Tonight (November 25) was the first of two evening performances of a semi-staged version of the one-act opera "Cavalleria Rusticana" with Andrea Bocelli in the tenor role! The San Antonio Mastersingers were the opera chorus. What a thrill!!
The Municipal Auditorium was sold out for both performances (5000 seats each night), and the audience was thrilled, too -- lots of applause every time Bocelli came on stage and after he sang, and instant standing ovation at the end. The music is exciting, the drama was very well conveyed by the leads, and of course Bocelli was the star. This is his first time singing this role live, and we were lucky that it was here. It was a rush for us to sing for that size audience, too.
It was interesting to watch how everyone worked with him and his lack of sightedness. There were raised lines (for lack of a better term) placed on stage to indicate where he was to stand and walk, and the staging included other leads walking on with him, lots of times to touch him partly so he could get his bearings, etc. If you didn't know he was blind, and couldn't see his face (big auditorium), you would have never known. And he was very gracious to all of us fawners after rehearsals this weekend, as you can see from the photo above!
If anything changes after Wednesday night's performance, I'll post again. Oh, yeah, and in the audience tonight was Sherrill Milnes, famed Metropolitan Opera star; I've been in two choirs that sang "Elijah" with him and Dave and I drove him back to NYC from State College about 10 years ago. He was backstage as we filed on for the second half, and I said hello as I walked past. :) Rumor has it that Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs star, was in the audience too. No word if Eva Longoria Parker was there with him...
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