Sarah Brightman

In Concert

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Music	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1997	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	77:30 minutes	Other Extras	Main Menu Audio & Animation
RSDL/Flipper	No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie	Cast & Crew
Region	2,3,4,5,6	Director	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision Australia	Starring	Sarah Brightman Andrea Bocelli Andrew Lloyd Webber
RRP	$39.95	Music	Various

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None	Dolby Digital	None
16x9 Enhancement	No	Soundtrack Languages	English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles	None	Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

Sarah Brightman is indeed a gifted singer, and her strong operatic voice comes across very well in the disc. She covers some classic songs of the stage, many from Andrew Lloyd Webber's collection, who himself makes a brief appearance for a duet as does Andrea Bocelli amongst others. I was familiar with many of her performances and quite liked them, though I cannot profess to be very knowledgeable with regards to the opera! Here are works from Evita, Phantom Of The Opera, West Side Story, et al. Fans will enjoy this disc I have no doubt. Myself, well ... not really my cup of tea!

Transfer Quality

Video

This is a questionable presentation, and not much better than VHS.

The presentation is Full Frame, with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer is generally sharp and clear as far as luminance is concerned, though there is slight over-saturation at times washing out some detail. Shadow detail is poor, with the crowd and other low-lit areas being basically masked from view. There is no low-level noise.

The main failing of this transfer is the colour, which is generally far too saturated. There is a predominance of red and blue lighting which is always a problem for analogue video tape, which this clearly is. The stage is fairly well lit, but the crowd is either red or blue and it is simply a mess. Skin tones are quite good, and Sarah herself always appears well rendered given that she is lit with neutral light. There is a large amount of chroma noise in the colours, as well as bleeding and loss of resolution. This really is quite unacceptable for DVD, and reveals the limitations of the source material used.

There were no significant MPEG artefacts. Aliasing was at times problematic, and indeed moire-patterning was apparent on some musical sheets which the performers read from, creating false colours where there should have been black and white [Ed. Cross-colouration artefacts revealing the composite-based source of this transfer as opposed to a component-based source].

Audio

Thankfully, the audio is much better than the video, and really this is the most important aspect for a music video.

There is just the one soundtrack, being two-channel Linear PCM encoded at 48kHz, 16-bit.

Sarah's vocals were magnificently recorded, and her tonal range and quality are quite superb.

There were no problems with audio sync during the video.

The soundstage was not as wide as I would have liked, being fairly centred throughout the performance. The instruments of the orchestra were nicely detailed, with subtle instruments being heard amidst the mass of strings and violins. Overall this is a satisfying recording, and will surely please her fans.

There is a delicate bottom-end to this track, and my subwoofer gave a helping hand when it was needed.

Extras

The presentation of this disc is very nice indeed, and really adds a touch of class. However, there are no real extras on offer.

The menu design is very tastefully implemented. It has a lovely acoustic guitar track behind the animated background. A nice feature is that the first time the menu is selected, an intro into the menu is run leading into the main selection screen. From then on, any menu requests take you straight to the selections. All DVD's should have nice menus like this and it beats static designs hands down. Very nice indeed.

R4 vs R1

This particular concert is not yet available in Region 1.

Summary

Fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work, as well as of course Sarah Brighman will surely find pleasure in this disc.

The video quality is substandard and only slightly better than VHS.

The PCM audio is rather nice.

No extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Panasonic A350A; S-Video output
Display	Pioneer SD-T43W1 125cm Widescreen 16x9
Audio Decoder	Internal Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD Player)
Amplification	Sony STRDE-525 5x100 watts Dolby Pro-Logic / 5.1 Ready Receiver; 4 x Optimus 10-band Graphic EQ
Speakers	Centre: Sony SS-CN35 100 watt; Main & Surrounds: Pioneer CS-R390-K 150-watt floorstanders; Subwoofer: Optimus 100-watt passive