No Reservations [Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack]

ORIGINAL MUSIC WRITTEN BY ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE PHILIP GLASS ALSO INCLUDES SONGS PERFORMED BY LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, MICHAEL BUBLÉ, LIZ PHAIR AND MANY MORE! From Academy Award® nominated director Scott Hicks (Shine), comes the new film NO RESERVATIONS, the remake of foreign film Mostly Martha. Master chef Kate Armstrong (Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones--Chicago) lives her life like she runs her kitchen at a trendy Manhattan eatery--with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. Kate's perfectionist nature is put to the test when she "inherits" her nine-year-old niece Zoe (Academy Award® nominee Abigail Breslin--Little Miss Sunshine), while contending with a brash new sous-chef who joins her staff. High-spirited and freewheeling, Nick Palmer (Golden Globe® nominee Aaron Eckhart--Thank You For Smoking) couldn't be more different from Kate, yet the chemistry between them is undeniable. Warner Bros. presents NO RESERVATIONS opening wide on July 27th. The Decca soundtrack will be released on July 24th and features original music written by Academy Award® nominee Philip Glass (Notes on a Scandal, The Hours, Kundun), mixed with Italian arias performed by Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Carlo Bergonzi and Joseph Calleja as well as contemporary songs performed by Michael Bublé, Liz Phair, Paolo Conte and Ray Gelato.

It's pretty clear, based on its title, that this movie is set in a restaurant, and it's even clearer that it's an Italian restaurant when you look at the soundtrack: Its bread and butter (or pasta and olive oil) is arias from Puccini and Verdi. And big arias they are, too--so well-known that they are opera's versions of chartbusting pop hits: Verdi's "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto (in a recent rendition by young tenor Joseph Calleja); Puccini's "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi and "Un bel dì vedremo" from Madama Butterfly (both sung by Renata Tebaldi). And, of course, Pavarotti serves up a couple of hearty main courses with "Cielo e mar" and "Nessun dorma." The Italian mood is also reflected in contributions from Paolo Conte (his Gypsy-swing and bilingual "Via Con Me") and Michael Bublé's cover of the 1950s Latin pop hit "Sway" (which was popularized in the US by Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti--does that count as an Italian connection?). The album also includes three instrumental cues: Conrad Pope's "Truffles and Quail," and Philip Glass's low-key "Zoe and Kate Watch Video" and "Zoe Goes to the Restaurant." Liz Phair's "Count on My Love" inexplicably brings up the rear, but hey, it's a pretty great pop song (from Phair's underrated 2005 album Somebody's Miracle), so it's nice to see it get more exposure. --Elisabeth Vincentelli