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There is no denying the elegance and beauty of Milan's Duomo, the glittering magnificence of its golden altar, the airy vastness of its main hall, the imperious weight of its thick stone columns that rise like giants' limbs to the majestic vaulted ceiling.But if it's music and not architecture you're after, unfortunately this Christmas concert is a bit of a mixed bag. Certainly any performance featuring performances by the great Montserrat Caballé and her daughter Montserrat Marti can't be without interest, not least because the inclusion of tunes from their native Spain brings some variety to a familiar format. Caballé's voice might have seen better days, but her loving rendition of Verdi's "Ave Maria" from Otello is delivered so beautifully that following its extended high note the audience jumps the gun on clapping before the piece is finished. And Marti's very moving reading of Schubert's delicately rocking "Mille Cherubini" is quietly affecting. Mother and daughter team up occasionally, most deliciously in Cervera Lloret's "Dios hecho Niño," an alternately tender and rollicking piece that brings out the best in both singers, revealing them as near equals. Far, far from their equal, however, is pop singer Al Bano Carrisi, his voice so thin he requires amplification even in the Duomo's resonant chamber. Based on the sensitive accompaniment Caballé and Marti receive, one presumes it is out of deference to Carrisi's classical-lite sensibilities that Gounod's Ave Maria is so rushed that its poignancy is utterly trampled. The closing medley of traditional seasonal tunes (which includes Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus, curiously so since that piece opens the concert as a whole) is an utterly enjoyable wallow in sentimental favorites, strings as thick as Christmas pudding, with Carissi mercifully watching from the sidelines. --Bruce Reid
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