Libera Dreams

john45 wrote:

JimmyRiddle wrote: There's a few bits of oddities with the editing of the video... for example rolling the end credits over 'Song of Life' and having the standing ovation at the end of 'Sanctus'. Maybe those who haven't read the reviews from last year will be none-the-wiser but I would have preferred for them to capture the reaction at the right moment. I think they cut some of the applause down too so we only catch it when it's winding down, and some of the audience are shown to be not as engaged as they obviously were.

More than a few oddities Jimmy. In fact, for those of us who were there the production is somewhat of a travesty. Why mess with the song order? Why relegate three of the best tracks to the bonus section and leave out “I vow to thee…” altogether? Why falsify the audience reaction? The standing ovation was not after Sanctus. Nor was Sanctus the final song. The applause for “Ave Maria” was the longest and loudest of the night. Why do they show only polite applause? On the practice night even the orchestra joined in. The camera work for “Morning has Broken” and “Wayfaring Stranger” totally fails to truly capture the dramatic staging and lighting effects. Credits shown over “Song of Life” is just plain rude. The sound is good, there were some nice close-ups and the boys’ performance could not be faulted. However, the production and editing could have been much better.

John, I agree with your concerns. It would appear that the PBS edit is what ultimately became the main concert file of the DVD/Blu-ray. It seems that this was originally edited so that, with pledge drive breaks, it worked out to be an hour and a half (55 min without breaks) which is why the credits rolled over one the songs - the alternative would be one less song, which we wouldn't want. So I think that they had to remove 3 songs on the PBS edit to make it fit into the appropriate TV slot, which is why three songs are a bonus on the disc.

Why those particular songs were removed from the PBS broadcast version or the song order changed, I have no idea; especially "Ave Maria". But it is fair to note that most live performance recordings of this nature do not leave the song order intact. This is an artistic decision by those editing this stuff so as to improve the "flow" of the concert; what works in a live performance may not work on DVD or TV broadcast when people are watching on their sofa in their slippers. When you or I watch this DVD we are reliving the live concert we so greatly enjoyed, but not everyone is. I'm not saying I know why they did it or even agree with the decision, but it's a common practice to do so.

As for the standing ovation, I think they wanted to show the standing ovation during the concert itself, not during rolling credits. I agree with you about that being a bad choice, but I guess I'm trying to understand the thinking of those who did this work.

While the above can be attributed to artistic decisions (good or bad), there was definitely some obvious sloppiness in details like spelling the boys names correctly in the rolling credits. Did you know that Lucas' last name is actually "Woo"? Or that Bertie's name is actually "Mertramo" (poor Mertie ) And apparently Alessandro's name has 2 l's and only one s. Sam Leggett's name was misspelled also. There may be other errors I didn't catch quite so readily. While mistakes like that are trivial in the grand scheme of things they do show some inattention to detail in the editing of the video. Though, everything seems correct in the physical paper insert in the sleeve.

At the same time, the recording of the video and audio itself are excellent, as well as the camera work and lighting.

Considering that this isn't exactly a Hollywood blockbuster with a large team of editors and dedicated staff, I don't think they had the resources or time to do a separate edit for the DVD that differed from the PBS broadcast. Which is a shame for sure, but an understandable one.

The bonus tracks should of been edited into the concert as it would not of taken much time and they have had months to get the main edit right and it's a pain you have to go to main menu and select them individually .


I had not realised they had spelt some of the boys names wrong which is quite disrespectful when you consider all the work the boys put into the concert .



Tom is such a wonderful treble , I am not a fan of that version of Ave Maria but he is flawless in it and not many could pull of that kind of control he has for that song .

After all the concerns about the regional limitations of the Blu-Ray, I finally got my copy last night and watched most of it. Obviously it plays on my U.S. region Blu-Ray player. I was so disgruntled with Amazon over the "region" thing that I cancelled my order and reordered through my local Barnes and Nobel store. The order came in on the release date (March 10 in the US) so I was able to get it as soon as possible. I had also watched the PBS version more than once.

I had some technical concerns with the PBS version, but wanted to see the Blu-Ray before making any final judgments. Sometimes, the audio-visual quality can be damaged by processing through the television station and the cable company, and I hoped the Blu-Ray would be better. The Blu-Ray was better than the PBS transmission; however, I was still disappointed with the photographic quality. Either there were some faulty cameras, or the camera operators were not paying attention. Several scenes were woefully out of focus. I would blame my equipment, but there were other scenes that were so sharp that you could count the hairs on the boys' heads. Admittedly, I was watching on an 8 X 4.5 ft. screen, so such things are very apparent; but with the thousands of dollars put into this production, it seems a shame that focus was inconsistent.

Audio was generally good. As someone else pointed out, one of the boys sounded strange during his spoken part. I suspect that there was a problem with his speech that had to be corrected in post production and over-dubbed. It can be tricky to make things sound consistent during such a rework.

So much for my technical gripes. The actual program was as Cassius says, "Libera-like." It was very enjoyable. I was particularly impressed with some of Isaac's solos. His timing, pitch, and inflection are so spot on. When you consider that he was only eleven and a half years old at the time of the concert, it is really impressive. I was also very impressed with Cassius's speaking voice. It seems to be settling into a slightly lower register than I've heard from him before, and his vocal delivery is excellent. I particularly liked some of the new songs like "America the Beautiful," "Amazing Grace," and "How Great Thou Art." As usual, Robert Prizeman's arrangements are terrific.

Hello all!

I received the DVD yesterday, and have been enjoying it immensely all day today. I have noticed a lot of problems, which I will list after watching it a few dozen more times. One must be thorough in one's research...

Everything is, of course, no reflection on the boys, or Libera as a whole. Productions are hard, and sometimes decisions are made by people completely divorced from the group, so they don't make sense. The overall thing is, in my opinion, that the boys did amazing, that they and we have something permanent to enjoy forever. I hope they are proud of themselves, and know what joy they bring to all of us! Well done boys, and all the Libera staff, and especially Mr. Prizeman, the man behind it all!

I look forward to giving a full review, but in the meantime, I am enjoying all of yours!

Diane

I just watched my Blu-ray, I really don't see much to complain about though it would have been nice if they hadn't rolled the credits over the last song. Is the 'dubbed' part everyone is complaining about where several of the boys were giving short speeches in their family's native tongues?

TullyBascombe wrote:I just watched my Blu-ray, I really don't see much to complain about though it would have been nice if they hadn't rolled the credits over the last song. Is the 'dubbed' part everyone is complaining about where several of the boys were giving short speeches in their family's native tongues?

yes i noticed that Tom's has been weirdly dubbed so something must of gone wrong on the night they had to do that.

dani wrote:

TullyBascombe wrote:I just watched my Blu-ray, I really don't see much to complain about though it would have been nice if they hadn't rolled the credits over the last song. Is the 'dubbed' part everyone is complaining about where several of the boys were giving short speeches in their family's native tongues?

yes i noticed that Tom's has been weirdly dubbed so something must of gone wrong on the night they had to do that.

I don't think they did anything. I think they kept the original. I also think, now that I have watched it a few times, that the microphone feedback isn't why he started laughing, I think he is being silly and trying to say his line in Spanish in a dramatic sports announcer voice or whatever. You can see that he starts laughing and Sam is holding back laughing too. When they pan the camera back over to them Tom is still laughing and looking over at Sam.

The issue with the microphone sounds like feedback. In fact if I remember right, one of the boys was taken backstage for a moment at some point during the show and then brought back a minute late. I don't know if it it was Tom or not because I was too far back to see, but I'm guessing it was a microphone issue.

I just finished watching the DVD (well, Blu-Ray actually) and I did enjoy it quite a bit. I noticed a few out-of-focus shots, but they were mostly all shots from far away - the close-ups looked good. I admit that the credits during Song of Life were quite annoying, and I noticed a few of the misspelled names. But at least there weren't any audience shots during any of the solos, like last time. In fact I'm not sure if there were any audience shots during the songs at all, none that I noticed anyway. Overall I really liked it. I've been listening to the CD repeatedly, and music-wise, I like it a bit better than the last album. Partly because it wasn't Christmas music, which I do get a little tired of, and partly because all the arrangements were really nice. (There were a few last time, like Joy to the World, that sounded good but were a little ordinary, compared to Libera's other songs.) And of course the boys sang very well. I loved Ave Maria - the Schubert version is my favorite, and Tom was the perfect soloist. Voca Me was fantastic as well.

I can see how on some of the songs, they were probably much more spectacular during the real concert. Not having seen the concert, it didn't really affect my enjoyment, though of course I wish they'd managed to make the DVD better. But anyway, though I did notice some of the issues, I was very happy with it overall. It's wonderful to have them record two live concerts in a row. I wish I could go to Libera's concerts regularly, but these live DVDs are the next best thing.

I just noticed something that made me a little sad...so, at the main concert filming during America the Beautiful, Gabriel was so concentrated that he forgot to move into the formation when it changed. You can see him standing at the end of the arc in front of Tom, but then you don't see him next to Tom on the close up in the next frame. No big deal, as they filmed for 2 days because little things happen. At the end Steven came on stage and moved him to his spot and the audience applauded a second time. I know the applause was well meaning, but i think he may have gotten embarrassed

Now what I saw that makes me sad is that when you see Gabriel's face in Wayfaring stranger he looks as if he's been upset or crying a bit

Sorry- as a music teacher that's the kind of thing I pick up on! I hope he wasn't upset. Any 8 year old capable of doing a concert that long, while being filmed in front of a large audience is outstanding!

I was quite glad there was no audience shots during the songs as that was very annoyng for me during the Christmas dvd as I am paying to watch the boys not the audiences reactions so from that point of view it's wonderful .

Unfortunately someone has uploaded the full concert DVD to YouTube today and a torrent file appears to be available now as well. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

You are right. It is unfortunate. We know that Libera makes a commission from sales from Amazon. I'm not sure about other online stores. Certain individuals could see the entire concert posted as it is now on YouTube and download it, instead of paying for the DVD. This is unfair to Libera. However, Warner Classics may discover this and hopefully have the concert taken off YouTube.

True to all that, but the concert has already shown nationwide on PBS. PBS is a free network, it's freely available on the open air. Anyone with a DVR could have recorded it.

In this day and I age do not think there is any avoiding someone putting part of it, or all of it, online unfortunately. Every other recording they have ever put out has ended up on YouTube and elsewhere. Ultimately, the hope is that every such exposure gets them noticed by those who had never heard of them prior. Today's YT freeloaders could become tomorrows ticket holders and CD/DVD owners....or so we hope

mbbrose wrote:I just noticed something that made me a little sad...so, at the main concert filming during America the Beautiful, Gabriel was so concentrated that he forgot to move into the formation when it changed. You can see him standing at the end of the arc in front of Tom, but then you don't see him next to Tom on the close up in the next frame. No big deal, as they filmed for 2 days because little things happen. At the end Steven came on stage and moved him to his spot and the audience applauded a second time. I know the applause was well meaning, but i think he may have gotten embarrassed

Now what I saw that makes me sad is that when you see Gabriel's face in Wayfaring stranger he looks as if he's been upset or crying a bit

Sorry- as a music teacher that's the kind of thing I pick up on! I hope he wasn't upset. Any 8 year old capable of doing a concert that long, while being filmed in front of a large audience is outstanding!

I also noticed he was missing in the one shot on the DVD; although it's not terribly obvious to a casual viewer. But I had not noticed the tear rolling down his cheek in the next song until you posted that and I went back and had a look. Poor kid, they do take things so much to heart at that age.

I was just notified by Amazon Canada that instead of a delivery today, March 17th, there has been a delay, and the new estimate for delivery is anywhere from April 2nd to April 20th - hmmmmm! Have any Canadians received the DVD or Blu-Ray yet?