Customer Rating:  
Summary: Wonderful voice, wonderful views
Comment: I first heard of Sarah Brightman in September 1997, while looking for a good restaurant in Fort William, in Scotland's Highlands. I was then a French professor in France and was enjoying the last two of my well deserved ten weeks summer (paid!) vacations. As I passed by one of the many shops on Main Street, I heard a wonderful voice singing "Time to Say Goodbye". Great aficionado of feminine voices since I had discovered Nana Mouskouri when I was a student at the Sorbonne in the 1960s, I entered immediately, wrote the CD reference on my PSION 3C Organizer and... bought it during my following Christmas vacations in Miami, where I paid half as much as the European price!
After ten years of listening regularly to this great CD, I saw the publicity on PBS about Sarah Brightman's DVD called "Diva". I immediately ordered it from Amazon and, three days later, I was enjoying it on my $128 Chinese 20 inch stereo TV.
I was first disappointed when I saw a distinguished English lady (young Sarah with some extra moons on her shoulders) talking, talking, talking, explaining the circumstances of creation for the first song. My exasperation grew when I saw that the same procedure was repeated before each new clip! I think that they should have dissociated the history or technical data from the performance, as they do in other DVDs like those wonderful masterpieces called "Celtic Woman", "Dr. Zhivago" with Omar Sharif or Andy Garcia's superb "The Lost City": true, well documented, sentimental, this outstanding masterpiece has been boycotted by the movie industry for political motives. Another reason why everybody should buy it as I did! On September 19, 2008 Amazon sells it for only $11.49, which is an incredible bargain for a masterpiece! Furthermore, it's eligible for free shipping!
Eventually, you will either get used to this useful "bavardage" or will just hit the fast advance or the "next chapter" button twice in order to see the following clip without the explanations.
The first song is "Pie Jesu" that Sarah sings with a young boy whose name is not printed on the jacket, and a choir off camera, while we see rescuers searching for survivors in the rubble after a terrorist attack. This reminded me of Alfred de Vigny's verse: "J'aime la majesté des souffrances humaines" "I love the majesty of human sufferings"
This is followed by the "Phantom of the Opera" and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again": a touching story of a little girl missing her dead father, which is staged in a London graveyard in January.
"Amigos Para Siempre" is a masterpiece created for the end of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992. Sarah sings this number with José Carreras while we see views of the Olympic Games in colors and black and white, as well as a Barcelonan old stone building at night.
Song number 5, "Captain Nemo" shows beautiful overlapping images forming a strange ballet of shadows, shapes and colors. It is followed by "A Question of Honor", which begins like a classic, Orphean piece, but which soon deviates into modern pop music that is not my cup of tea. It ends as it had started, nice and sweetly, and Sarah's great soprano voice is here at her best.
"How Can Heaven love me", song number 7, alternates those horrible discotheque-type blinking (and blinding!) flash lights and images of imprisonment, suffering, torture and war. There is even a nuclear mushroom. A real torture for the eyes! To say that this is not the best number would be an understatement...
The eighth song is another masterpiece, the one that hooked me in Scotland back in September 1997: "Time to Say Goodbye". As in the CD, she sings it with Andrea Bocelli in an interior setting filmed in sepia color.
This is followed by "Just Show Me How to Love You" (another song from my original CD) with tenor José Cura. Here, we have images in black and white of a young couple lightly dressed and apparently living in big boxes on the streets of Paris. Beautiful images of the embraced couple and several Parisian buildings and monuments. After all, France has the reputation of being the country of love...
"Eden" is song number 10. It begins with a choir of men evoking medieval Gregorian Chants alternating later with Sarah while strange, surrealistic images, fill the screen.
"Who Wants to Live Forever" (also in my first CD) is another masterpiece that erases the horrible souvenir of the seventh song. Colorful, poetic images enhancing Sarah's beauty in a natural setting are a blessing for the eyes.
Song number 12 is "Deliver Me", that Sarah sings with a choir of African women while the view of the stage alternates with touching images of African animals in their natural environment; a real delight for the eyes.
"Anytime, Anywhere" begins with the famous "Concierto de Aranjuez" but very soon Arabic drums fill the background, introducing a strange tonality that the original doesn't have. Joaquin Rodrigo must be jumping in his grave! But the video was turned in a beautiful Arabic palace of Seville that reminded me of my visit to the Alhambra of Granada in 1967.
"Nella Fantasia" (No. 14) was originally Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for "The Mission" (1986). Sarah finally obtained his permission to put words to it and this is now a very well known song, wonderfully interpreted by a heavenly group called "Celtic Woman" in their first DVD. You may read my review of their outstanding second DVD ("A New Journey") on February 5, 2007 in Amazon's site. From time to time, there is a male ballet dancer on stage alternating with enchanting, romantic images of a beautiful young Sarah.
Song number 15, "Whiter Shade of Pale", is staged on the Moon's surface with the Earth in the background. It is followed by "Ave Maria", that Sarah had the awkward idea of singing naked (but don't get excited: you won't see much!) like a young voiceless "singer" of today who has to take off her clothes in order to catch the public's attention! Sarah doesn't need that! As a matter of fact, this "Eva's apparel" would seem more appropriate for the following songs: "Kama Sutra" or "Harem" but that's the way it is.
"Kama Sutra", the famous Indian sex instruction manual from the second century BC, follows Virgin Mary... Images of an Arabic couple in tender poses in an Arabic interior alternate with Sarah's face.
After the sex handbook, here comes the "Harem", also staged in a beautiful Arabic palace with the prince and his women performing belly dances. Nothing is missing, not even a couple of camels at sunset!
The following song, "Free" (No. 19), is filmed in Marrakech, in a beautiful courtyard with a center fountain and young women sitting around it. Lovely alternating images show Sarah by the ocean, in the desert, at sunset, etc.
"Diva" ends with two more songs: "Starship Troopers" and an "Encore": "Music of the Night". If you liked "Star Wars" (I believe there is more than one?) you may appreciate "Starship Troopers". But since I never saw it (I only tolerate "science fiction" in Jules Verne's or Ray Bradbury's books), I will pass this number...
Finally, song number 21, "Music of the Night", takes place on stage with the orchestra in a bluish background. Wonderful, sentimental song charged with emotion that compensates the preceding "Troopers". For the first time since the beginning, there is no other image than Sara singing on stage. You won't miss them.
With the exception of a couple of numbers "dans le vent" that I didn't really like, I love this film that offers the wonderful voice of Sarah Brightman and enchanting, great views most of the time. Without the extreme pain caused by song number 7, with more information on the jacket and with all the talking separated from the songs, I would have certainly given five stars to this globally excellent DVD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't Hesitate To Buy!!
Comment: Fantastic is Only One Word Of Many For This Dvd!! It Will Put Chills Down
Your Spine!! One Of The Best Choices I Made!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: a collection of great music videos
Comment: I first bought Andrew Lloyd Webber's video collection on VHS and enjoyed Sara Brightman. Later, I fell in love with Andrea Bocelli-Sara's duet, Con te Partiro. Since then, I sometimes avoid Sara because she seems somewhat contrived in her style and voice element. BUT; this is a great collection of good songs and beautiful visual imagery.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's Sarah... What More Can I Say?
Comment: I really like this DVD. Unfortunately, the visual quality is lacking luster. I was priviledged to be attending her Live in Las Vegas recording. In fact you can hear me yelling at the top of my lungs a time or two in the recording. This DVD, on the other hand, doesn't have the same excitement the LinLV recordng does. I am a die hard Sarah B fan... but this is not the best Video of her out there. Do I regret buying it? Heck no! Would I buy it again? No.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fabulous retrospective of Sarah's cinematic flair
Comment: Pop soprano Sarah Brightman may be best known for her role as Christine in Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, but she's been the star of the small screen through her long-reaching music video career, beginning with Hot Gossip (I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper) in the late 1970s.
Released to coincide with her Diva: The Singles Collection CD, Diva: The Video Collection features twenty music videos spanning Sarah's solo career, along with Sarah's introductions to each video. Some have been previously released on VHS, such as Amigos Para Siempre, Pie Jesu, Phantom of the Opera, and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, all of which appeared on Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Premiere Collection Encore. But this is the first time I've seen any of her Dive- and Fly-era videos (Captain Nemo, A Question of Honour, How Can Heaven Love Me?.
Over half of the collection is from her Eden, La Luna, and Harem offerings. The Harem videos were previously available on Sarah Brightman: Harem: A Desert Fantasty, a sort of music video promo DVD that preceded her Harem concert DVD filmed in Las Vegas. The videos for Harem in particular are very sensual, with Eastern musical (and visual) cues. Her decision to wear revealing clothing well into middle age shows chutzpah (see: Ave Maria, in which she sings the song wearing nothing but a tiny gold lace thong and patches of gold body paint, but hey, I hope I look that good at her age!) With Sarah, her skimpy outfits in recent videos come off as artistic and classy, not crass.
Sarah can certainly come off as campy (she has a large following as she tends to be a larger-than-life diva), such as her first video Starship Troopers. For some inexplicable reason, instead of airing the original in all its camp horror, the producers decided to cut the footage with clips from the movie Starship Trooper. It really ruins the continuity, but the song is still fun (supposedly, Brightman hated to acknowledge that she recorded it when fans would want autographed Starship Trooper LPs). Also, some of the early computer CGI effects are truly laughable (A Question of Honor). Die-hard Sarah fans will want to rush out and add this to their collection, but casual fans will be better off renting it (once was enough for many of the videos).
It's a fun look at Sarah's ever-changing styles across a fruitful solo career as the best-selling classical crossover female artist. Even the DVD itself is beautifully designed, as is the insert.
|
