Pavarotti-The Event (1990) (NTSC)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Opera	Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	87:33
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Antonello Falqui
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Luciano Pavarotti Andrea Griminelli Leone Magiera
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Various

    The DVD is more properly entitled (according to the opening credits anyway) as "Luciano Pavarotti in Concerto" followed by "Gran Gala in onore dei partecipanti alla XIV Edizione della Coppa del Mondo di Calcio" which I suppose loosely translates from Italian into "Gala concert held to celebrate the participants of the 15th World Cup Soccer."

    Luciano Pavarotti of course needs no introduction, being quite possibly the world's most famous living tenor - with a string of operas, concerts and recordings to his name. His career is almost over by now, but this performance captures him when his singing voice was still quite respectable though of course not as silky smooth as in the 70s.

    Although this is billed as a Pavarotti concert, the orchestra gets to play two "instrumental" overtures, and guest star Andrea Griminelli plays the flute accompanied by orchestra for two songs. Tenor and flautist even join for a "duet" in "Occhi di Fata." The orchestra, which is not credited, appears to be conducted by Leone Magiera.

    Pavarotti descends into popular crowd pleasers such as O Sole Mio! and Torna a Surriento for two of his supposed six encores. The night ends somewhat fittingly with the over-played Nessun Dorma from Turandot.

    The track listing is:

• G. Donizetti, Ouverture dal Don Pasquale (orchestra)
• G. Donizetti, Quanto e' bella, quanto e' cara! (from L'Elisir d'Amore)
• G. Donizetti, Una furtiva lagrima (from L'Elisir d'Amore)
• W.A. Mozart, Andante in do magg. K 315 (flute and orchestra)
• G. Donizetti, Tombe degli avi miei... Fra poco a me ricovero (from Lucia di Lammermoor)
• G. Verdi, Le mia letizia infondere (from I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata)
• J. Massenet, Pourquoi me reveiller (from Werther)
• G. Puccini, Recondita armonia (from Tosca)
• G. Puccini, E lucevan le stelle (from Tosca)
• Bizet-borne, Carmen Fantasy (flute and orchestra)
• R. Leoncavallo, Vesti la guibba (from I Pagliacci)
• G. Rossini, Ouverture da Semiramide (orchestra)
• P. Mascagni, La serenata
• G. Sibella, Girometta
• L. Denza, Occhi di Fata
• G. Puccini, Addio fiorito asil (from Madama Butterfly)
• E. Di Capua, O sole Mio!
• C. A. Bixio, La mia canzone al vento
• E. De Curtis, Torna A Surrentio
• G. Puccini, Nessun dorma (from Turandot)

Video

    The transfer is in NTSC full frame and looks like it was intended for broadcast TV.

    The transfer appears to have been taken from an analogue video source that is not in prime condition, as several video artefacts such as colour bleeding and overmodulation are present. This is then accentuated through edge enhancement.

    Detail levels are consistent with videotape technology of the era (1990) and colour saturation is variable. In fact, both luminance and colour saturation seem to shift from time to time. This is throughout the transfer - an example of shifts in colour saturation occurs around 3:30. Fortunately, I did not notice significant instances of compression artefacts.

    There appears to be an empty subtitle track encoded on the disc. I did not notice any subtitles, apart from captions of the titles of the arias/musical pieces which are burned into the video stream.

    This is a single sided, single layered disc.

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: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s).

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track appears to be a stereo mix artificially enhanced for 5.1, based on the age of the source material. The rear speakers are mainly used for ambience.

    Both tracks are quire disappointing and unsatisfying, if you love your opera loud and dramatic, but acceptable if you are not very fussy.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 is mixed at a very low level (about 8dB below that of a typical CD) and sound rather dull and uninvolving. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds brighter than the 2.0 track, but is rather hissy.

    Both tracks exhibit "cracking" on loud passages and have strident midranges. There is a persistent low level hum present throughout the entire duration of the feature.

    The LFE track is used lightly to boost the low frequencies in the 5.1 track.

    There is no dialogue present, but Pavarotti's enunciation is ... well ... his usual self. As mentioned before, his voice tends to "crack" at loud volumes - this is not his fault but the audio transfer. Fortunately, I did not notice any audio synchronization issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras present on this disc.

Menu

    The menu is full frame, but includes background audio and animation.

    The disc appears to be the same across R1, R2 and R4.

    Pavarotti - The Event is a gala concert featuring Luciano Pavarotti held to celebrate the 15th World Cup Soccer. Pavarotti sings a selection of opera arias as well as some popular Italian songs.

    The video transfer is from an analogue video source and is mediocre.

    Likewise the audio transfer is mediocre to poor.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall