by Nan
Pre-concert, we gathered in the lounge of the Bostonian,
mostly a party of familiar faces from around New England, as
well as my favorite Grand Dame from Colorado (you know who
you are). Cockeyed optimists, my party of four left our
umbrellas in the car, and thus were forced to use my
raincoat as community tarp, taking itty-bitty synchronous
steps through the puddles as we lined up outside the concert
hall, shaking ourselves off like four drowned rats as we
entered the building. Handing over our tickets at the
turnstile, we were instructed to report to Customer Service,
immediately. My first instinct was to swallow
my gum before Fleet Management made me stick it to the end
of my nose. But no, we were not singled out on account of
offense, nor were we courted to fill holes in the orchestra.
We were being ‘forced’ to upgrade, abandoning our cheapo
seats at the other end of the world for a plum location off
to the right side of the stage. No reasons were given, and
none pressed, not when it became clear that this was
scandalously to our advantage. There was some monstrous
piece of equipment set up in the back of the hall at floor
level, which undoubtedly would have obstructed our view.
Thank goodness for unnecessary paraphernalia.
"Vesti la guibba" was perfectly placed as opener, a
gut-wrenching and powerful piece, on Bocelli’s part, a
two-footed, two-fisted leap into the program. The crowd was
immediately aroused, and though it was a viable
rendition…I’d have no trouble buying it in the context of
the opera…I was a bit disappointed by the amount of sob and
scarcity of what sets Bocelli’s voice apart from others,
that which drags you into his emotion. This felt "at you"
rather than "in me," a criticism that clearly shows I am
both selfish and spoiled, both of which are Bocelli’s fault.
From here on in, I was enthralled with every piece. "E
lucevan le stelle" was more beautiful than ever, if that’s
possible. There is definitely something more to this man’s
voice, a new confidence, and a richer tone, decisiveness
that was heard throughout the evening. I was not quite as
stunned by his improvement as I was last tour, but what has
emerged in that time frame is strength, possible physical,
definitely mental, strength that seems to radiate from him
rather than from the presence of his stage mates. If one had
never seen Bocelli in concert before this night (as I am
certain many had not), one might have thought he has always
been the picture of comfort in front of an audience.
My favorites in the first half were "Turridu’s Farewell"
(probably my new favorite aria) and Giordano’s "Mia madre,"
which was foreign to me, but if that is, indeed, what he
sang, I am looking forward to playing this aria to death. I
wonder whose bright idea it was to forego translations on
the program. I was counting on taking the lazy man’s way out
on a few pieces that I hadn’t had time to research. He did
stick to his program more closely than usual. If he makes
this habit, it would be nice if he or his management would
leak out what he is apt to perform on a given tour, or at
least what is new in his repertoire.
During the second session, I fell in love with "Occhi
di fata." I was hoping he wouldn’t sing "Marchiare," "O sole
mio" and "Torna a Surriento," and cringed over the thought
of his closing with "CTP" again…that is, until he sang them.
I keep forgetting, live is live. "Brindisi" is always
fun, but more so when Maestro Steven "gregarious" Mercurio
is there to solicit audience participation.
"Melodramma," is a touchingly beautiful, beautiful
song, and was delivered perfectly in that spirit. Everyone
was aflutter over Bocelli playing the flute, but I was
mentally shushing my neighbors, preparing for my private
serenade. The most singular surprise of the night for me was
"My Way." I was absolutely floored by the intimacy of
Bocelli’s interpretation. He, like Sinatra, reveled
wonderfully in the triumphal vein, but Bocelli made me
the sufferer. He left me dwelling on what’s beneath the
defiance far longer, far deeper, than Sinatra ever did. I’ve
never really considered this quite so serious a life anthem,
but as he sang it, I had to avert my eyes and struggle for
grit to keep from weeping. I confess to expecting a cute
carbon copy of the more famous version, but a carbon copy,
this was not. "Because," the other piece he performed in
English, was also an amazing number, a thoroughly rousing
delight with a stellar ending. What a remarkable version of
a song I’m not certain I’ve ever cared for in the past. A
song, a singer makes. At least, a song, this singer
makes, and Bocelli makes every song his sings, his own. I
did detect his foreign accent in "Because," (thus, the
"cute"), but it took nothing away from my enjoyment. I see
no reason why Bocelli shouldn’t consider an all-in-English
CD soon.
Ana Maria Martinez was ravishing, far better than her
previous Boston performances, now a complete package, full
of charm, personality, more physically alluring than I’ve
ever seen her, as much a compliment to Bocelli as one could
ever hope to see or hear. I detected no labor
whatsoever in her performance, her voice strong, sparkling
and sharply defined, a woman who also exudes confidence, and
uses it to convince the audience that for her, singing is
effortless. Her Pagliacci aria was my favorite, a
simply gorgeous piece. Her trills gave me
chills. When someone puts on a performance like this,
you have to feel bad for her being treated as second fiddle,
but…(shrug)…this was a Bocelli crowd. The Butterfly
duet was one of the most impressive duets I have ever heard
Bocelli sing, and the finest I’ve heard of this
twosome, to date. It was quite a long piece for a concert
crowd, but not a peep was heard from the audience. If I
hadn’t already been aware of the mutual affection between
Bocelli and Ms. Martinez, I would have assumed it to exist
after this aria. I wonder if those who plan to attend the
opera this summer will be treated to such vocal finery
and striking compatibility. The next diva paired with
Bocelli has something to prove, stepping into AMM’s shoes.
Let us hope someone is finally thinking of full opera
collaboration, Bocelli-Martinez, live on stage or in studio.
I loved all the orchestral pieces under Mercurio’s lively
direction. I think everyone recognized and enjoyed them,
though many or most may not have been familiar with the
"Mercurial Overture." I didn’t sense anyone frowning on
Mercurio’s playfulness as I have on other occasions. This
crowd was not exceptionally young, but was decidedly not
stuffy. The dress was far more casual than I’ve ever seen
before at a Bocelli concert (maybe because of the lousy
weather) and there were far more men than usual (Father’s
Day gifts, no doubt), but it was a fun-loving crowd, not a
rude one, egged on by Mercurio. My sister and I spotted the
cameraman perched at Bocelli’s foot doing a sort of Ray
Charles swaying boogie at one latter point in the show. We
had to stifle laughs, watching him slap his hand on a piece
of equipment, as if he were at a hootenanny. Too funny.
Bocelli does seem, look, and sound more mature, yet in spite
of his deeper, richer tone, nothing is lost in
lyrical sweetness, or in the sweetness of his nature. He
still smiled regularly, though not with the same type of
nervous release one used to sense after a just-performed
piece is enthusiastically accepted, more a mature reaction,
deeply appreciative, a man pleased with the way things were
going. On this night, there was no struggling on his behalf,
not as many of us have professed to do several times a night
at previous concerts. On this night, there was a strong
sense of self-satisfaction in the air; something that those
who have followed his career for a time know does not come
lightly, and never completely to Bocelli, but the lifting of
overt anxiety made for a new and blissful experience. It is
hard to imagine fortune improving upon this live
performance.
CONCERT REPORT (and
other thoughts) – Boston, June 16, 2002
I have to confess to being a "new" fan – I had a cassette of
Sogno for quite some time, but never actually sat down to
listen to it; it just played in the background occasionally
while I was doing other things. Then this past winter, I was
in a store looking for a new CD…trying to find something
different that would give variety to my listening habits.
CIELI DI TOSCANA had just come out and was all over the new
release area of the store; I knew Andrea Bocelli had become
a big name and I’m an uneducated fan of classical music, so
I bought it. I listened to it, listened to it again, and
listened to it AGAIN. I found my self listening to nothing
else, so I bought ROMANZA…and listened to it again, again
and AGAIN. (I’ve since bought SOGNO in CD, and it’s become
my favorite)
My curiousity was now aroused and I started going online to
find out who this guy was and learn the "story of his
success." I saw that he had written a book, so I went to
Amazon.com and ordered it. I happened to be home from the
work the day it arrived and sat down and started to
read…every interruption for the next few days turned out to
be no more than spaces of time before I could get back to
the book; I was enthralled. As I finished the book, I had
such profound feelings – feelings I couldn’t find the right
adjectives for – I’ve had other people read the book to get
their feedback, thinking that SOMEONE would be able to
articulate what I felt. So far, everyone seems to pick up on
certain things – courage, determination, intelligence – but
there’s something deeper going on for me in connecton with
AB that no one I know has honed in on; I’ve come to the
conclusion that it’s just personality differences and our
individual emotional and spiritual makeups.
I have a co-worker (male) who has been a bit condescending
in his attitude toward my enthusiastic interest in AB; his
mother (in her 70s) is apparently a huge fan, so my
co-worker has written AB off as "a hunk who’s major fan base
is middle-aged women." However, he also studies philosophy,
so I had him read a couple of excerpts from AB’s book, and
he found the concepts expressed very interesting; I think he
was also quite surprised.
Obviously, by this time I HAD to see AB in person, so I went
on the Internet to find an upcoming concert schedule. As
luck would have it, he was coming to the U.S. this year and
better still, to Boston! I immediately printed out the
ticket pricelist and left it by my computer at home, trying
to figure out how to pay for a ticket (single parent, two
jobs – money’s tight). However, my son (recent high school
graduate and working full time for the summer) saw the
printout and told me that for Mother’s Day he wanted to buy
me a ticket "to go see that blind guy." I was thrilled and
decided that with his contribution and what I could come up
with, I could get a seat in the middle-price range and
wouldn’t be stuck sitting up in the rafters.
On the day of the concert, I found myself getting as excited
as if I had a date with THE ONE – that particular individual
you’ve been waiting for. I live in a suburb close to Boston,
so it was only a matter of a 10-minute drive to the train
station for me to get on a train into town. (As I left my
house, it started to POUR, so needless to say, all of the
women at the concert who had spent some extra time with
their hair in anticipation of a night out – NEEDN’T HAVE
BOTHERED! We were all having a bad hair day!)
When I went into the Fleet Center and found my seat, I was
absolutely speechless – I was no more than 50 feet away from
the stage!! I had never been to the Fleet Center, so even
though I saw a seating chart when I ordered my ticket, I had
no way of visualizing the actual proximity to the stage. I
was honestly stunned – I kept repeating "I don’t believe
this", to myself and the people to my left and right. I went
alone, which I know some people will think is kind of weird,
but fortunately, I’m not the type of person who needs
company in order to attend something like this; also, in
this particular case, my enjoyment of AB’s music and my
appreciation and respect of him as a person are personal to
me – if I was with someone who didn’t share the the same
emotions or enjoyment, it would have detracted from the
experience for me.
The concert itself was unbelievable. Steven Mercurio started
with the Star-Spangled Banner (complete with red, white and
blue flashing lights); it was an unexpected touch, but it
acted as a warm up for the audience and I think the thought
was appreciated.
The program has been online, so I won’t go into the details
of that.
The moment that S. Mercurio brought Andrea out onstage, the
collective emotions in the crowd were almost palpable…for
one simple person to elicit so much from so many is really
remarkable. Through my observations (and a little
eavesdropping), I noticed that the variety of people in the
audience ranged from those who attend any live performance
of any "famous" person, to those whose only awareness of AB
comes from his duet with Sarah Brightman and the TV show
‘The Sopranos’ to those who have followed his career from
the beginning…and I suppose the occasional oddball like
myself (but I didn’t meet them).
Some people traveled a ways – the two women on my right were
from Vermont and New Hampshire, the couple in front of me
had come down from New Hampshire also. Every age group was
represented – of course, there were couples of all ages, but
there were young men and women attending with their friends,
whole families and of course, our local Italian-American
community was well represented. I took particular note of
the crowd so I could report back to my coworker that it
wasn’t primarily middle-aged women!!
It’s such a common human experience to glorify someone
because of all you‘ve seen, heard or read, but there’s
usually some disappointment when you actually see them in
person. The best part of this concert was that there was NO
DISAPPOINTMENT!!! To actually see Andrea standing there,
singing as he does – the same way he’s stood and sung on TV
or the videos I’ve seen – I really can’t explain it. You
wait to actually see him, and then there he is…you wait to
hear him, and he starts to sing – perfectly. Not having an
"educated ear" I wouldn’t be able to point out any technical
faults in his performance, but as an average (but devoted)
listener, my ears heard beauty. At different moments, people
around me were saying "Bravo!" or wiping away tears, or in
the case of AB’s singing "Melodramma," the gentleman sitting
next to me was singing along (quietly).
During all the comings and goings (AB led onstage, led off,
led onstage, led off) he never spoke until he introduced
"Because": "OK, now I have to talk." This got an
appreciative laugh from the audience. He spoke of the first
time he heard it as sung by Mario Lanza and dedicated the
song to the audience.
In the second half of the concert, I was surprised by
"Melodramma," simply because it was performed EXACTLY as
recorded on CIELI DI TOSCANA – I didn’t think a live
performance of any song could be of the same perfect quality
of a recording. AB played the flute in this song. I hope he
plays it in other concerts; I’ve become aware that a great
number of people don’t realize that AB is an accomplished
musician.
Even though I was so close to the stage, I used the
binoculars I took simply because I wanted to be able to see
him smile at the end of a song. They also provided me with
an opportunity to watch him closely during some songs, and I
could see that he trembled slightly (intensity? emotion?)
when a note was held (in some cases, unbelievably long) or
the high notes were hit and extended. It was incredible.
Then an electric keyboard was brought out and AB sat down;
my first thought was that now I could see him as he was
before he was "discovered"…sitting at a keyboard in a bar (a
lounge singer); it helped put things in perspective for me.
BUT – when he started to sing "My Way," the audience
reaction was unbelievable – we all know the song, we all
know it was written for Frank Sinatra, and yet knowing AB’s
story, it is SO APPROPRIATE for him to sing. Sinatra had
such a different life than AB and the song came out as he
was making another comeback; when AB sang it, the song
became representative of higher ideals and was literally
heart-wrenching (this was the song that put the tears in MY
eyes). The emotional support and acknowledgement of
hard-earned success coming from the audience at the end of
this song should have been bottled for AB to take with him
to open if he ever feels down or ever needs continued
encouragement…it was that strong.
I have to wonder who brought this song to AB’s attention, or
did he discover it himself? His English was almost perfect;
I don’t know how much English he can speak at this point – I
can only hope that the song means to him what it meant to us
to hear him sing it. I also hope it appears on his next
"pop" CD, which I personally think it will. If they put that
on a CD along with "Because" (which was also a tear-jerker)
I don’t think the stores will be able to keep it in stock.
I commend Steven Mercurio and Ana Maria Martinez; in
personality and talent they complement AB perfectly. They
both have a new fan in me.
When the concert was over and I went outside, I kept taking
deep breaths, thinking I must have been holding it for the
past 2 hours – however, even as I sit here writing this, I
STILL can’t explain what it all made me feel. I know he has
a beautiful voice that I enjoy and appreciate, that calms
and excites (or, in the case of "Il Diavolo E L’Angelo," is
simply fun); I know that I admire his courage and talent; I
know that I respect his intelligence greatly; and I know
that I feel an affinity to some of the emotions he
expresses…
We can only wish him continued success and pray that he’s
happy (and gets some rest!).
Melodie
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