No Description Available.
Genre: Music Video – Pop/Rock
Rating: NR
Release Date: 1-MAR-2005
Media Type: DVDGorgeous to listen to and gorgeous to look at, Celtic Woman is perfect PBS fare, sort of a Riverdance without the dancing. Drawing on the same New Age-y sound and propulsive energy as that show’s solo-voice and choral numbers, the live concert features four attractive young women in strapless evening gowns with soaring voices backed by an orchestra, an Anuna-like chorus, and a large percussion section. The more traditional fare includes Méav Ni Mhaolchatha’s “Danny Boy” and “She Moved Through the Fair,” and Chloë Agnew’s “Ave Maria” (the Bach-Gounod version). Movie and TV selections range from Agnew’s “Walking in the Air” (The Snowman) and “Someday” (Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame) to Lisa Kelly’s “May It Be” (the Enya song from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the King) and Órla Fallon’s voice and harp rendition of “Harry’s Game.” A fifth woman, Máiréad Nesbitt, adds some variety by fiddling “The Butterfly” and “Ashokan Farewell” (best known as the theme from Ken Burns’s The Civil War). Occasionally the singers join together, as in Enya’s “Orinoco Flow,” an a cappella rendition of West Side Story‘s “Somewhere,” music director David Downes’s composition “One World,” and a stately version of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” Celtic Woman was created by Downes (like many of the other performers, a Riverdance veteran) along with Sharon Browne and Dave Kavanagh of the Celtic Collections record label. –David Horiuchi
Buy “Celtic Woman” For Only $5.99
June 4, 2008
#1
I saw this on PBS and was unfortunately struck by the “theatrical” performances of the women. Particularly annoying was the blond fiddler, who seemed to strut, overact with her body, and look directly into the camera saying “Yes, I’m beautiful, and I know you want me, so by this DVD”. Cloying is the word I’d use.
Some of the other performers seemed slightly smug, or overly coached on how to emote their songs. Probably the best of the lot was the blond singer who sang “She moved through the Fair”.
I just listened to the cd online, and, had I only heard it, without the “performances”, I’d likely have bought it.
But now, I don’t care to join the rush to the new celtic Spice Girls ensemble. The performance I saw felt totally contrived, packaged, and marketed.
June 4, 2008
#2
I saw Celtic Woman on PBS which was closed-captioned. Then decided to purchase the DVD.
Guess what? No closed-captioning or subtitles!
No wonder Amazon’s listing doesn’t say about closed-captioning or subtitles.
Their show ranked a 5 but I’m giving it a 1 because I can’t enjoy it.
Oh well, back to the store it goes for a refund. Will this get Manhattan Record’s attention now?
June 4, 2008
#3
First I’d like to say that these womyn have lovely voices. That being said however, I have to say that this is one of the most boring, vapid, souless performances I have ever seen!
It was almost like Celtic Muzak! And they even had the nerve to take one of the Divine Sarah’s songs, Nella Fantasia, which she convinced the composer to allow her to turn into a song, and take all the passion and pathos that Sarah’s voice brings to it and turn it into a real yawner!
It was kind of like watching a group of lovely robots with perfect voices sing.
The only song I even came close to liking is You Raise Me Up, which seems to be the only song that is sung with any feeling!
June 4, 2008
#4
The DVD has beautiful visuals and the voices are great. However, there is so much distortion in the audio that it’s quite distracting and detracts from the overall experience. I’d recommend the DVD, but wish they would put better quality control into creating it.
June 4, 2008
#5
I’ve just watched this on PBS (through my fingers, shaking my head in frustration. The “Celtic Woman” gals’ obviously canned voices are clear (if miserably overproduced), sweet, and pleasant; several of them apparently have already had successful careers as musicians, so I don’t doubt that the voices one hears on the DVD actually belong to them.
But that being said (and I’m trying to be balanced and diplomatic here), the producers of the show have done them a major disservice by dubbing previous performance recordings over this video footage — what an insult to their musicianship to insinuate that they can’t handle a live performance! Think of how much better this would have been with these five beauties simply singing, without all the Vegas/Cirque-du-Soleil/Chorus Line business going on in the background!
I also have to ask — in what universe is “You Raise Me Up” a Celtic song? People, Celtic music has a long, rich history — surely they didn’t have to record this cheeseball popera hit to pander to the masses…