Verdi - Otello DVD

Advantages: Spitting Image, lots of laughs, great intro to classical music
Disadvantages: Deflates a little in the middle, wanted more

...Introduction: Sometimes the strangest and most unexpected of combinations can work brilliantly together, so I was really intrigued to see that renowned Italian maestro Claudio Abbado had insisted that his DVD of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" should use Spitting Image puppets! Somehow it seemed a rather improbable line-up: On one side as a supreme representative of "high culture", we have Claudio with his intense music-making and lofty interpretative ideas, conducting acclaimed recordings and concerts of Mahler, Mozart and Verdi to pick just a few highlighted composers from his long and illustrious career. At the other end of the cultural spectrum we have the Spitting Image team who are best known for their 80's TV series featuring bitingly satirical latex puppet portrayals of anyone famous (and infamous) from the Queen Mum... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Superb production, fascinating footage, great music
Disadvantages: None whatsoever apart from wanting more

...at Tanglewood in 1949 which is as vivid as if you were actually sitting there playing - a real highlight of the DVD for me! Other complete pieces include Felix Weingaertner conducting Weber's "Die Freischuetz Overture" in a very sonically impressive film considering it dates from 1932. It is always much more satisfying to enjoy some longer sections of music than just having short extracts all the time, especially when this archive material is so precious and revealing. Anyone who has wondered what it is like to play in an orchestra will find the footage in several of these archive films absolutely riveting. As an orchestral violinist myself I was engrossed in Verdi's Overture to "La Forza del Destino" where even though it was filmed in 1944, the flesh-penetrating, tempestuous and passionate laser-beam gaze of legendary Italian maestro Arturo... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Good laughs and great goals
Disadvantages: Only 58 minutes long

...Soccer AM is a Saturday morning show on Sky sports one every Saturday and it helps cover the English football leagues from the week before and what games are going to be played for the following week. It also has other features like about 3 different guests will come onto the show e.g. one could be an injured footballer, one could be a celebrity and another could be a few band members for a music group. Not only do they have guests and football highlights they also have 8 fans in from a certain football team and some of the crew members have their own part of the show like Tube's question. No this is a big hit on TV soothe first DVD, Soccer AM 1, was quite good so this DVD had good expectations. In Soccer AM 2 it is different to the normal show as they like to focus on a certain idea that do just another show but on a DVD so... Read review

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