Riverdance : Live from Radio City Music Hall, NY

• Cat.no: VCD 0001
• Cert: E
• Running time: 115 minutes
• Year: 1996
• Pressing: 1998
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 10 (6/4) plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Stereo 2.0
• Languages: English
• Widescreen: 16:9
• 16:9 Enhanced: Yes
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Act I & II, Behind The Scenes, Riverdance: The Story, Biographies
  

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  Composer:

  Bill Whelan

Director :

Cast :

Jean Butler
Colin Dunne
Maria Pages
The Riverdance Irish Dance Troupe
The Riverdance Orchestra
The Riverdance Singers
The Moscow Folk Ballet Company
Tarik Winston
Daniel B. Wooten
Eileen Ivers
Ivan Thomas

Riverdance: The Showis a celebration of Irish dance, music and song.The show focuses on the evolution of Irish dance and its similarities with -and influence on – other cultures. The phenomenon of Riverdance draws on Irishtraditions and combines the richness of the music with the magic and sensualityof the dance.

Moya Doherty produced Riverdance as a spectacular seven-minuteintermission entertainment for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest televisedthroughout Europe to an audience of over 300 million viewers. Following thesuccess of that performance, Moya, together with composer Bill Whelanand director John McColgan expanded the piece into a full-length stageproduction.

Riverdance: The Show opened at the Point Theatre in Dublin, 1995, to unanimouscritical acclaim. This extraordinary unique show, which won the 1997 GrammyAward, “Best Musical Show Album” for composer Bill Whelan, features aninternational company that has taken the world by storm.

The picture quality on view here is mostly very good and better than VCI’sHellraiser and Shawshank Redemption, but there is a constantpresence of artifacts which aren’t too prevalent but they’re like cue-dots ona cinema film print when a reel change is imminent – most of the viewing publicwon’t notice them, but once you do you won’t always let them out of your sight.The worst I saw came at the end of the “Behind The Scenes”.

Sometimes the print on show is superb and the 16:9 framing is perfectlycomposed, not to mention the fact that this disc is also 16:9-enhanced forwidescreen television sets.

What’s this? A widescreen disc from VCI? Yes and it looks all the better forit. If only their other releases so far had been widescreen (not too sureabout Cliff Richard’s Heathcliff as that might have been filmed in 4:3)then we could be looking at a more impressive collection than we have,“Les Miserables” in particular since the back of that particular titlestates it was “Made in association with the BBC, NHK, Primetime Television,Sky Television, VCI and the 16:9 Action Plan of the European Union”.

One thing that could have been avoided is that this disc is dual-sided ratherthan dual-layered so you have to turn it over half-way through. Still, at leastthis comes inbetween the two acts.

The sound comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Stereo format and comes acrossvery clear at all times. I cannot compare the DD 5.1 soundtrack as I don’t havethe necessary equipment, although if you select it when you only have a Surroundor Pro-Logic amp attached, it will be downmixed to Dolby Surround.