# Christopher Lee does Charlemagne with a 100 piece orchestra **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568 "2010-12-09T19:23:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568/1 "2010-12-09T19:23:40Z")
[Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_by_the_sword_and_the_cross) > [@](#): > > It tells the story of the First Holy Emperor of Rome, King Charlemagne. Lee himself is a descendant of Charlemagne through his Italian ancestors. > > The album features The Tolkien Ensemble from Denmark, a 100 piece orchestra and a number of guest vocalists playing the different roles in the story. It was produced by Italian musician, composer and producer Marco Sabiu. Looks like it has sort of been marketed as a “metal” album. I just got it. I’m listening to it now, and while it is clearly heavily influenced by power metal (Lee has worked with power metal gods Rhapsody in the past), I probably wouldn’t call it straight up metal. It’s got a lot of long mellow sections, and a lot of spoken word. What it is, though, is _awesome._ Anyone else heard it? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568/2 "2010-12-09T21:12:23Z")
Interesting. Is any of it available online? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568/3 "2010-12-09T21:17:38Z")
[You can hear samples here.](http://www.amazon.com/Charlemagne-Sword-Cross-Christopher-Lee/dp/B0037OUHC2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1291922709&sr=1-1) Unfortunately you don’t hear him in most of them - he’s only the samples from tracks 7, 9, and 11 as a singer and he speaks a bit on 13. This definitely isn’t my kind of music. Maybe I’d have liked it better if I heard more of him. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568/4 "2010-12-09T23:07:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > [You can hear samples here.](http://www.amazon.com/Charlemagne-Sword-Cross-Christopher-Lee/dp/B0037OUHC2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1291922709&sr=1-1) Unfortunately you don’t hear him in most of them - he’s only the samples from tracks 7, 9, and 11 as a singer and he speaks a bit on 13. This definitely isn’t my kind of music. Maybe I’d have liked it better if I heard more of him. It’s a concept album, and they are never done any favors by samples (or even singles, a lot of times). It’s a narrative, and works a lot better if you can kick back and listen to it from beginning to end. At the same time, if octogenarians singing foreboding ballads about the dark ages with power metal influences and a full backing orchestra isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, well, that’s understandable. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568/5 "2010-12-10T02:43:42Z")
[Act III](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPO4adF19LU) is on YouTube. I definitely want to hear the entire album, but not badly enough to pay whatever they’re asking for it. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-lee-does-charlemagne-with-a-100-piece-orchestra/563568/6 "2010-12-10T15:32:26Z")
I haven’t heard this yet, but I loved Christopher Lee’s work with Rhapsody in the past. This is definitely going into my next CD order.