Torroja, Ana & Miguel Bose-Girados (2001) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet Discography Featurette-Los Musicos Notes-Prologo Del Concierto Scene Selection Anim & Audio Featurette-Video Corazones
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	119:09 (Case: 130)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Carlos Sánchez
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Ana Torroja Miguel Bosé
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Ana Torroja Miguel Bosé

    Both Miguel Bosé and Ana Torroja are big Latin music stars, but they are virtually unknown here in Australia. Indeed, I searched high and low and could not find a single CD by either of them on sale locally. It was even hard when I was researching both of them on the web using Google to find web sites on either of them in English.

    Therefore it is quite a surprise to see Warner Vision release this DVD, which contains selections from their joint tour called "GiraDos en concierto". Still, I'm glad it was released because I'm a big Spanish music fan and the songs on this disc have so whetted my appetite that I'm thinking of ordering some CDs from each of them on the Internet.

    Miguel Bosé was born in Panama in 1956 and has a career that has spanned 21 albums, roles in more than 35 films, his own television show, and work as a theatre director. Some of you may know him in a role as a cross dresser in Pedro Almodovar's High Heels, but this is very much a concert that showcases his talents as a singer rather than as an actor.

    Similarly, Ana Torroja was born in Madrid in 1959 and is probably more well known as part of the Spanish group Mecano.

    GiraDos is the first concert tour that both of them have taken together - to Spain as well as America (North and South). The songs are excerpts from various concerts held in places like Coruña, Bilbao, Vitoria and Madrid.

    I really really enjoyed the songs here. They are a combination of Ana solos, Miguel solos and duets. At a pinch I would say I prefer Ana's solos but all of them are very listenable even if I don't understand a word of Spanish.

    This is a very hard disc to review because everything on it is in Spanish. All the songs are in Spanish, the dialogue in between songs is in Spanish, and the interview segments with Ana and Miguel in between some of the songs are in Spanish. Even the menu language and DVD packaging/booklet is in Spanish. However, don't let this put you off - just play the concert and get a Spanish speaking friend to join you if you have one.

    The musicians on stage include:

• Javier Quílez (bass and musical director)
• Josep Salvador (guitars and vocals)
• Pedro Andrea (guitars and trumpets)
• Alfonso Pérez (keyboards and vocals)
• Alvaro Peire (keyboards and vocals)
• Angel Celada (not sure - Spanish word is batería)
• Gilson Silveira (percussion)
• Tito Duarte (percussion)
• Helen De Quiroga (background vocals)
• Carla Vallet (background vocals)
• Kiko Velásquez (background vocals)

Video

    This is a full frame NTSC video transfer based on a video source presumably intended for broadcast TV.

    The transfer is rife with MPEG compression artefacts including Gibb's effect ringing, macro blocking, and pixelization.

    In addition, the concert footage is slightly soft, has rather poor black levels and suffers from occasional aliasing plus low level video noise. Detail levels are below average even for a concert video, and the usual video camera artefacts such as over-saturated highlights are present.

    By contrast, the interview segments in between songs have a much sharper transfer but still suffer from compression artefacts.

    I really wish there was an English subtitle track, because I don't understand a word of Spanish, so the stage dialogue and interview segments were wasted on me. Unfortunately, there are no subtitle tracks at all.

    The large number of compression artefacts are probably because the total length of the feature is nearly two hours (119:09) and the video transfer has been crammed onto a single sided single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track on the disc: Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s).

    Even though it is only in stereo, this is pretty much a reference quality audio track. The music sounds quite warm and lush, and yet dynamic. The soundstage is wide and deep, and voices were fairly clear with only a moderate trace of harshness (probably unavoidable given the concert conditions and Dolby Digital encoding).

    The music is well mixed and contains content which extends well into the low and high frequencies. Dialogue seems reasonably clear, though of course I could not understand a single word or lyric.

    The audio track is recorded at a level only slightly softer (about 1-2dB) than a typical music CD. My only complaint is that the the volume level of the interview segments is rather high compared to the music.

    Needless to say, the rear surround channels and subwoofer are not used. However, if you enable Dolby Pro Logic II music mode, I think you will be happy with the results.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The disc starts with two screenfuls of Spanish copyright messages, followed by the Warner Vision intro. Extras on this disc are not substantial, but I wouldn't have thought it was possible to cram any more material onto a single sided single layered disc!

Menu

    The menus are full frame and static. Interestingly, the song selection menus are animated (featuring tiny versions of the excerpts from each song plus background audio).

Booklet

    This is a four page colour booklet containing photos from the concerts, cast & crew credits and track listing.

Discography

    This is a set of stills providing cover art of albums released by:

• Miguel Bosé (25 albums)
• Ana Torroja (6 albums)

Featurette - Los Musicos (3:00)

    This is a duplicate of the segment of the concert where Miguel and Ana are introducing the musicians on stage.

Notes - Prologo Del Concierto

    This contains some text notes from Miguel and Ana introducing the concert.

Featurette - Video Corazones

    This seems to jump to the last song (Corazones) in the concert and the end titles.

    Given that this is an NTSC all region disc, I suspect the R1 and R4 versions are identical.

    Girados en concierto is a selection of songs taken from various concerts in the Girados tour featuring Miguel Bosé and Ana Torroja. I found the songs very pleasant to listen to the video fun to watch, but then I am a fan of Spanish music.

    The video transfer is overly compressed to fit onto a DVD5 disc and features lots of compression artefacts.

    The audio transfer is excellent.

    The extras are not very substantial.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall