Also included is "Je crois entendre encore" ("I still believe I hear") – an aria from Georges Bizet's opera Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers)[6] – with a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. Sung by Gilmour in the original French. "I remember my wife Polly's face going red when I tried singing it," he recalled, "and my face literally going into a cold sweat – 'Do I dare try this?' But once the choir came up here [Gilmour's studio] and ran through it with me, that gave me a huge amount of confidence."[7]
The 30 minutes of special features on the DVD include the tracks "I Put a Spell on You" (from Later with Jools Holland from June 1992), "Don't" (from a Leiber-Stoller Tribute concert from June 2001), and a performance of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 (recorded on Gilmour's houseboat The Astoria).[8][9] Additionally, there is a version of "High Hopes" performed by Gilmour's backing vocalists. Finally, there are lyrics, a home movie of the band and choir rehearsing at home, and a 'Spare Digits' feature - a camera on Gilmour's fretboards during six guitar solos.[9][5]
I can show you places where the nerves are there. At the beginning of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', there's a closeup of me doing a vibrato on the acoustic guitar which is more than I'd ever intended. That was due to trembling. It wasn't as under control as one would like it to be.
How did you go about choosing the material for the shows?
I went through the entire Pink Floyd catalogue, and I picked the tunes I liked. Then, after I figured out which ones would work with the instrumentation I had in mind, I spent about three months fiddling around in my home studio mocking up the arrangements.
^ abcdManning, Toby (2006). "Which One's Pink?". The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 146. ISBN1-84353-575-0.
^ abcdManning, Toby (2006). "Floyd on Film". The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 268. ISBN1-84353-575-0.
^ abcdSchaffner, Nicholas (2005). "Afterword – High Hopes". Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey (New ed.). London: Helter Skelter. p. 326. ISBN1-905139-09-8.
^ abcSchaffner, Nicholas (2005). "Afterword – High Hopes". Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey (New ed.). London: Helter Skelter. p. 327. ISBN1-905139-09-8.