Dame Kiri and Friends-The Gala Concert (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Trailer-Showreel Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	87:03 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:12)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	EMI Music	Starring	Kiri Te Kanawa Malvina Major Simon O'Neill Helen Medlyn
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Audio Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s) Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This disc comprises footage of a concert from the Aotea Centre in Auckland on February 28, 2004. The occasion was a gala evening to launch the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, a charitable organisation devoted to supporting young New Zealand singers and musicians.

    The concert is simply a showcase for Dame Kiri, Dame Malvina Major and a small group of younger Kiwi singers to show off their wares. While Dame Kiri is now 60, her voice has held up remarkably well, with only a slight hardness and lack of flexibility noticeable when moving between notes. Otherwise the notes are pure and clean. Perhaps disappointingly, she is still the best of the singers on display in this concert. Dame Malvina Major is a contemporary of Dame Kiri, also a soprano, and her voice shows some signs of age.

    The two younger singers highlighted here are Simon O'Neill and Helen Medlyn. O'Neill is a baritone turned tenor, and while his performance improves over the course of the concert, he does not have a particularly distinguished instrument. He sings the duet O Soave Fanciulla from La Boheme with Dame Kiri, but unfortunately they manage not to keep in time with one another. Medlyn is as well known as a cabaret singer as on the operatic stage, and her rendition of the Habanera is disappointing in several respects. Her voice is acceptable in the louder passages, but she seems unable to maintain this quality in the softer parts. Her diction seems fine though.

    The concert mainly concentrates on the late-Romantic operatic repertoire, though there are two pieces from Mozart. This being a New Zealand concert, there of course needs to be a song from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as two familiar Kiwi standards. No real harm done, and as everyone seems to be having a good time this is good enough for a viewing or two.

Video

    The concert is presented in the original television aspect ratio of 1.75:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    This is a good transfer, looking no different from any standard definition digital television broadcast, and perhaps slightly better with no significant artefacting. The image is not totally sharp but much better than VHS quality. There is good detail in the well-lit parts of the stage, but none in the darkened areas (which would have been the intention, of course). Brightness and contrast seem about ideal. Colour is also good, though with the lighting being pink, yellow and blue there are few genuine whites and considerable variation in skin tones.

    There are some artefacts present, but nothing seriously distracting. In some of the darker areas of the stage there seems to be some faint low level noise. Several of the stringed instruments in the orchestra show aliasing. There are no film artefacts, being a video recording.

    No subtitles are provided, which is annoying given that none of the songs are in English and the accompanying booklet only has synopses.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted with the layer change placed at 56:12, between tracks so it is barely disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this disc, a Linear PCM stereo track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. I listened to the latter and sampled the former for comparative purposes.

    The first thing I will mention is that the audio is at a higher volume level than normal. I had to turn the volume down significantly to achieve a comfortable listening level and not incur the wrath of my neighbours on a Sunday night, especially given that the programme launches immediately into the music, the first track of which has some thunderous drums. The LPCM track is at a considerably lower volume.

    The only dialogue is sung, apart from one short verbal introduction to a piece. The audio is very good, with the voices well-miked, perhaps too closely as it reveals flaws in the voices. The recording of the Auckland Philharmonia is extremely good, with a great deal of body and presence to the orchestral sound. The surround mix has the soloists coming from the centre channel, though when there is a quartet or chorus the voices are spread across the front channels in an effective manner. There are a lot of low frequency effects, and the subwoofer was kept busy throughout. Even so, the subwoofer did not draw attention to itself, the low frequency material being well-integrated into the overall sound mix. Rear channels were used to envelop the listener in sound rather than to create a realistic ambience. The LPCM track is a little underwhelming by comparison, with much less separation of the voices and orchestra and is less involving..

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailer-Showreel (13:37)

    A series of excerpts from other EMI releases, each concluding by displaying the cover of the DVD.

Booklet

    The 16 page booklet contains information about the Foundation, biographies of the major performers and, for each work in the concert, a context of the work in the storyline of the opera in which it appears. Unfortunately, there are no texts for any of the works.

    This DVD seems to be being released in multiple regions with the same content. There is no reason therefore not to support the local distributor. There is also a highlights CD, which has a smaller selection of material.

    An enjoyable concert if nothing remarkable.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    No substantial extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall