BocelliOnline

[Gianna]

This will not be a popular post- I saw Andrea in Vegas at the Mandalay 2-3 yrs back-huge fan-sat in 4th row-incredible. Went last night to my home town performance, Royal Christmas, in Chicago- am glad we only paid $150 per seat-Andrea was wonderful WHEN he was on stage. The dancers were beautiful BUT they should have been backround instead of taking up at least half the time- then add the chorus and you have Andrea on stage every now and then. First, it made for a very disjointed show. You just get into the voice of Mr. Bocelli for 1, maybe 2 songs and he's gone for another long period of time. It affected the energy-I heard MANY complaints-people did not come to see ballet-they came to hear Andrea. It was not billed as a Christmas show WITH Andrea- it was supposed to be Andrea in a Chrstmas setting. At least half the stadium was empty- partly I think this was due to last-minute only advertising, but maybe people had heard about the format and didn't want to pay $350 per seat to watch ballet, hear Andrea sing Ave Maria 3 times (to be fair, last one was different format) and hear a choir- WHAT are his promoters thinking? this is a city that adores him and I walked away feeling I hardly even heard him-especially compared to his "Romaza" concert in Vegas when he sang song after song after song- Someone said he only encored once because of lack of applause-well, no one ever got the chance to really get into him-we were too busy watching ballet, anxiously waiting for him to come back. I wish there were a way to tell his group directly: DUMP THIS FORMAT AND DO IT QUICKLY! sorry, but I herd no comments fromthe crowd when leaving to the contrary- people were cleary disappointed at the disjointed presentation and the short time or breaks in time he spent on stage.

[Willma]

[Janice]

I am not sure where Gianna saw Andrea last night but I was at the United Center in Chicago which was 3/4 full (not half-empty) and not with people who were all unhappy with the format and complaining. "One encore"? Gosh, I heard two--"The Prayer" and "White Christmas", with Denyce Graves and the choir. "Lack of applause"? A standing ovation and multiple shouts of "bravo" and "I/we love you" is a lack of applause/enthusiasm? Not in my book. Maybe she sat in the Grinch section of the arena. I did not read any reports/reviews before I went to the show so I'd have a clear opinion all my own when I went. I was wondering how often Andrea would sing--KNOWING from seeing the posters that other entertainers were involved in the program. I have remembered 10 songs on my own--not sure if there were more or not and I forget. The "Sacred Arias" cd is one of my all-time favorites and I was pretty certain the songs Andrea would be performing would all come from there. The encores at the end were a great surprise for me. He sounded ABsolutely top-notch and was not at all nervous. He made a nice speech at the end of the show about how swell Chicago is :slick and that he has always had "beautiful memories" of my city. The entire evening gave me great Christmas spirit!