Product Details

• Actors: Rick Wakeman
• Directors: Robert Garofalo
• Format: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Eagle Vision
• DVD Release Date: October 13, 2009
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002N5KV54
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,883 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Rick Wakeman's "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" is one of the landmark albums of the seventies, a critical and commercial success that has sold in excess of 15 million copies worldwide. In May 2009, Rick Wakeman finally achieved his long held dream of performing the entire album live at Hampton Court Palace. It was the first time the whole album had ever been performed in concert & included the Henry VIII track "Defender Of The Faith," that had to be cut from the original album for space reasons, plus new opening and closing pieces. The two spectacular sell out concerts were a never to be repeated event and this DVD shows why they will live long the memory of all those fortunate enough to attend.

TRACK LISTING:
1) Tudorture / Henry's Fanfare
2) Tudorture / "1485"
3) Catherine Of Aragon
4) Kathryn Howard
5) Jane's Prelude
6) Jane Seymour
7) Defender Of The Faith
8) Katherine Parr
9) Anne Of Cleves
10) Anne Boleyn
11) Tudorock

Bonus Materials: Behind the scenes with Rick.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Crowning Achievment, October 22, 2009

By 

Faith No MOre (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Six Wives Of Henry VIII DVD (DVD)

I too was drawn to London for the very first time to experience this once in a lifetime production of Rick's "Six Wives of Henry the VIIIth". With Hampton Court as the spectacular setting for this event, with Choir and Orchestra, it was 2 evenings of music to be remembered. In addtion to the expanded versions of the original 6 Wives pieces, there were 3 new pieces composed especially for this event which are included in this presentation.
The DVD is a compilation of the 2 nights. Some of the solo sections were different each night (most notable in the extended Anne Boleyn synth solo, for example), but it has been edited pretty seamlessly. The narrator, Brain Blessed, improvised profusely each night. In this DVD production, these sections were edited down. You can hear the full versions on the CD's that are available for each night, but for this release I think they did a very good (but not quite seamless) job of editing. It was a real challenge, that.

One thing that is not apparent from the video is the temperature. It still gets really cold in London once the sun goes down in May, and I have to hand it to the orchestral players and choir for being in tune and on time.
The 6 Wives suite had never been performed in it's entirety before, and will never be presented like this again.
Musically it is very satisfying, remaining true to the original compositions. Rick and company hit it out of the park with this one.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Wives Live, Live, October 15, 2009

By 

Douglas Harr ""rock music aficionado"" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Six Wives Of Henry VIII DVD (DVD)

I've seen Rick perform over the years as a solo artist, with Yes and with his son Adam, but never were any of those performances staged with all the musicians required to really represent his early work. So it was with great excitement that I noticed a small advertisement for the special engagements at Hampton Court in celebration of King Henry the 8ths 500th anniversary, where Rick presented "Six Wives" in it's entirely to small audiences of 5,000 patrons on May 1st and 2nd, 2009. This was to be my first and possibly last chance to finally see Rick with full orchestra and choir, and though I have never traveled overseas specifically to attend a concert, this seemed like the right time to do it, and the show was absolutely a dream come true.

This DVD very effectively captures the performance, with every track and bit of narration included, and the quality is stunning- get the Blue-Ray if you have the player. Either way, this disc will give you a very accurate impression of the actual show, particularly if you turn up the volume! My only quibble is that there was no camera placed above Rick's head to give you frequent shots of his hands at work. So you don't get the first full view of his playing until 27 min. into the concert. Making up for this is the sheer scope of what there is to see here, including 5 piece band, orchestra, choir, narrator, and the castle itself, which is really a key part of the experience. Highly recommended... Doug

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great show..., December 21, 2009

By 

Anibal J. Rosario Planas - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Six Wives Of Henry VIII DVD (DVD)

Six wives is a classic album by one of progressive rock's most important keyboard players ever, Rick Wakeman (Yes). It was his first solo effort, with contributions by some of progs greatest at that time. A couple of decades later, he performs the entire album (plus a few extras that are related to the theme) in the one place where he wanted to perform it when he originally wrote and released it.

It is a fantastic performance of really amazing songs, aided by the English Rock Ensamble, plus an orchestra and choir, and it is all really impressive. My one complain is that drummer Tony Fernandez (who I admire a lot) uses an electronic drumset with acoustic cymbals. Being great in dynamics, it was a surprise to see him using an electronic set, that takes away from his natural, dynamic type of playing. Other than that, this dvd is great. Buy it!