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(More customer reviews)I rarely view a video/movie more than once. In my 58 years, I have viewed less than ten videos three times. That said, I've viewed this Nana Mouskouri concert in excess of 15 times (in both VHS and DVD formats combined) and I'm sure I'll view it many more times in the future.
IMHO, Nana Mouskouri possesses the most beautiful female voice ever recorded. I am an avid music lover and own a little over 5,000 albums (LPs and CDs combined). Although my collection includes recordings by about 200 female vocalists, I own more recordings by Nana Mouskouri than by any other artist or group---about 60 albums worth. This DVD and the CD recording of it (which contains two concert songs omitted from the DVD and the unabbreviated instrumental introduction) rank at the top of my Nana Mouskouri collection.
This concert was videotaped in 1984 when Nana's voice was still in peak form. The concert (actually one of five concerts given on five consecutive evenings) was performed in one of the world's most beautiful concert settings---the 5,000 seat Roman amphitheater of Herod Atticus located at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.
Although the video quality may leave a bit to be desired by today's standards, the audio recording (engineered by the Rolling Stone's Mobile Sound Unit) is of audiophile quality. Except for one song ("Ave Maria") where Nana slowly weans herself away from the microphone to sing unamplified, none of the songs appear to have had any compression applied. The dynamic range of the recording is awesome.
To put it mildly, Nana Mouskouri is a very classy woman. She exudes a charisma on stage that is hard to describe. She can be mesmerizing (as in her passionate delivery of "Kathe Trello Pedi"). She has performed about 200 concerts per year every year since around 1960. In this concert both she and her superb band are in top form. I have studio versions of most of the songs sung in this concert. For many of them, this concert version is the definitive version. The double CD of this concert went double platinum in Greece and became the best selling album of the year in 1986.
This concert is almost as much about the music of the great Manos Hadjidakis as it is about the voice of Nana Mouskouri. Of the 26 songs Nana sings, 22 are in Greek. Of those 22 Greek songs, 17 were composed by Hadjidakis. This is not because there was any paucity of good Greek music from which to choose. It's because Hadjidakis' music is so incredibly beautiful. (Around 1959 Hadjidakis stated that in Nana Mouskouri he had found "...the perfect vehicle for my music" and began composing with Nana's voice specifically in mind.) This concert contains some of the most beautiful Greek songs ever written.
The gentleman from South Africa is not exaggerating---Nana's voice can send shivers down your spine. Her mezzo soprano voice is effortlessly smooth as silk. Coupled with her fluency in five languages, her classical training, and daily vocal exercises spanning over 45 years, she sings exquisitely in almost any genre. Although hardly known in the United States, she is, by far, the top selling female recording artist of all time.
The DVD's only shortcoming is its brevity. Nana's concerts last at least 2-1/2 hours. This concert was filmed for Greek national television and was therefore edited down to 90-minutes. However, the six bonus music videos (filmed in famous Greek locations in 2002 for German television) help make up for this.
One word of caution: Buy the Canadian/U.S. version of this DVD, which contains an inner photographic booklet. The foreign versions (including those from Brazil, Argentina, and China) not only omit the booklet, but the sonic quality is inferior in that the exquisite instrumentation is noticably subdued.
Hopefully Universal will one day do a reissue of the entire concert. Until then, you owe it to yourself to experience this performance. View it in conjunction with the best sound system you can get your hands on. Set Nana's first words to a realistic sound level, and don't touch the volume control again. You won't be disappointed!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Nana Mouskouri: Live at Herod Atticus - 20th Anniversary Edition
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