Charlotte Church - Prelude: The Best of Charlotte Church

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, stunning, splendid performance!
Review: ...

Technically, this DVD is superb-video is sharp, clear, colors strong, bright. Audio is clear, flawless. The selections are all taken from DVDs Voice of An Angel, In Jerusalem, Enchantment. Charlotte looks beautiful and exquisite in all the selections.

I have all of Charlotte's DVDs so I have seen all the selections before. But it is good to have a summary of the best on one DVD. I am glad The Lord's Prayer and Ave Marie are included - these two are sung with so much passion by Charlotte. She has the ability to sing songs which are well known and make them her own by putting her own interpretation on them. Bridge over Troubled Waters and Imagine are another two examples of this. Pie Jesu and Habanera are so excellently done, the latter looks so charming.

For Josh Groban's fans, Somewhere and The Prayer with Charlotte would be a reason for buying this DVD.

I do not completely agree with all the selections but this is a small matter. I would have liked the popular "Carrickfergus" and my favorite "If I loved you" to be included. Watch Charlotte's performance in Enchantment when she was singing "If I loved you", in the camera shot from the back of her towards the audience. She was singing her heart out and she raised her left arm and slowly brought it down to express the emotions of the song. You will see the faces of the audience were awestruck as she did this. I have played this song many times and enjoyed this particular performance so much.

One other comment on selection, I would have liked if The Holy City was selected instead of Jerusalem - just my preference. Needless to say, all the other selections were wonderful.

On the bonuses, which are very important, you can hear Charlotte singing Carrickfergus in the background of Video Tour of Cardiff with Charlotte. This partially makes up for the video Carrickfergus not been included in the DVD. Finally, one good bonus one might overlook is the Photo Gallery with Music. This had many lovely and beautiful pictures of Charlotte including pictures from her CDs. This to me was very enjoyable and nice.

Rating:
Summary: Highly disapointing
Review: Charlotte Church is, without question, my favorite vocalist. I was thirteen when I first heard 'Voice of an Angel' and I was hooked. One of the thing I've enjoyed most over the last five years, is hearing her vocal talent improve. Each new CD topples the previous with skill. This look back over Miss Church's career, is really disapointing.
I loved the CD, the first time I heard 'Sancta Maria' (stabding in the music store listening on those [bad] headphones) I actually cried, it was so beautiful. The CD was kind of interesting in that you can hear, song to song, the evolution of her voice, it's especially good if you've never heard Miss Church before. I had hoped that, for the DVD, she would reperform the songs. Instead they are the performances from all her previous DVDs.
What was disapointing was that, along with her voice, she stage skills have evolved. Her early performances are mostly her just standing there, and there are no performances of the new songs. Like I said, I liked the CD (even though I already owned all but three of the songs) but the reason music DVDs are cool is because of the 'live experience'. With half of the performances, you may as well be staring at the CD cover.
I love Miss Church (probably more than I should) but this DVD really feels like a waste. For me, 'Sancta Maria' was worth the [money]for 'Prelude' alone, but the DVD just isn't nearly as entertaining.