DVD reissues from Rhino

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:12 pm

In order to support the site expenses, an Amazon order would always be greatly appreciated.

bicyclops · Post by **bicyclops** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:26 pm

bicyclops wrote:Video ETA has them listed for March 27

CD Universe has Juliet Letters listed for March 27.
A Case for Song still "Release Date Not Determined"

bicyclops · Post by **bicyclops** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:38 am

And now CD Universe has changed Juliet Letters back to: Release Date Not Determined

bicyclops · Post by **bicyclops** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:21 pm

Pushed back yet again - now April 24th.

http://videoeta.com/movie/87659
http://videoeta.com/movie/87660

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:16 pm

http://www.musictap.net/

March 28, 2007

Warner and Rhino have pencilled in a DVD to be released on May 22 for The Juliet Letters from Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet. Nice.

sweetest punch · Post by **sweetest punch** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:39 am

The official site has now also a May 22 releasedate for The Juliet Letters:
http://www.rhino.com/store/upcoming.lasso

sweetest punch · Post by **sweetest punch** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:18 pm

http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... ber=971481

The Rhino site has this information:

First time on DVD! Elvis Costello, one of rock music's most celebrated alternative tunesmiths, joins forces with the classical Brodsky Quartet in this suite of songs inspired by a literature professor who answered letters written to Shakespeare's Juliet. DVD includes Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and PCM Stereo.

Tracklisting:
Deliver Us
For Other Eyes
Who Do You Think You Are?
I Almost Had A Weakness
Why?
Dear Sweet Filthy World
Jacksons, Monk and Rowe
I Thought I'd Write To Juliet
Last Post
The First To Leave
Taking My Life In Your Hands
The Birds Will Still Be Singing
Swine

sweetest punch · Post by **sweetest punch** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:34 pm

"The Juliet Letters" and "Live - a Case For Song" are available in the UK on July2, 2007.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elvis-Costello- ... 73&sr=1-11

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elvis-Costello- ... 45&sr=1-12

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Tue May 22, 2007 3:53 pm

http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetai ... ber=971481

ELVIS COSTELLO
The Juliet Letters

First time on DVD! Elvis Costello, one of rock music's most celebrated alternative tunesmiths, joins forces with the classical Brodsky Quartet in this suite of songs inspired by a literature professor who answered letters written to Shakespeare's Juliet. DVD includes Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and PCM Stereo.

http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_a ... d=36547292

Rhino Re-Releases Costello

2007-05-22

Story by: Kevin Kampwirth

Rhino will release Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters today on DVD, the first of two live performances that the imprint will put out in the next couple of months. Letters is a recording of Costello's 1993 collaboration with the legendary Brodsky Quartet, which is based on Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet. Live: A Case For Song is set for a June 26 release and comes from a performance in London featuring Costello with his longtime band the Attractions, the Brodsky Quartet and White City Septet. The recording will feature six new songs that were not included on the concert's original VHS release.

Tracklist For The Juliet Letters:

01. Deliver Us
02. For Other Eyes
03. Who Do You Think You Are?
04. I Almost Had A Weakness
05. Why?
06. Dear Sweet Filthy World
07. Jacksons, Monk And Rowe
08. I Thought I'd Write To Juliet
09. Last Post
10. The First To Leave
11. Taking My Life In Your Hands
12. The Birds Will Still Be Singing
13. Swine

Tracklisting For Live: A Case For Song:

01. Little Atoms
02. Pump It Up
03. Why Can't A Man Stand Alone
04. You Bowed Down
05. Temptation*
06. Veronica
07. Indoor Fireworks
08. Pills And Soap
09. I Almost Had A Weakness*
10. The Birds Will Still Be Singing
11. God Only Knows
12. Upon A Veil Of Midnight Blue
13. Almost Blue*
14. All This Useless Beauty
15. Shipbuilding*
16. Riot Act
17. Man Out Of Time*
18. Complicated Shadows
19. It's Time*
20. I Want To Vanish
* tracks not included on first release

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-Costello-Br ... 049&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-Costello-Li ... 049&sr=1-4

And No Coffee Table · Post by **And No Coffee Table** » Tue May 22, 2007 3:57 pm

johnfoyle wrote:The recording will feature six new songs that were not included on the concert's original VHS release.

That's great news, and I guess that explains the delay. Bonus tracks were not part of the original plan.

SkaDan · Post by **SkaDan** » Wed May 23, 2007 4:01 pm

and it seems from what songs were added, a few were taken out, according to Allmusic, the VHS version opens with Accidents not Atoms and closes with Detectives and Vanish. so their must be some sort of mix up.

Deportee · Post by **Deportee** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:26 pm

Amazon uk has a release date of 2nd July for these now.

And No Coffee Table · Post by **And No Coffee Table** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:49 pm

For whatever it's worth, I received an advance of The Juliet Letters a couple of weeks ago.

Or was it an advance? I've seen so many different release dates for this thing that I'm no longer sure if it's already out (in the US).

FAVEHOUR · Post by **FAVEHOUR** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:57 pm

And No Coffee Table wrote:For whatever it's worth, I received an advance of The Juliet Letters a couple of weeks ago.

Or was it an advance? I've seen so many different release dates for this thing that I'm no longer sure if it's already out (in the US).

Yes it is out. I haven't seen it in any stores but did buy it online from Best Buy. Nice to have on DVD although the 5.1 sound is really not much of a remix and they left out the extra track from the laserdisc.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:04 am

These re-issues are on sale here in Liverpool. Interesting misprint on the box for A Case For Song - Bruce Thomas is spelled Bruce Thymus - a mistake , of course.......

StrictTime · Post by **StrictTime** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:52 pm

Saw A Case For Song Today, and Bruce's name was spelled 'Bryce Thomas'. Weird, there being two different mispellings. Is it worth getting? Being as stingy as I am, I decided to hold off until I had some sort of second opinion.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:25 am

Y oh y Elvis?

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:16 pm

Saw A Case For Song Today, and Bruce's name was spelled 'Bryce Thomas'

.....which is the correct , if you will, misprint ; my mind went a bit , I think .

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showre ... p3?ID=9479

Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet: The Juliet Letters (1992)

"My dear impulsive darling I suspect my letter got to you too late
And it's really just a silly fragment of paper
But it means so much to those who wait"

- Elvis Costello

Review By: Jeff Wilson

Published: July 20, 2007

DVD Review

At the time of his collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet in 1992, Elvis Costello had already dabbled in different fields within pop music, so further experimentation would hardly be a shock. Still, working with a string quartet on a high concept song cycle was a little more than some fans and critics wanted, and there were plenty of condescending and snippy stories about the rocker dabbling in classical and vice versa for the Brodsky Quartet. In the years since the resulting album (The Juliet Letters), Costello has gone on to do further work in the classical field, including dance and opera work.

The program presented on this Rhino disc blends interview material with several lip-synched performances of songs from the record, with a live performance thrown in for reasons unknown. The synched performances, which basically amount to music videos, all take place in the same set, with only clothing changes and lighting to differentiate them. Unless there were contractual reasons for it, I don't see why the opportunity wasn't taken to simply present a live performance of the material, which would have been of far more interest to most fans, I would think (or at least to me). The interview material is fine on its own, but if I want to hear the songs, I can simply listen to the actual album.

The material itself gets its starting point from an article Costello read about a Veronese professor who had taken upon himself to write back to people who had sent letters to Shakespeare's Juliet. The actual texts of the songs don't have much to do with that concept beyond using the idea of letters as topics, and the songs cover a whole range of types of letter, from love letter to suicide note to begging letter and so on. The music styles are necessarily geared to each lyric, and as Costello comments, forced him take on characters and viewpoints he might not otherwise have ever considered. For those who consider themselves allergic to classical music, this isn't too difficult to get into; the music is all strings, of course, but Costello's distinctive voice is certainly a good distance from any kind of trained classical voice. At the same time, classical fans won't have to go too far to get into this either. Costello and the Quartet both emphasized that this wasn't either party's crossover work, it simply was it was, and I think that's fairly true. It isn't a favorite among Costello fans, or at least that's the impression I've gotten over the years, as his non-rock work seems to be something to be tolerated in between rock-oriented material.

As a viewing experience, this quickly wears out its welcome; being that a string quartet is stationary, there isn't much one can do to liven up watching them, and director Philip King doesn't try, basically opting to have wardrobe changes now and then, and shoot from different angles, given a lack of camera movement. As such, it's a viewing experience best watched piecemeal, though I can't think of who would actually do that. One for the completists.

Image Transfer Review: The show was presented in what looks like 1.66:1 widescreen, but a new anamorphic transfer was not done for this release, which really doesn't surprise. That being said, the image quality is okay at best, with okay colors and a minimum of defects considering the source. It looks like a videotape transfer, with all its attendant qualities (or lack thereof). It still shouldn't be acceptable for a DVD in this day and age, though.

Image Transfer Grade: D+

Audio Transfer Review: Two choices, PCM stereo and Dolby 5.1; I thought both sounded pretty good, considering the image quality, with good, vivid sound. These aren't going to blow the doors off your receiver and speakers, so to speak, but they're solid.

Audio Transfer Grade: B

Final Comments

Costello completists will presumably be the main market for this disc, as anyone else can pick up the actual album release. The music video format of the songs can get a bit tedious after few tracks, but the interview material breaks up the monotony. No extras and a nonanamorphic transfer are a bit of a letdown, though.

strangerinthehouse · Post by **strangerinthehouse** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:24 pm

I just saw A Case for Song and it was great, most of the performances anyway. There were a couple of weird editorial choices- who uses Sepia tones?- but over all it is a great way to catch several of EC's live presentations in one show.

The Brodsky Quartet performances where excellent, my favorite was Pills and Soap.

The solo rendition of Indoor Fireworks was heartbreakingly perfect.

Besides Bryce Thomas's bored appearanced the performances with the Attractions were great, specially between Riot Act and It's Time.

The Costello and Nieve performances- Temptation, Veronica and I Want to Vanish, were favorites as well and reason to re-start looking for that live box-set.[/code]

thepopeofpop · Post by **thepopeofpop** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:56 pm

I picked up Region 1 copies of these a few days ago from my import store of choice (Red Eye). I think they were both $25 which is OK considering. They are not available in Region 4 yet, and probably won't be for months, if ever, since EC is not exactly shifting DVD units in the millions and is therefore not a priority.

Case For Song was enjoyable ... I do have the VHS but it was good to have the extra songs, but what happened to Accidents Will Happen? It must have wanted to vanish...

The image quality is very good considering it was shot for TV. It almost looks like it was shot digitally, although that would have been unusual in 1996. The sound is good - the 5.1 audio is preferred if you have the capability although it's a fairly conservative mix - nothing much in the rear channels except a little ambience and some crowd noise between songs.

Next, The Juliet Letters. Well, I hadn't really watched this in the longest time as I never owned the VHS version due to it being virtually impossible to obtain. I had seen it on TV though. It's quite entertaining if you are a hard-core Elvis fan. The little interviews between songs are rather good, and you get to see plenty of vintage Costello 'mugging for the camera' during the actual songs.

I was struck by how young he is in this! This was made 15 years ago, so EC in this is younger than I am now, which is kind of sobering.

The picture quality indicates that this DVD was mastered off a video tape, which is a pity as the original footage was evidently shot on film. Had the original film been located, rather than the video tape copy, I daresay this DVD could have looked marvellous; instead it is merely adequate.

There is a 5.1 audio option on this DVD, and although it sounds OK it does not appear to be a real 5.1 mix. There is nothing but a tiny bit of ambience in the rear speakers, and even the centre speaker just sounds like a folddown of the stereo mix, so if you were planning on buying this DVD to get a sensational 5.1 mix of part of The Juliet Letters then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.

All in all it's just a competent package: get it to complete your Costello collection, but don't expect it to change your life.

Bad Ambassador · Post by **Bad Ambassador** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:19 pm

Two points to follow up there.
My UK-bought copy of 'A Case For Song' is Regions 2,3,4 and 5 compatible, and presumably is the intended release for all of those regions, rather than doing one for each.
As for the 5.1 being the preferable audio for this, I'd have to disagree. The grunt of the relatively uncompressed L-PCM audio sounds far superior to the Dolby Digital track. As you say, the 5.1 mix doesn't really add much, and a decent uncompressed stereo track virtually always beats Dolby Digital sound.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:56 am

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/revi ... etters-dvd

Elvis Costello & the Brodsky Quartet: The Juliet Letters [DVD]

by Jeremy Estes

I yelled the first time I saw that Elvis Costello Lexus ad on television. Do you know the one Iâ€™m talking about? Our man sits in the back seat of the luxury sedan air-conducting a symphony like a teenage band geek. â€œWhat?â€

TX_Fan · Post by **TX_Fan** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:13 pm

Well, I just watched "A Case for Song" DVD version. I only cued up the ones that weren't one the VHS..which I've had for some time.
The six songs that were on the DVD, but not on VHS were outstanding.....well, I'm not that fond of this version of "Almost Blue".

1. Temptation - God, I love the aucoustic version. It sounded like the one on the "Costello & Nieve" box set....Very nice.

2. "I Almost Had a Weakness" - Good song..I'm not huge into the "Juliet Letters" but enjoy the occational listen.

3. "Almost Blue" - Didn't like this one...too slow...I like the song very much though...Sudio version is good

4. "Shipbuilding" - Outstanding...Great song.. great combination band/orchistra....I'm still not sure about the abtract music in mid-song...kinda weird..but that's OK.

5. "Man Out of Time" - Excellent...Loved it!

6. 'It's Time" - This is the best of all.....I liked the song before from the studio version, but this performance is something special....I was moved.

I absolutely wore the VHS version out...and I guess I'll still get it out to listen to "Accidents Will Happen" & "Watching the Detectives" which are missing from the DVD. I wonder if there any other "Missing" songs from this performance ?
This EC performance & time frame were easily the favorite for me. A bit "geeky" is his younger years....Entertaining himself in the later years, but I still like his current work.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:17 pm

Why can't the DVD have all the songs? Looks like it's well worth getting.

And No Coffee Table · Post by **And No Coffee Table** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:30 pm

TX_Fan wrote:I wonder if there any other "Missing" songs from this performance ?

The complete setlist is here.