Andrea Bocelli

 

 I sang with Andrea Bocelli. 

If you don't know who that is, (first of all, shame on you) he is a famous Italian tenor. His most famous songs are "The Prayer" and "Time to Say Goodbye." Plus a bunch of other traditional Italian songs that you all know, but don't know the words to (because, well, they are in Italian). 

Oh. AND he's blind.

On Saturday, November 24th Andrea Bocelli came to the MGM Grand Garden Arena for one night in Las Vegas. This place seats over 15,000 people.

And it was absolutely full.

This is at practice, so the arena isn't "full" yet, but you get the idea.

I joined the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society mainly so that I could sing in this. They have a traveling orchestra, but it's much cheaper to use a local choir than pay for the travel of a certain group. So that was my in. 

We practiced a lot as a Choir, but not very much with Andrea Bocelli or the orchestra.... so we just had to wing some of it when the concert came around a few hours later.

Pretty nerve racking.

The program was $15 dollars... but we were IN it. So we got it.
It was in the program that we got to learn a little more about the Soprano (Maria Aleida) and Guest Vocalist (Katherine Jenkins). 
They were both AMAZING. Maria is an unknown coloratura with an incredibly impressive vocal range.

Katherine Jenkins is a REALLY well known Welsh singer. She sings classical, Italian, and contemporary stuff.... and she does it really well. And for those of you whovians our there... she was in the 2010 Dr. Who Christmas Special. (No joke, that was in her Bio.) She wore this REALLY AMAZING gold dress... pictured above.

Well, we got there at 2:45, but the performance was supposed to start at 8... and started shortly thereafter.

And it was a fairly long performance, which made for a pretty long night. But an AWESOME night.
We only sang a few songs, so the rest of the performance we watched the large screens and the back of the soloists heads. But, seeing as the people in the front row payed $1,800 and the cheapest seats were over $300... it was a pretty good gig.

I was pretty much in awe for the first bit, so when we actually had to sing a bit it came as a shock... and we were kind of off.
But we recovered and finished the concert pretty well.

Not to diss the beginning part of the performance or anything... but the last part of the concert was AMAZING. After the "Performance" he sang the encore songs, which were the ones everyone was waiting for.
Suddenly this classical musician had become a rock-star. The crowd was on their feet, cheering. The lights were going crazy, and it was just.... awesome.

AND... We (the whole choir) got a PICTURE with Andrea Bocelli after the show. Katherine Jenkins popped in for a picture too... and I WILL get those pictures up here as soon as I get them.

It has been a lot of work, and it ended that week, so I'm back-dating it for my work of the week. Just for kicks and giggles.

And for another plus, now I can sing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" in Italian.

* Here's a Video, you can see ME in the background. And here's another one.*

I'm slightly to the right and in the back.