Rome, Italy, Nov 23, 2008 / 01:32 am
The Spanish tenor Placido Domingo has made an album of songs based on poems written by Pope John Paul II. Titled “Infinite Love,” the album will be presented in the Vatican next Friday.
The album, published by the German record label Deutsche Grammophon, features 12 songs, including Domingo’s duets with U.S. gospel singer Vanessa Williams and his son Placido Domingo Jr. It is expected to go on sale in Italy next Friday, ANSA reports.
Domingo, 67, has said the Pope’s poems were of “great literary value,” and after reading them he asked his son to write a musical score for lyrics based on them.
The tenor has sung before both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
The late pontiff’s poems have been published by the Vatican Press under the titles “Meditations” and “The Poetry of Pope John Paul II.” A 1994 work published by Random House also collected the Pontiff’s poetry under the title “The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II.”
According to ANSA, one of John Paul II’s best-received poems imagined the scene in the Sistine Chapel when his successor would be elected.