Hannibal: Motion Picture Soundtrack Decca, 2001 Buy it online Tracks 1: Dear Clarice 2: Aria da capo 3: The Capponi Library 4: Gourmet Valse Tartare 5: Avarice 6: For A Small Stipend 7: Firenze Di Notte 8: Virtue 9: Let My Home Be My Gallows 10: The Burning Heart 11: To Every Creative Soul 12: Vide Cor Meum   Reviewed by Linda Richards	If you're at all like me, you didn't spend much time evaluating the music while you shared the dark with Hannibal Lecter. There was, after all, a lot going on. Some of it had viewers doing their best to keep down their popcorn, never mind the incidental music. And, really, all of this is just as it should be. When a musical score is doing its job, you don't notice it. It becomes a part of the whole experience of the film: another brushstroke in the finished work. Another element that contributes to the film's texture, its suspense and overall excitement. A score that doesn't work is more likely to catch your attention than one that does. All of that said, the Hannibal soundtrack is a triumph for a producer whose career seems sometimes to have been a string of triumphs. German-born Hans Zimmer began his career at the center of early 1980s New Wave. He worked with The Buggles on The Age of Plastic as well as with Ultravox and Italy's Krisma. Early in his career, Zimmer formed Lillie Yard recording studio in London with film composer Stanley Myers. Lillie Yard would prove to be a groundbreaking studio, fusing traditional scoring techniques with the electronic elements that were changing the face of music in almost all genres. The first soundtrack Zimmer made on his own was for A World Apart which would lead to producing the Academy Award-nominated soundtrack for Rain Man in 1988. More recently, Zimmer's notable soundtracks have included producer credit on the soundtracks of Mission Impossible II, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, Prince of Egypt, As Good As it Gets, Peacemaker, Crimson Tide and close to 40 others since that late 80s breakthrough. Zimmer has proven himself to be a first rate all 'rounder, able to musically capture a film's spirit regardless of genre. Zimmer's Lion King and Prince of Egypt soundtracks fairly radiated Disney family values while anyone who remembers the Travolta/Cage vehicle, Face Off, will likely also remember that the music was the best part of an otherwise quite terrible movie. The Hannibal soundtrack fairly pulsates with this film's dark light. It opens with "Dear Clarice," which sets the tone for what is to follow with haunting strings, the trilling of a boys choir and the voice of Anthony Hopkins himself reading the letter Hannibal sends Clarice in the film. Dear Clarice, I have followed with enthusiasm the course of your disgrace and public shaming. My own never bothered me, except for the inconvenience of being incarcerated. But you may lack perspective. And so on. Sir Anthony's voice graces the album twice more: On "Let My Home Be My Gallows" (strings, strings, strings; angelic voices and Hannibal's speech on avarice at the museum) and on "The Burning Heart." The opening "Dear Clarice" leads rather perfectly into "Aria da capo" as performed by Glenn Gould from Goldberg Variations. Included as well are various orchestral and operatic pieces, including "Vide Cor Meum," a libretto from Dante's La Vita Nuova performed by Danielle De Niese, Bruno Lazzaretti and still more youthful, angelic voices. The Hannibal soundtrack is a beautifully produced whole. Obviously, don't buy this one expecting a lift to the spirits or an invitation to tap your toes. However, Hannibal is a perfect musical representation of a perfectly disturbing film. | April 2001   Linda Richards is the editor of Blue Coupe magazine.	The Hannibal soundtrack fairly pulsates with this film's dark light. It opens with "Dear Clarice," which sets the tone for what is to follow with haunting strings, the trilling of a boy's choir and the voice of Anthony Hopkins himself reading the letter Hannibal sends Clarice in the film.