Avant Que l'Ombre... A Bercy (2007)

Queen of Pop in French Version

Her voice has not much variety in terms of using different octaves. But she's perfect between that narrow voice region. Smooth and without detonation (Just like listening to a musical instrument: flute or a member of children choir at the church) She's not exhausting herself on stage with difficult choreography or voice strain. She has no image goal to be a powerful woman. She even drops tears on her cheeks during the emotional slow songs. That makes her natural on stage. She's not beautiful but nice. Fun to watch because it's a rich concert with nice effects and beautiful dancers.....The musicians are all fine....Especially the big guy playing Drums is the center among them... Shortly, I liked your concert Mylene. Thank you for releasing this dvd. Nice to meet you. xxx September 24, 2008

Overall; a very dull show!

One of the dullest live acts I have ever seen in my life. Everyone seems to move at a glacial with overly theatrical movements, reminiscent of a pantomime theatre production. It features a wonderful selection of songs, with utterly excruciating live renditions.
Unless you are a die-hard fanatic, I strongly advise you against this purchase. Go ahead and get yourself any of her video collections, latest installment is the best. July 1, 2008

Incredible.....

Mylene Farmer is my favorite singer since the first song in the 80 s. Every time she has a new album is a hit. After that, she disappears from the show busines until she release a new one or she performs a concert. Avant que l Ombre concert is one of the only 13 concerts she gave in Bercy, Paris. All totally booked. The concert is incredible since the begining until the end when she disapears until the next concert. She took care very well of the songs of this concert as well as the costumes, the players, the singers, the choreography. Totaly a great show. I wish I could see her alive once. The sound of the DVD as well of the image is excellent.I wish she could come to Mexico to have a concert as Alizee, has done. June 9, 2008

Mylene Farmer is as good as ever after 20 years on stage

This is the latest of the three movies produced by Francois Hanss from the concerts of the Canadian-born French poet/singer/performer Mylene Farmer, who has over 20 years of her performance career behind her and is still going strong. On my first ever visit to Paris in 1988 I singled her (and Catherine Lara) from all of the material I happened to sample from radio and TV during my week's stay. Although I am a big fan mostly of her early work (especially music videos produced together with her long-time colleague Laurent Boutonnait, currently also offered by Amazon), her live performances are equally captivating and if you intend to only get one of them, this is the one to start with. The material included in this performance is not identical to the CD with the same title and spans almost the entire singer's career. In fact, most of the songs are so familiar to the huge audience of the arena that Ms. Farmer does not have a problem making them sing along throughout the entire concert. The singer completely changes her outfits (at the end definitely approaching PG-13 level) and singing style several times during the concert, is accompanied by her two usual background vocals and at least three different dancing groups with which she interacts. With all of lightworks spanning the entire color spectrum and the use of two adjacent decks the performance sequences are visually very arresting.
Of the current pop singers enjoying the same or greater level of popularity not all can work audiences of the same size with such power, which reaches incredible heights when both the singer and the audience are completely united in compassion. At such points, you would wish you could understand French. Camera work is also excellent and the coverage of the concert in the movie is certainly more complete than that of an actual spectator. Sound quality, although I only listened in stereo, is very good and is definitely improved over the two previous Bercy performances produced by Hanss. The only 'flaw' I could mention is that the DVD is actually in PAL format (like most of Mylene's previous recordings), while listed to be NTSC. However, if you get a home theater PC (dedicated or improvised) or a multi-system player, this should not present a problem. In summary, this is a good place to start enjoying Mylene Farmer, and in my humble opinion, this recording does her more justice than any of the music CDs or even the two previous DVDs of the Bercy performances.
February 19, 2008

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