are like a classically-trained Abba, with a similar "commercial" vibe. As with Abba, the commercialism is a part of the package, so it doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the band's highly stylized music. It's merely a facet of what that music is -- namely, a well-marketed and effective pop product.

- Mike McGuirk