Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 28, 2017

Sting is one of the few artists who has been able to craft a solo career that is even more successful than their already outrageously successful career as part of a band. With over 100 million albums sold courtesy of his work with both The Police and his later solo offerings, Sting’s concerts aren’t so much “what will he play?” as they are “what won’t he play?”, since the choices are so vast. This appealing April 2017 concert in Paris at the City of Light’s iconic Olympia venue was ostensibly in support of Sting’s 57th and 9th album, but as can be gleaned by the set list reproduced below, it’s really like a tour through his long and varied career. The concert is more like an “unplugged” outing than a typical arena rock offering, and it finds Sting in excellent voice backed by an energetic assortment of musicians which includes his son, Joe Sumner.

Sting performs the following songs during the concert:

Synchronicity II

Spirits in the Material World

Englishman in New York

I Can’t Stop Thinking About You

One Fine Day

She’s Too Good for Me

I Hung My Head

Fields of Gold

Petrol Head

Down, Down, Down

Shape of My Heart

Pretty Young Soldier

Message in a Bottle

Ashes to Ashes

50,000

Walking on the Moon

So Lonely

Desert Rose

Roxanne / Ain’t No Sunshine

Next to You

Every Breath You Take

Fragile

Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sting Live at the Olympia Paris is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and Universal Music Group with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is a rather interesting looking concert video, on that eschews some of the problematic red and blue lighting regimens that often add posterizing and banding to the visual presentation, offering instead some kind of sometimes odd looking brown hues that make things look almost sepia toned at times, as well as some lighter blue shadings. While detail levels are rather high throughout the presentation, especially in some of the extreme close-ups that are employed, some of these lighting choices do tend to tamp down fine detail levels. A tendency by the video director to aim the cameras directly at lighting arrays that are upstage of the performers also tends to add things like lens flare and refractions that also tend to blot out detail levels at times. That said, in more or less "normal" lighting situations, and when the camera is stationary, fine detail pops winningly, offering good looks at faces and instruments (is Sting's bass ever "weathered"!). Some very slight noise creeps into some of the darkest moments, typically more in shots of the audience than with regard to the on stage performers.

Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sting Live at the Olympia Paris features nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes. This is a rather interesting backup band, featuring Dominic Miller on guitars, Josh Freese on drums, Rufus Miller on guitars and Percy Cardona on accordion, as well as backup vocals (and occasional help with guitars and some percussion instruments) by Joe Sumner, along with Diego Navaira and Jerry Fuentes of The Last Bandoleros. As such, as mentioned above in the main body of the review, the sound here is at least a bit on the "unplugged" side, offering high energy but not overly aggressive arrangements that feature Sting's often plaintive tenor surrounded by layers of appealing instrumentation. The surround mix offers excellent spaciousness and clear accountings across all frequency ranges. As tends to be the case on many of these concert releases, the stereo mix tends to elevate the vocals in the mix, but in this case there's really not that much difference in prioritization between the stereo and surround tracks. Fidelity is excellent and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Sting and Special Guests (1080i; 36:11) includes the following:

  Sting and Joe Sumner:

  Heading South on the Great North Road

  Joe Sumner:

  Looking For Me, Looking For You

  Don't Change the Love

  Jellybean

  The Last Bandoleros:

  Maria

  River Man

  Take Me To It

  I Don't Want to Know

  Where Do You Go?

Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In the closing comments of our Stormy Monday Blu-ray review, a film which offered Newcastle born Sting in a featured role, I mentioned how some recently discovered personal family connections in Newcastle had made me very interested in visiting the northern English city, a place I have yet to get to. Somewhat hilariously after posting that review, I had a very detailed dream where I did visit Newcastle and none other than Sting was my tour guide, though (in the dream) he was frequently angry with me because I kept insisting on calling him Gordon (evidently I'm as annoying in dreams as I am in real life). Luckily, I have been to Paris on several occasions, so hopefully would not need Sting (and/or Gordon) as a tour guide there should I have another dream after reviewing Sting's newest concert Blu-ray. This is an excellent concert that covers a lot of musical territory, and which finds Sting in great voice, surrounded by a band that is obviously having a field day playing with this legendary performer. Video encounters occasional slight hurdles, but audio is great sounding on this release, and Sting Live at the Olympia Paris comes Recommended.