Translation of the video above: Andrea Bocelli. Already twenty years on all world's stages. The famous tenor's bewitching voice will sound once again in Prague, May 12 2018. Andrea Bocelli, O2 Arena, Prague.

(how are my translating skills, did that make sense?)

Ciao bambini,

yep, it was on 12th May and the reason why I'm posting this so late is my crazy exam period at U, which is (thank heavens!) slowly coming to an end, I only have one more exam on Tuesday, and then I will have to retake one exam (or more, depends on how the ones I took today will result) in september, but there is a long time until that so... IDC.

I should probably change the title of this book to a review book.

So...how was the concert overall? I LOVED EVERY SECOND. And by the way, this place was way more comfortable that the one where Sarah Brightman was (it had cushioned chairs :D). I was there with my mum, it was mother's day, wasn't really meant as a gift but when I realized that it's on the same day, I thought that at least it's something special. She doesn't like Brightman, but Bocelli, that's something different I guess. Because he's two years older that her and she speaks italian. AHEM. There were also giant screens so we could see the performers' faces (Andrea's smile with every storm ovation... hehe).

The music was provided by the Czech national symphonic orchestra and Mixed choir. The conductor was italian Marcello Rota. Aside from Bocelli, there were other soolists, soprano Maria Aleida Rodriguez 

Flutist Andrea Griminelli   

and pop singer Christine Allado

So the first half of the concert was more classical, it started off with Verdi's "Va pensiero" and pretty much everything in that part was Verdi, from "La donna è mobile" to Brindisi, which Maestro sang with Aleida. Then there were three pieces from "La Bohème", Schubert's Ave Maria, Panis Angelicus by Franck, Aleida sang "Waltz" from Il Bacio (I couldn't find her version on YouTube, but I liked it a lot). In the middle of all of this Griminelli played Monti's Czardas, posted above. Amazing, thought I prefer the violin version. 

The second half was more modern, Bocelli payed honor to the italian filmography, and there were also musical hits. It began with Paserella from "Otto e mezzo" (8 and half)

Aside from italian films, there was medley from Morricone's "Once upon a time in the West" played by Griminelli again, which was applauded since one Czech singer who recently died used to sing it with words. Before I get to Andrea again, I'm going to comment on Allado. She sang "Somewhere over the rainbow", which I posted above. If I have to be honest, I didn't like her performance at the concert, but I do like the YouTube recording you can see here. I don' t know why, but at the performance she was "shouting" too much, and her voice sounded kinda average, like imitating Beyoncé or what. Perhaps it was caused by her trying to sound powerful over the orchestra? I don't know. But I DID like when she sang Canto della terra with Maestro, not sure if it was caused by me focusing more on the tenor than on her. 😆

Before this Bocelli however sang "Maria" from West Side Story. Unpopular opinion: his version is better than Carreras'. Seriously, if my name was Maria (or at least Czech Marie), I'd melt, literally. Another song was "Mamma", so I held my mum's hand and she kept translating everything during this song lol. Also before the duet, he sang "O Sole mio", which was something I was hoping he would sing LOOONG before this concert. It was also kind of different from the normal version, because there was a whole part sung by the choir. I couldn't find similar version on YouTube. But it was nice and I was listening to this song ALL THE TIME after this concert, so warning- DON'T LISTEN TO IT, it's a terrible earworm. Of course after the official programme ended, we kept clapping, so we forced him to ADD the song that boxes him into one category with Sarah Brightman, "Con TePartirò" (Time to say goodbye in English, if there is someone who never heard of it), but not even that helped him to "tell us bye", we kept clapping, so Andrea had to add the one and only Nessun Dorma. And really, it was an experience after which one couldn't sleep, at least not me. 😄

I forgot to mention one little funny thing- in the middle of the concert, Bocelli spoke up about the conductor, Marcello Rota's birthday that day. "He is a little bit older than before, he is now... sixteen?" then paused and we were laughing. "Or sixty?" the Rota told him something we couldn't hear, and Andrea added "Alright, sixteen." My former classmate has a lot of work to do studying conducting, since Bocelli has a 16-year-old conductor haha. 😂😅 And then he sang "Happy Birthday" in italian along with the choir, and my mum and some other people started singing along. (I would as well if I knew the words)

And the last thing I need to comment on- the Arena is huge, and we of course had one of the cheapest tickets.

View from my seat

But there were three big screens, the two on the sides always showing what is happening on stage...I already talked about that. But the middle one was showing either that too, or some pre-recorded clips and videos. I feel like this was unecessary. Sometimes it was nice, like during Brindisi they showed a ball scene and Bocelli with Aleida themselves danced a little too. During O Sole Mio there were portraits of Luciano Pavarotti and other artists who discovered Maestro. But during most of the song it was a little disturbing. A video of a random girl during Maria, really? It seemed like wanting to please the people who enjoy visual entertaiment more than music. I think most of us wouldn't need it, as one Czech reviewer wrote, Bocelli has enough charisma to charm the whole audience without any pictures behind his back.
On the other hand, some of those videos were really cool, like horse riding. Also I didn't know that he plays in actual operas, I thought he only gives concerts due to his handicap, but no, during Nessun Dorma there was montage of him playing the prince in Turandot. Huge respect to this man.

Before the concert began there were also photos and videos from his foundation, and then a trailer to his movie.

As you can see, Ché grew old to become Maestro's music teacher. 😅

I'm really looking forward to see this movie! I've heard some people complaining that the main actor doesn't fit as Andrea  (that he's too short) or what, but I don't care as long as it's about Bocelli haha.

I was trying to shout "Bravo!" basically after everything he sang, but since there were too many people and the Arena is huge, it was impossible that he would heard it.

I'm going to post here few songs by him I really like, he didn't sang all of them at the concert but I started to search for a lot of his works so just you can enjoy it as well.

Yeah, I know he sang this one with JLo originally, but I like this version better...

Music of the Night-I know what some of you will probably say. "I don't like his accent." Yes, I didn't like it either when I watched a performance of this song from a concert on YouTube. But now that I really like it- except that he messed up the lyrics in the end "You and I" instead of "You alone". And imagine how amazing it would be if he sang an italian version of this. 💓

This is must see- Something stupid in italian. With his wife. That was too adorable not to post here!

And Maria, so you can enjoy its awesomeness... and if you think José Carreras is better, you should probably go somewhere else. 😄
It's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard... Andrea... Andrea... Andreeeea...
(I have problems, I know 😅)
Now a video that was actually recorded in Prague during this very concert:

You can find more of them- just write "Andrea Bocelli Praha 2018". I posted this one so you can see the scene from Turandot.

I had to add this one... I love it, because the message - live for music, music is my true love- really speaks to me. Plus this woman played Esméralda in Notre-Dame de Paris, what isn't to love here?

And finally- O Sole mio.

I mean, summer is beggining, so why not sing about the Sun, eh?

Maestro will return to my country at the end of the next year. We have already agreed with my mum that we will go, and also that we'll take granny with us.

I hope I didn't bore you much. I tried to record a little too, it's all on my instagram, I have a public one so you don't have to follow me in order to watch the videos, just write me if you're interested and I will give you my name.

Sorry if it was too long, there were just plenty of things I wanted to tell you about.

Arrivederci!
EvitaChristine

"What does 'Poco meno mosso' mean? I thought you would want to learn italian because of Andrea Bocelli."        -my piano teacher after he saw me fangirling on Facebook. 😅