Rating: 
Summary: Great emotional experience
Review: The Irish Tenors have a lot of talent and their plain spoken ways are refreshing. The two concerts and the background interviews on the DVD provide a great value for those interested in Irish music. I found several of the pieces emotionally charged and I appreciated their performance.
Rating:
Summary: Great emotional experience
Review: The Irish Tenors have a lot of talent and their plain spoken ways are refreshing. The two concerts and the background interviews on the DVD provide a great value for those interested in Irish music. I found several of the pieces emotionally charged and I appreciated their performance.
Rating: 
Summary: A definite favorite
Review: This DVD has become staple watching and listening fare in our household, from myself and my wife down through all the children to our four-year-old son, whose favorite song is now "Grace" and who runs around the house singing "...and we'll all go together, to pick wild mountain thyme" from "Go, Lassie, Go" at the top of his lungs.It is fantastic to have both the Belfast & Dublin concerts together on one DVD with the live concert dead time (pardon the pun) between selections minimized. It is hard to imagine, from the robust and polished (virtually operatic, with the exception of John McDermott, whose presentation is much more suited to popular song than to opera or lieder), that in addition to the many traditional Irish songs, some of these are modern popular ballads. For example, I find Finbar Wright's rendition of the Isle of Inisfree vastly superior to (certainly much more classically styled than) the original version actually in the movie from which it was taken (The Quiet Man). This, of course, is testimony not only to the skill and training that went into developing these voices, but also to the skill and stylistic presentation of the arranger/conductor (Frank McNamara). This is definitely a five-star production. I have to rate it four stars, however, only because the more I listened, the more I wished that the producers of the DVD (not the concerts) had included one or both of these two things: 1) a printed insert containing the poets' and/or composers' names, the stories behind the poetry, or at least the lyrics themselves or 2) the lyrics as optional subtitles on the DVD itself. I found myself searching the Internet for the lyrics to and stories behind almost all the selections. The interviews in the bonus material are a good start, but this is Irish music, after all, and every poem has a story that demands an emotional response in its own right, even setting aside the superb performances. Besides all of this, it looked like the artists were just plain enjoying themselves; as much as I enjoy the original Three Tenors (Domingo/Carreras/Paverotti), I find this much more natural and fun.
Rating:
Summary: A definite favorite
Review: This DVD has become staple watching and listening fare in our household, from myself and my wife down through all the children to our four-year-old son, whose favorite song is now "Grace" and who runs around the house singing "...and we'll all go together, to pick wild mountain thyme" from "Go, Lassie, Go" at the top of his lungs. It is fantastic to have both the Belfast & Dublin concerts together on one DVD with the live concert dead time (pardon the pun) between selections minimized. It is hard to imagine, from the robust and polished (virtually operatic, with the exception of John McDermott, whose presentation is much more suited to popular song than to opera or lieder), that in addition to the many traditional Irish songs, some of these are modern popular ballads. For example, I find Finbar Wright's rendition of the Isle of Inisfree vastly superior to (certainly much more classically styled than) the original version actually in the movie from which it was taken (The Quiet Man). This, of course, is testimony not only to the skill and training that went into developing these voices, but also to the skill and stylistic presentation of the arranger/conductor (Frank McNamara). This is definitely a five-star production. I have to rate it four stars, however, only because the more I listened, the more I wished that the producers of the DVD (not the concerts) had included one or both of these two things: 1) a printed insert containing the poets' and/or composers' names, the stories behind the poetry, or at least the lyrics themselves or 2) the lyrics as optional subtitles on the DVD itself. I found myself searching the Internet for the lyrics to and stories behind almost all the selections. The interviews in the bonus material are a good start, but this is Irish music, after all, and every poem has a story that demands an emotional response in its own right, even setting aside the superb performances. Besides all of this, it looked like the artists were just plain enjoying themselves; as much as I enjoy the original Three Tenors (Domingo/Carreras/Paverotti), I find this much more natural and fun.
Rating:
Summary: Great music--great performers
Review: This is a great DVD for the fan of the tenors. It is nice to have both concerts and the interviews were great. You should be aware that John Mcdermott's Danny Boy, and the group's Amazing Grace have been cut--much to my disappointment. One of the promos I saw indicated that there was previously unseen material--which I had taken to be some more songs from the performances. There is nothing in the concerts that is not on the videos. Also, I know that Finbar had sung Maggie at the Belfast concert because it was on the PBS broadcast. I'm guessing there may be some other songs that were done at the concert that are not on the recordings. The short gaps on the Belfast VHS video are still there on the DVD and it seems to me that these could have been smoothed out. John McDermott should have been included--at least on the written bios if not on the interviews. He is after all one of the original tenors and in fact was the first one selected for the group. In spite of these drawbacks, I'm still giving this 5 stars simply because the quality of the picture and sound are great and bios of Ronan, Anthony, Finbar, and Frank were interesting, and the interviews were a wonderful touch. And the music is marvelous!
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