Andrea reviews 2008

xcept · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:46 pm Post subject: Andrea reviews 2008

Grammy Awards Performance: Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli

What They Sang: “The Prayer” - in tribute to Luciano Pavarotti and other deceased artists

How They Looked: Both Andrea and Josh wore black suits. Josh opted for all black and Andrea went a tad more traditional with a white shirt. Of course, with voices like these two have, who even notices the clothes they are wearing? You get the most out of things when you just close your eyes and listen. The entire performance was beautiful and brilliant.

Performance Value: It doesn’t get much better than this. It’s hard to compare artists like Andrea and Josh to Alicia Keys and the Foo Fighters. The styles are so different. It wouldn’t be fair to compare. That being said, this is what singing is all about. This is what the human voice is sometimes capable of and when it is, all the audience can do is sit there, enjoy and be astounded. I am a classically trained singer with over 16 years of training. When I tell you it pretty much cannot get any better than this, I am telling the truth. Two of the most beautifully voiced singers of all time, this performance really made the evening. The tribute to Pavarotti was touching and the performance stood out.

Star Value (1 = Worst, 5= Best): 5

Source: Hotarazzi

xcept · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:58 am Post subject:

Close to heaven

Celine Dion once said: ‘If God had a singing voice, it would sound much like Andrea Bocelli.’ And the massive crowd at the Italian tenor’s Taiwan concert concurred.

Magnified more than a hundredfold on the two mega screens straddling the stage, conductor Marcello Rota lifted his arms and pursed his lips. When he raised his baton and the first strains of music reached the 17,000 pairs of eagerly awaiting ears, there were long seconds of bewilderment. No aria from Puccini, Verdi or Mascagni was this!

Then, as realisation dawned, everyone scrambled to his or her feet in varying haste – it was the Taiwanese national anthem. Apparently, it had been many years since the anthem had been heard at such events and the enthusiastic clapping that followed was telling of the recent political fervour that had swept through the island state.

This was the start of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s concert in Taichung, the third largest city in Taiwan, two Saturdays ago. From his opening performance – Mascagni’s Brindisi Cavalleria rusticana – his voice was potent, pure and passionate, stirring the blood of his large audience in the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.

Italian opera was the flavour for the evening, with Bocelli taking on solos and duets with either baritone Gianfranco Montresor or soprano Maria Luigia Borsi to the tight and strong accompaniment of domestic troupes Evergreen Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus.

He weaved magic with his E lucevan le stelle from Tosca, choosing not to hit the high notes with full force, but instead portraying a deeper, gentler side to the lover lamenting his coming execution.

The evening had an almost magical hue to it. The glorious music was a given throughout the two-and-a-quarter hour concert, but with the obliging full moon (that seemed to clear the clouds only during Bocelli’s solo performances), the caress of a gentle breeze in the pleasing 20°C weather and the faint fresh scent of grass underfoot (at least from our field seats), it seemed as if even heaven had been enlisted for event organisation.

The large stage had been set up at the outfield and for the 1,000 in the field, and definitely for the 16,000 in the stands, the giant screens were a necessity. The camerawork was flawless, with excellent shot selection and close ups from different angles. Memories of Bocelli’s arched eyebrows (the left lifts higher than the right) against his perpetually closed eyes each time he hits the high notes, the nimble long, slender fingers of the harpist and the awe on the face of the first violinist who got to shake Bocelli’s hand (and the crushed fellow violinist beside him who offered his unseen and unshook hand) still lingers.

The rural Tuscany-born 49-year-old has been blind since the age of 12, when a football accident accelerated an already slow loss of eyesight from congenital glaucoma. He studied and practiced law while singing in a piano bar for a few years before finally realising his musical passions and studying under Franco Corelli.

With his ability to tackle both pop and classical repertoire with grace and conviction, Bocelli has amassed worldwide sales of over 60 million albums, topping charts internationally with his critically acclaimed albums and singles, and earning an impressive array of prestigious awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Song for The Prayer, a duet with Celine Dion, plus Grammy and Academy Award nominations.

There to lap up the rare treat of Bocelli in Taichung was Kuomintang (KMT)’s president-elect Ma Ying-jeou and many other Taiwanese politicos and VIPs.

With his unmistakably soaring tenor, his tone colour and charming personality, Bocelli underscored his far superior class during the concert.

Soprano Borsi announced her presence with an unremarkable Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi O mio babbino caro. In her later duets with Bocelli – Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s O soave fanciulla – she was frequently drowned out, and her top notes weren’t full-throated with timbre.

Montresor was certainly competent and even stirring in snatches during his duet O Mimi tu più non torni from La Bohème and Tosca’s Te Deum, performed with the chorus. His solo – Tosti’s La serenata – was masterful, giving glimpses of the flexibility and smooth tonal emission of the baritone.

The second half of the programme provided more familiar Neapolitan classics like O Sole Mio and Funiculì funiculà.

The person constantly on the move was Turin guest conductor Rota, who has collaborated with Bocelli since 1995. When each final note faded, with clipped correctness and ramrod posture, he guided Bocelli on-and-off the stage and through imperceptible signals, he precisely positioned the blind tenor to the left of the centre microphone.

It was only at the final performance that Trinidadian R&B and soul singer Heather Headley appeared. Her powerful vocals in Canto della terra with Bocelli gave the familiar hit a different, yet enjoyable slant.

The appreciative audience leapt to their feet at the end, clapping wildly with deafening cheers of “bravo” and “one more” and chanting “encore, encore”. This heralded four encores, which included his pop hits The Prayer with Headley and Time to Say Goodbye with Borsi who sang back-up and not Sarah Brightman’s duet version.

He closed the concert with Turandot’s Nessun Dorma, leaving his adoring fans ecstatic, temporarily sated and fortified to face the organised nightmare of 17,000 people streaming out of the stadium to get to their scooters, cars, buses and free shuttle buses to the bullet train station.

Andrea Bocelli’s latest album Vivere, a “best of” collection, is available through Universal Music Malaysia.

Source: Malaysia Star