Charlotte Church-Dream a Dream: Charlotte Church in the Holy Land (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Discography Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	49:11 (Case: 46)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Kriss Russman
Studio Distributor	Sony Classical Sony Music	Starring	Charlotte Church London Symphony Orchestra
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Various

    The original CD was recorded in London with the London Symphony Orchestra (the Le Zoe for any Les Patterson fans out there), while the DVD has opted for a Biblical theme by being filmed in and around the city of Bethlehem. Interspersed amongst the songs are 4 fleetingly brief documentary-style outings that attempt to "explore", in the words of the cover, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Amongst these are shots of Charlotte on a donkey, a camel and inside the Chapel of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus is reputed to have been born. The concert itself is filmed inside the Dormition Abbey, but I'm convinced that it is done entirely to the backing of the London studio recording. I say this because of the lack of any microphones, the rather apparent lip-sync problems that recur throughout, the inadequacy of the orchestra to produce the sound that's being played and the lack of any reverberation in this ancient temple.

    If you're a big fan of Charlotte Church, you might as well skip this next section, because you won't want to read my nitpicking comments.

    Given my background in classical singing, my wife told me that I should put my hand up for this disc. In the event, I think I shouldn't have. It's not that Charlotte Church is bad. In fact, she has a remarkably rich and well-controlled classically-trained voice. I suppose the vast majority of people who form the audience for this sort of thing would describe Charlotte as "lovely". Yes, much of the time the voice production sounds very pure, and she displays considerable depth across her entire, fairly considerable, range. However, there are also many examples when the 16 year old voice that's lurking in there somewhere shows though, and at these times the voice loses its richness and comes across a little flat. With a few more years training and experience, even these problems are sure to disappear.

    Maybe I'm being too critical. Listening again to her singing as I type this, I have to admit that she's pretty good. Perhaps my real complaint is with the histrionics that characterize her performance. In short, there is far too much shoulder lifting (breathe to the top of the chest, not to the shoulders!!!), head waving, arm pointing and body swaying. And glitter in the hair. Come on Charlotte - either you're a serious classical singer or you're not. Leave all that other stuff to Hi-5. I know that I'm probably in a tiny minority in these comments, but I spent years being taught to interpret music through the voice. Sure, opera allows scope for real acting and even the concert stage allows some other possibilities, but not of the type going on here.

    Perhaps this type of performance is what's required to satisfy the television viewers who are expected to rush out the following morning to buy the CD, or now the DVD. I'd rather appreciate a singer for their voice, not for their body language.

Video

    In external scenes the picture shows up quite well, at or above broadcast standard. Clarity is good, and colours are life-like. Graininess is a constant feature but is not overly intrusive. The problem is that these scenes are well-and-truly in the minority, with the bulk of the show filmed inside a supposedly candlelit chapel. It is here, in this low light environment, that video has difficulty. Grain increases with a subsequent loss of clarity, shadow detail is difficult to make out and colours lose their vibrancy.

    Don't misinterpret these comments - all of this is handled extremely well under the circumstances, and the effect is quite acceptable. The many close-ups of Charlotte show ample picture quality with little loss of resolution. The show of candle light produces a distinct browny-yellow effect that adds to the atmosphere of the location. The pink costume she wears provides a good contrast to the scene. The chapel background is clear enough despite the lighting conditions, even though the fine detail of the floors and the wall paintings don't comes through. The biggest problem is with long shots or wide shots of the orchestra - these do suffer from considerable loss of sharpness.

    There are no compression artefacts to be seen, but given the length of the feature it would be crime if any were apparent. The video source adds enough fuzziness and shimmer so that few other artefacts are visible. Aliasing is a fairly common problem as the camera pans across the many music stands set around the orchestra.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Charlotte Church's voice is crystal clear on this recording, as it should be. Fans of her singing will certainly not be disappointed. The audio sync is always very close but if, as I suspect, the whole audio track was actually recorded in London, the evidence is available in significant volumes in the many minor faults in Charlotte's lip syncing. With all her other arm-waving, etc, this might be dismissed by her followers.

    The surround channels are used essentially for added atmosphere and are in keeping with the location in an ancient chapel. They are not used aggressively. There is considerable bass provided by the soundtrack but it comes primarily via the main front speakers.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Discography

Photo Gallery

Biography

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall