Bibi, Sarah and Quentin Tarantino: Andrea Bocelli's show has become the most surprising of the year
Last night in Tel Aviv, Bocelli looks like someone who has long since proven he has nothing to prove.
Even at 63, his versatile vocal range simply left the elves in the stands and on the grass in utter shock.
But the highlights of the evening came thanks to the special guests.
Performance review
Living Room Fellow
09/06/2022
Thursday, 09 June 2022, 09:35 Updated: 09:48
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perfect.
Andrea Bocelli at Bloomfield Stadium (Photo: Omar Keidar)
Should a classical music concert, featuring performances by famous lions from the opera canon, be held at a giant football stadium?
The short answer is: no.
The real answer is: if it works, then why not?
Famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli proved last night in Bloomfield that where artistic honesty meets inconceivable talent - the set is ultimately just a set.
When the lights went out, the Hippo football stadium became an intimate opera hall.
True, the powerful amplification will never be able to convey the sweet vibration of classical music as it is supposed to surround a narrow hall in the shape of a narrow horseshoe.
Some will look at it as blasphemy, but the truth is that it is a kind of miracle.
Think about it, the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini passed away in 1924 even before he had time to see the opera "Tornado" take the stage at La Scala.
It is doubtful he could have even fantasized that the lion "Nanson Dorma" (no one will sleep tonight) would become so popular in football stadiums around the world for decades.
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A very moving moment dedicated to him.
Quentin Tarantino in Andrea Bocelli's show at Bloomfield Stadium (Photo: Omar Keidar)
Provincial as it may sound, there is something very exciting about a world-renowned musician devoting a moment in his performance to one of today's greatest filmmakers - and it all happens at Fucking Israel
Bocelli's performance in Tel Aviv is a kind of miracle, mainly because Bocelli's entire career has been full of miracles.
The little Italian boy who started going blind from a young age until he lost his sight at the age of 12, was never meant to be a star.
The talent was always there, but his parents sent him to university.
He returned from there as a lawyer.
He was already a respected family man, who worked in public defense, when he fell into the net of the good music goddess again.
Only at the age of 34 did his musical career begin.
A late age for any musician, probably classical, probably at these levels.
Many opera singers have insulted him over the years.
Claimed that his crossover from the Italian pop world to the classical world is not authentic.
His choice to embark on touring tours that combine several styles has driven their minds crazy.
You can understand them, how many tenors in the world have already had such great success among the general public?
Some even claimed that if he had not been blind, he would not have achieved the same success.
Last night in Tel Aviv, Bocelli looks like someone who has long since proven he has nothing to prove.
Even at 63, his versatile vocal range simply left the elves in the stands and on the grass in utter shock.
Would it have been nicer to see him at the Hall of Culture or at the Opera House?
for sure.
And yet, how can one complain in the face of this beauty?
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Stole the show.
10-year-old Virginia Bocelli with her father Andrea Bocelli at Bloomfield Stadium (Photo: Omar Kedar)
The first half of the show consisted mostly of familiar operatic lions.
Vardi, Puccini, Giordano and other members of the impressive arsenal of Italian opera.
Bocelli is impressive from the first note to the last.
His talent is almost outrageous, but something about the sincerity of his performance makes the event exciting.
This is surprising given the mass location.
And in any case, it seems that the Israeli audience enjoyed more in the second half of the show, which included more "poppy" works by the artist.
Includes a great rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" which as usual is so appropriate for football fields, and also "Amazing Grace", which includes the chilling line in this context: "I was blind, and now I can see".
But the highlights of the evening came thanks to the special guests.
First, it was the guest Quentin Tarantino who sat in the front row, even if the Philharmonic had consecrated a string from the works of the late Italian composer Enio Morricone.
Provincial as it may sound, there is something very exciting about a world-renowned musician devoting a moment in his performance to one of today's greatest filmmakers - and it all happens at Fucking Israel.
Hearing the Philharmonic perform the famous tune from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" was a crazy pleasure that probably no one in the audience expected.
A little less related.
Financing songs with Andrea Bocelli at Bloomfield Stadium (Photo: Omar Keidar)
Additional guests were two of Bocelli's children.
In his previous performance in Israel in 2011, Bocelli talked about the fact that his children naturally express an interest in music.
Now, his second son from his cell is a musician in his own right, who in addition to two handsome duets performed a nice solo song on the big stage his father arranged for him.
But the one who captured the audience's heart was his little daughter Virginia, a total of 10 years old, who marveled at a spectacular bilingual duet to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
How many covers we have already heard for this masterpiece, how rare it is to discover a new version of the song that not only does kindness to the original, but adds to it animals and renewed power.
The Israeli guest Shiri Maimon, on the other hand, felt a little out of place.
Something in her solo performance of "The Silence That Remains" felt a bit detached from the situation.
Between the powerful lions and the magical Italian ballads, suddenly an Israeli Eurovision song?
The idea was nice, the performance was successful, but there was a feeling that Maimon's music was not on the frequency of the concert.
On the other hand, we have already agreed that there is nothing to complain about the miracle that took place yesterday in Bloomfield, right?
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Prices are very high where they sit.
Benjamin and Sarah Netanyahu in a performance by Andrea Bocelli at Bloomfield Stadium (Photo: Omar Keidar)
Because after the second half of the show was over, the encores came.
When the Philharmonic started playing the first boxes of "Con te partirò", the crowd cheered as if it were a Tel Aviv derby.
This is the song that put Bocelli on the world music stage.
A song that culminated in 150,000 copies being sold daily.
A huge hit that has captured the sales charts in France, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium - where it still holds the record for the best-selling single of all time.
All this is very impressive in light of the fact that this is a song in Italian.
A year after its release, Bocelli recorded a duet with singer Sarah Brightman, under the English name "Time To Say Goodbye".
Boxer Henry Musk sought to use the song in his farewell battle, just before it became a highly sought-after hit at retirement events, as well as at funerals.
Yesterday, in the pleasant summer breeze of Jaffa, Bocelli sang the song as if it were the first time.
The audience still tried to interrupt, some tried to sing, one annoying man even whistling the whole melody - and yet,
There was something so perfect in this performance that nothing could ruin it.
A perfect moment of heavenly music.
Was it possible to improve on the specific show that aired yesterday at Bloomfield?
Definitely.
Even in the very good place where I sat yesterday it was impossible to see the huge screen behind the orchestra and choir.
The sound perfectly conveyed the great voice of the soloists, but more than once distorted the presence of the orchestra, which was swallowed up behind the vocal voices.
But bottom line, most of the performance was close to perfection, and Bocelli's voice - even in a live performance, and perhaps especially in a live performance - is a miracle you probably have to hear to believe.
It's hard to ignore the elephant in the room.
The distant stage with a performance by Andrea Bocelli at Bloomfield Stadium (Photo: Omar Keidar)
In small
This concert review is not the place to analyze the ills of Israeli capitalism.
Still, it's hard to ignore the glittering elephant in the room: ticket prices ranged from expensive to absurd yesterday.
Sucks to mess with that, because the production was sweet and impressive, and the show itself was excellent.
And yet, it is inevitable to note that in the farthest stand from the stage, the cheapest ticket cost 300 shekels.
To sit on the grass you already had to part with a minimum of 600 shekels.
In the really good places it was necessary to invest 1,800 shekels per head (for example, where opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife sat), while in some "reasonable" places on the grass, which rose in the range of 1,200-1,500 shekels, the viewing angle was quite problematic. Was seen mostly through the screens.
This is what usually happens in stadium performances, when size does its thing - except that this time the pricing seemed to be unusually borderless.
The real meaning is that such an exciting musical show has become an event for the rich only.
While the cost of living is rampant, it feels natural.
In a country where you have to sell a kidney every time you fill up with a fuel tank, it's hard to complain about the prices of cultural events, probably concerts with an elitist scent of the Philharmonic.
Still, it's worth comparing Bocelli's shows in Europe to find that prices in Israel sometimes exceed three times the prices abroad. Regular flight and tickets to the best seats in the hall.
culture
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Andrea Bocelli
Overseas performances
Performance review