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Dom Robinson reviews
Voice of an Angel
Sony Music
- Cat.no: 200962 9
- Cert: E
- Running time: 66 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 11
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Stereo
- Languages: English and Welsh
- Subtitles: None
- Presented in Fullscreen
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Photo Gallery, Biography
Charlotte Church: Voice of an Angelis the 13-year-old Welsh schoolgirl’s debut solo concert, recorded at theBrixton Academy in London on March 2nd and 3rd, 1999.
To date she has released two albums, Voice of an Angel and her recenteponymous album, both of which are rarely out of the Top 10 classical CDcharts, as well as a recent single, Just Wave Hello, which reachedNo.31. Couple this with an appearance in an episode of Heartbeat andperformances in front of Prince Charles, Pope John Paul II and many others,Charlotte is definitely one singing sensation whose star is in the ascendancy.
This disc also includes behind-the-scenes footage as part of the main featureand offers a glimpse into the life of this new talent.
The picture quality of this disc is certainly up to Sony’s usual standard.Free of artifacts, the lighting and colours of the concert are used to fulleffect and allowed to breathe perfectly. The average bitrate is a very good7.75Mb/s, frequently peaking over 9Mb/s. Given that the concert is infullscreen, the disc is obviously not anamorphic – a process used for printswith a ratio of 16:9 or wider which allows extra resolution on widescreentelevisions.
The sound, with options for Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1, is crystal clear too,just as required and contains eleven songs including Charlotte’s signaturetune “Pie Jesu” most recently featured in The Royle Family‘s Xmas specialon Denise’s birthing tape, plus “Danny Boy” and “When At Night I Go ToSleep”.
Extras. : Chapters :There are 13 chapters, one for each song as well as backstage footage.The track listing is as follows :
1. Meet Charlotte Church
2. Panis Angelicus
3. The Lord’s Prayer
4. Mae Hiraeth Yn Y Mor (There’s Longing in the Sea)
5. In Trutina
6. Pie Jesu
7. Danny Boy
8. My Lagan Love
9. Suo-Gan
10. Y Gylfinir (The Curlew)
11. When At Night I Go To Sleep
12. Men Of Harlech
13. Charlotte Church Backstage
Languages & Subtitles :As states before, the sound is in Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1, but as youcan see from the track listing, not all the songs are in English and thereare no subtitles. Photo Gallery :Twelve pictures over four pages, mostly taken from the concert or publicity shots. Biography :At three pages long it’s fairly brief, but gives a summary of Charlotte’s rise to fame todate, most of it being sleeve notes taken from her first album. Menu :
The menu is static and functional, albeit a little bland.
Overall, this is a brilliant concert, albeit rather a short one but it’s stilllonger than the 40-minute version screened in November on BBC1. Any fans ofMs. Church will definitely want to watch this disc, but it’s also worth a lookfor anyone who wants to try out a good quality disc.FILM : ****PICTURE QUALITY: *****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ****
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Check out theSony Music DVD Web siteand the officialCharlotte Church Web site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.