Andrea Bocelli

Sacred Arias


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Music The Hymn Of The Great Jubilee (4:22)
Recording "Sacred Arias" (7:39)
Booklet
Rating
Year Released 1999
Running Time 77:36 minutes
RSDL/Flipper RSDL (59:40)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,3,4,5,6 Director William Cosel
Studio
Distributor
Universal Home Video
Starring Andrea Bocelli
Case Super Jewel
RPI $34.95 Music Various

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Auto English (Dolby Digital 5.0, 448Kb/s)
English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s)
Italian (Dolby Digital 5.0, 448Kb/s)
Italian (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision ? Smoking No
Subtitles French
German
Spanish
English
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes

Plot Synopsis

    IN SHORT: Truly magnificent.

    Forget The Three Tenors. If you want to hear the most astounding tenor voice of our time, listen to Andrea Bocelli. I have previously had the pleasure of reviewing A Night In Tuscany, a DVD which totally stunned and moved me, so when the opportunity arose to preview Sacred Arias, I jumped at the opportunity.

    Sacred Arias is a live recording of much of the same material as can be found on Andrea Bocelli's CD of the same name. Where this DVD differs is in the setting. This is not a studio recording, but a magnificent live recording of sacred music in a sacred setting. Words all but fail me when I try to describe this programming. It is profoundly moving, and deeply spiritual. I was enraptured. I was moved to tears more than once. Shivers continually went down my spine from the sheer magnificence of this experience.

    There is a variety of material on this DVD in addition to the music, with a number of interspersed travelogue-type segments acting as a bridge between some of the musical works.

    There was only one low-light for me. I felt that the closing rendition of Silent Night was very weak and failed to close this otherwise magnificent programme in a suitably magnificent style.

    The track listing is as follows:
 

1. Ave Maria - Caccini
2. Ave Maria - Bach
3. Ombra mai fu - Handel
4. Hallelujah - Handel
5. Ave Maria - Schubert
6. Cujus animam - Rossini
7. Amen - Rossini
8. Ingemisco - Verdi
9. Sanctus - Verdi
10. Domine Deus - Rossini
11. Va pensiero - Verdi
12. Pieta, Signore - Niedermeyer
13. Panis angelicus - Franck
14. Saneta Maria - Mascagni
15. Adeste fideles (O come, all ye faithful)
16. Mille cherubini in coro - Schubert
17. Astro del ciel (Silent night) - Gruber

Transfer Quality

Video

    This is a magnificent video transfer, and just misses out on being of reference quality.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced and has Automatic Pan & Scan information encoded.

    The transfer was superbly detailed in every way, with every subtle visual nuance clearly visible and an eye-popping level of subtle detail on offer. The technical aspects of how this transfer was derived are not divulged either on the disc or in the accompanying booklet, but it would not surprise me to know that this has been down-converted from a high definition source, the quality is that good. Shadow detail was superb with many subtleties revealed in the darker areas of the transfer. Only occasionally on long shots of the cathedral audience did this superb level of shadow detail falter slightly, and this can readily be attributed to the audience being unlit rather than to any transfer problem. Low level noise is non-existent.

    The colours were strongly rendered. The cathedral has been varyingly lit, mostly with strongly yellow lights, which translates to quite highly saturated colours. Nonetheless, there is absolutely no colour bleeding nor oversaturation of colour. Instead, we are treated to richly warm browns, vibrant flesh tones, and the magnificent blue colouration of the cathedral's ceiling.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Once again, Universal have seen fit to allow a relatively short program the luxury of being compressed onto a dual layer DVD, and the results speak for themselves. The only aliasing in this transfer occurred in the long shots of the cathedral, where the candles near the stage shimmered slightly. Otherwise, there was no aliasing to be seen at all.

    This transfer is presented on an RSDL DVD, with the layer change occurring between Chapters 13 and 14, at 59:40. As with any live programming, the layer change is noticeable and mildly disruptive, but not excessively so.

Audio

    There are four audio tracks on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 5.0, English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, Italian Dolby Digital 5.0 and Italian Linear PCM 48/16 2.0. Interestingly, the default soundtrack is the English Linear PCM soundtrack, even though this is not the first soundtrack actually on the DVD. I listened to the English Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack and made a number of comparisons with the English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 soundtrack.

    The overall levels of both the Dolby Digital and the Linear PCM audio tracks were a tad on the high side, so I listened to them at 6dB less than my usual reference audio level.

    The vocals were spot-on at almost all times, with Andrea Bocelli firmly placed in the centre speaker. During some of the softer choral numbers a small amount of hiss intruded into the soundtrack, and the occasional extraneous noise made its way into this soundtrack as well. The last piece of intercut footage, before Silent Night, had a small amount of audio distortion present - not badly, mind you, but it did contrast with the generally excellent audio during the remainder of this soundtrack. There were no audio sync problems.

    The surround channels carried the music and the choral singing. The orchestra was predominantly mixed into the left and right front channels, with some ambient spill into the rear channels. The choir was mixed more centrally, with much more of a presence in the surround speakers.

    I made a number of comparisons between the sound of the Dolby Digital 5.0 mix and the equivalent Linear PCM mix, both in straight stereo and with Prologic decoding engaged. The Dolby Digital 5.0 mix sounded very good indeed, but just very slightly veiled and "plugged-up" during the more complex sequences. I made a point of comparing the two soundtracks during both orchestral and choral passages, and the Linear PCM soundtrack was marginally the better of the two. It had a more spacious, cleaner feel about it which was easier to listen to. Don't get me wrong - the Dolby Digital mix was very very good, but the Linear PCM mix was just that little bit better.

    The .1 channel was not specifically encoded, but full range audio came amply from all active speakers, and so it was not missed.

Extras

    There are only limited extras on this DVD, but the ones that are there are excellent.

Menu

    Oddly, this is not 16x9 enhanced.

Booklet

    This is nicely detailed and worth reading.

The Hymn Of The Great Jubilee

    This failed to engage me. Interestingly, some of the source video for this work was composite in nature, with clearly visible composite artefacts. Take a look at 0:51 - 1:03 and 3:30 - 3:39 and compare these brief passages with the remainder of this video.

Featurette - Recording "Sacred Arias"

    This is a brief but very interesting look behind the scenes and is well worth watching. It finishes all-too-quickly. In comparison with the main programming of this DVD, the colours are quite muted, which makes for quite a visual shock after having gotten used to the highly saturated colours of the main programme.

R4 vs R1

    The Region 4 and Region 1 versions of this DVD appear to be identically-featured.

Summary

    Andrea Bocelli-Sacred Arias is magnificent. Very highly recommended.

    The video quality is magnificent.

    The audio quality is extremely good.

    There were limited extras, but what was present was excellent in quality.
 

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
29th May 2000
 

Review Equipment
DVD Loewe Xemix 5006DD, using RGB output
Display Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the RGB input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Hsu Research TN-1220HO subwoofer