I just had myself a listen to the new "Phantom of the Opera" soundtrack– you know, the one attached to the film treatment that came out last month.  I still haven’t seen the movie, mainly because I’ve been ridiculously busy with work, but I really am impatient to see it. 

I’ve been wary, however, of the casting of this young upstart Emmy Rossum in the role of Christine Daae. Her saucer-eyes have been staring out of the cover of Elle magazine for a month, and her nubile figure in the film poster has been adorning the metro for the past month.  I’m quite admittedly jealous of her– I would maim and injure anyone necessary in order to play Christine in the film adaptation.  But in all of my jealousy, it never entered into my mind that she might not actually have a strong enough voice for the part.  In the few interviews I’ve read with her she’s come off as very full of herself. All the interviewers say about her is basically well, she’s a bitch, but the bitch can sing.

You know what though?? Her voice is weak, the timbre of it creaky. She has a nice vibrato and some bell-like topnotes. But for the most part– I can happily, snarkily say that while she can sing ok, I’m unimpressed.  Even Sarah Brightman, with her manufactured soprano, did it better.  Rossum might be a "classically trained" soprano, as all the press packets boast of her. But that’s not saying much.