Pavarotti: The Lost Concert Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Pavarotti: The Lost Concert Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 23, 2025

What do Luciano Pavarotti and The Rolling Stones have in common? The answer will be divulged below in the video section of this review, but before that revelation is unveiled, it may be salient to note that this so-called Lost Concert may have in fact been more neglected than misplaced somewhere. That may seem especially odd given its emotional imprimatur as the legendary tenor keeps a long held promise and returns to a village in North Wales to give a performance at the 1995 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Joining Pavarotti is the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leone Magiera, the Corale Gioachino Rossini, Modena, directed by Paolo Rossini, and, for the finale, Japanese soprano Atzuko Kawahara.

The concert offers the following:

• Introduction
• Gli arredi festivi (Verdi: Nabucco)
• Addio alla madre (Mascagani: Cavalleria Rusticana)
• Di quella pira (Verdi: Il Trovatore)
• Mascagni: Intermezzo (Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana)
• Ah! La paterna mano (Verdi: Macbeth)
• Granada (Lara)
• Va', pensiero (Verdi: Nabucco)
• Tra voi belle (Puccini: Manon Lescaut)
• Donna non vidi mai (Puccini: Manon Lescaut)
• Overture (Rossini: Semiramide)
• Mattinata (Leoncavallo)
• In Nomine Jesu (Handel)
• La Girometta (Sibella)
• Non Ti Scordar Di Me (De Curtis)
• La Mia Canzone al Vento (Bixio)
• Ave Maria, Dolce Maria (Benvenuti/Pavarotti)
• O Sole Mio (di Capuo)
• Brindisi (Verdi: La Traviata) feat. Atsuko Kawahara, Soprano

Pavarotti: The Lost Concert Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots 1 through 5 are from the concert. Screenshots 6 through 9 are from the documentary. Both pieces share some footage.

Pavarotti: The Lost Concert (Live at Llangollen 1995) is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Mercury Studios with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.33:1. So what, pray tell, is the connection to The Rolling Stones alluded to above all about? While kind of interestingly this disc itself is not branded in the way I'm about to get into, Mercury's website reveals this is a so-called "SD Blu-ray", a kind of oxymoronic terminology that fans of Mercury Studios' precursor Eagle Rock Entertainment got used to seeing (on the actual discs back in the day) with the label's recurrent releases of Stones live performances. The good news is the video quality here is actually probably superior to many of those older Stones offerings, though as can be gleaned from the screenshots there is still a kind of "formless blob" quality to midrange and wider framings. Close-ups understandably fare the best. The palette isn't exactly vibrant, but is sufficiently suffused and natural looking, though that said it is arguably just a bit better looking in the documentary.

Pavarotti: The Lost Concert Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both the concert and the documentary feature LPCM 2.0 audio. The concert is reasonably well balanced in general, though the venue may have introduced a few passing issues in terms of the actual mix between Pavarotti and the orchestral forces. The stereo mix is not extremely widely imaged, which actually may redound to the benefit of things since Pavarotti's voice is arguably a bit more focused. Optional subtitles in several languages are available on the documentary, but the concert has none.

Pavarotti: The Lost Concert Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Documentary (HD; 52:19) is subtitled Memories from a Very Special Event, and includes both snippets from the concert as well as some really kind of sweet extra footage of Pavarotti visiting various places and interacting with the locals.

An unusually well appointed insert booklet (at least by usual Mercury Studios standards) is included, which offers writing by Nicoletta Mantovani (Pavarotti's widow) and Mark Wilkinson, along with some great photos and information about the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation. The keepcase insert has an inner print offering production credits.

Pavarotti: The Lost Concert Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Pavarotti fans are almost sure to thrill to not just the program in store here, but perhaps even more so with regard to really touching context, something that is shown in rather sweet vignettes in the documentary accompanying the main concert. While the Venn Diagram offering an overlap of these two fan bases may admittedly have very few members, those who have seen some of the so-called "SD Blu-rays" that Eagle Rock Entertainment used to regularly release may be at least relatively surprised at the generally intact if obviously far from optimal video. Those unacquainted with these kinds of upscales who are Pavarotti fans may want to concentrate on the audio side of things. Both the concert and documentary are quite captivating, though, so with some possibly major caveats in mind, Pavarotti: The Lost Concert comes Recommended.