Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli performed at Madison Square Garden last night in his current world tour. He’s 65 years old, looks older than that to me, and started slowly but gained so much strength as the evening wore on that by the end he was magnificent. I’ve never seen him do three encores before (the last time I saw him at the Garden he did none), but he saved the best for the end and Con te partirò brought down the house. (He sang with the New York City Philharmonic, which was superb.)
He uses various soloists with whom he also does duets, and some dancers, to provide variety and give him a rest. The former isn’t needed but I understand the latter is. His daughter of about ten or so did a couple of songs and she’s clearly gifted, no surprise there.
This man has to memorize not only the music and lyrics, but the order of the show, the cues with his singing partners, and he even dances with one on two occasions. He is a rare talent. I understand that many opera aficionados consider him too “pop.” They are experts, of course, and entitled to be totally wrong.
By the way, there were no interruptions from the crowd, nothing thrown on stage, no one standing all night, nothing diverting from the great talent on stage. Of course, the age span was probably from mid-40s on up. Maybe maturity can still come for everyone.
Then all those people emerged orderly onto the streets of New York and we walked 16 blocks back to our midtown hotel, a personal record.
