Charlotte Church - Voice of an Angel in Concert

Starring:Charlotte Church, Prince Charles
Director: David Mallet
Studio: Sony
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Among the more charming--and improbable--of pre-millennial success stories is the left-field crossover triumph for this Welsh soprano, 12 years old at the time of her debut, and still on the near side of her teens in this concert video derived from a hit PBS special. At a time when "teeny pop" reigns over MTV and radio playlists, Church's serene program of Welsh and Irish folk airs, devotional hymns, and generally tranquil classical melodies gives alternative music an entirely new meaning.

Then again, it's just possible that Church's very appeal rests on the delicate balance between the unapologetic sweetness of her music and the unforced girlishness she flashes between songs, rare qualities indeed against the harsher foil of sexualized pop culture. Given the degree to which various predecessors, from Brenda Lee to Tanya Tucker to LeAnn Rimes, have been groomed to transmit a precocious "maturity," Church's virginal typecasting may be methodically anachronistic, but at least it offers a calming refuge from the mixed messages and soft-core spin offered by Britney Spears.

Amazon.com

Among the more charming--and improbable--of pre-millennial success stories is the left-field crossover triumph for this Welsh soprano, 12 years old at the time of her debut, and still on the near side of her teens in this concert video derived from a hit PBS special. At a time when "teeny pop" reigns over MTV and radio playlists, Church's serene program of Welsh and Irish folk airs, devotional hymns, and generally tranquil classical melodies gives alternative music an entirely new meaning.

Customer Reviews:

Best Ever!.......2006-11-10

An absolutely spellbounding performance! What a voice on such a young girl!

Remessa para o Brasil.......2005-07-21

Amazon esta de parabéns.... tudo foi perfeito

A Receita Federal Brasileira sobre taxou os DVD's em 60%, mesmo contrariando o artigo segundo da lei de importação abaixo de US$50,00..... mas tudo bem, foi para ajudar a pagar o Mensalão do Governo.

An Angel Indeed.......2004-04-04

Charlotte Church will hopefully remain one of the voices of the future. She is a remarable talent proving that today's young people are capable of great things besides hip hop and rap. Without seeing her perform, it would be hard to realize that such a magnificent voice came out of someone so young. She is the essence of youth untouched by the drugs, booze, and sex emulating from today's modern music culture. She is a refreshing change from the stale, everybody sounds alike music of our supposedly dominate society.

A distant shadow of a beauty.......2003-12-24

Ok folks, I thought I`d just be fair here:

First, I simply can`t understand why there is so many people outthere that are so extremely fond of this signer. Her voice sound very mature for her age, and she looks pretty average, too - at 14 or so, she allready looked like a young woman. While she had a distant (she looked already ruther mature than) foretaste of a child prodigy at her very first debut on this album, she eventually grow out of this status few years later. What could, *could* make her a slight point of interest, was the fact that she allready at 12 attempted to sing professional arias and songs thus being a child prodigy, is now no more. She growed up, and being in her 17`s, she doesn`t look like a child anylonger. Her voice and especially her technique, however, seem to be unchanged and that is, in my opinion, one of her gratest disadvantages up to date. Without a slightest exaggeration, her voice have a great portion of terrible shrillness, often forced and nasal notes, that are mostly harsh and unpleasant to the ear. While it`s true that it have some sort of mysterious freshness and purety about it, though ruther distant, it is at the same time obvious that her technique seem incomplete, her style outdated and weard - her voice, with few and infrequent notes of beauty and melowness, is mostly violently penetrating and uneven. It`s enourmous luminosity and harshness is striking to the extreme - and it gives more pain to the ears, ruther than satisfaction. To summoraze it all, I want to conclude saying that while I find the voice of Charlotte Church to be ruther curious and beautiful, at the same time, I find her technique poor at best and terrible in general - if she doesn`t change her technique, she may never have a right to claim that she sings in a true classic style. No way.

Cheers.

Charlotte Church is divine in her first solo concert.......2003-12-03

I absolutely adore Charlotte Church. However much some people belittle her talent or claim she is being manipulated by people who are going to ruin her voice, she is a star of stars in my eyes. She truly does have the voice of an angel; it's the most beautiful voice I've ever heard. This DVD is a special treat indeed because it allows us to hear and see Charlotte at the very beginning of her professional career. She had already topped the classical charts with her debut album, and now, mere days after her thirteenth birthday, she gave her first true concert, backed up by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus - and we can all be there time and again with the 5000 or so fans physically in attendance that night. The music is fantastic, Charlotte is as charming as she can be, and an inside look at her life at home and her preparation for the concert show us a perfectly normal child who just happens to have a magical voice.

After a short introductory piece, Charlotte walks out on stage with no sign of nerves whatsoever. She brings a couple of friends with her, a white stuffed bear and a shaking critter whom she likens to her Dad before the show (as he was obviously more nervous than Charlotte was about her big night). Every trace of the adorable little child disappears once she stands before the mike, though. She leads off with Panis Angelicus, and the transformation from excited youngster to world-class soprano is amazing; while Charlotte always shows her love for what she does, she also reveals her serious commitment to each song in her whole demeanor. After each song, her youthful nature shines forth in smiles and laughs, but her seriousness never relents until the orchestra plays the final note of each song. She sings eleven songs in all in this concert performance, ten of which come from her Voice of an Angel CD, backed up by a huge orchestra and sizeable chorus. Her delivery of The Lord's Prayer is impeccable and soul-stirring, even more so in the light of the attack on 9/11 and another singer's moving rendition of the song during the national memorial service following the tragedy. Danny Boy is also a beautiful song; Charlotte's version of this song is respectfully somber but not quite as mournful as most renditions I have heard.

The Welsh songs are particularly lovely, possessing a nature that really draws me into each song even though I have no idea what Charlotte is singing about. My Lagan Love, Suo-Gan, and Y Gylfinir (The Curlew) - one of the Three Welsh Bird Songs from her debut album - are quite magical. Her friend Gwilym Evans joins her for two songs: Charlotte's signature song Pie Jesu and When at Night I Go to Sleep; his high voice blends well with Charlotte's, but he appears far more nervous than Charlotte was. Charlotte's final song of the evening closes the night out in grand, exciting style, as the London Welsh Male Voice Choir joins her in a stirring rendition of Men of Harlech (the one song here that you won't find on her debut CD).

The concert is fairly short, but it is followed by a wonderful look at the real Charlotte Church. We get visions of both her family and school life, showing Charlotte trying to juggle homework in between interviews for television, newspapers, and magazines from all over the world. She and her mother look to have a loving and fun relationship, and Charlotte is as proud of her family as they are of her. The little girl in her is clear to see, as evidenced by a huge stuffed animal collection and her innocent zest for life, and it is reinforced by her mother's descriptions of her sulking prowess. Charlotte is refreshingly normal and down-to-earth, and she makes it clear that she is singing and performing because that is what she loves and wants to do forever; in no way is anyone manipulating her into doing anything she doesn't want to do.