A Night To RememberPlacido Domingofeaturing Katherine Jenkins
conductor Eugene Kohn
NZSO National Youth Orchestra
Thursday 6th October 2011 CBS Arena, Christchurch
The arena was sold out for this concert with over 8500 filling the indoor stadium.
My seat was near the back and high up. I was probably 80 metres from the stage (wished I had opera glasses lol) but with 2 big screens either side of the stage allowed us to see all the facial expressions that Placido did and also the stunning beauty of Katherine.
The acoustics where I was was surprisingly good, I could pick up all the sounds of the very talented orchestra plus the stunning voice of Placido and the operatic voice of Katherine.
This concert was Placido's way of supporting Christchurch as Placido has lost family members in the Mexico quake in the 80's. Just over $300,000 was raised for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Court theatre
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The youth orchestra was simply outstanding and they opened the show with Rossini's
Overture from Barber of Seville.
Then Placido came onto the stage to a standing ovation.
He sang
Priere: O, souverain from Le Cid by Massenet.
Right from the opening line you could tell we were in the presence of a true master of opera. For someone who is 70yo he seems to be in the prime of his life. His voice is still powerful and expressive. He looked throughout the concert to be really enjoying this show.
After another standing ovation Placido left the stage and Katherine came onto the stage in one of her stunning long gowns.
No one near where I sat had heard of Katherine before but by the end of the concert I think she had converted the whole audience (I bet she sold a lot of her latest CD
Daydream, I know I bought it lol).
Katherine opened with
Chanson boheme from Carmen by Bizet.
Placido then sang
E lucevan le stelle from Tosca by Puccini
Katherine sang
Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix from Samson & Delilah by Saint-Saens.
Placido then did a musical theatre song
Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific by Rodgers/Hammerstein.
Katherine did a great version of
I could have danced all night from My Fair Lady by Lerner/Lowe.
Katherine also thanked us for coming to the concert and said all of Wales is supporting us in Christchurch.
Placido sang The
Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha by Leigh (got yet another standing ovation).
The the orchestra did 3 songs from Carmen (by Bizet) which were brilliantly done,
Aragonaise Intermezzo and
Les Toreadors.
Then to finish off the first half they did a duet of
Tonight from West Side Story by Bernstein, I don't think there were any dry eyes after this song lol.
I had my usual icecream during the interval lol.
They both opened the second half of the concert with
La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni by Mozart.
Katherine then sang
L'alba verra by Chopin/Musker.
Placido thanked us for coming and he also mentioned that our Prime Minister, John Key, was also in the audience.
Placido sang
Dein ist mein ganzes Herz from The Land of Smiles by Lehar.
They both sang
Waltz duet from The merry widow by Lehar. They even both did the waltz to the great pleasure of the audience. In fact the chemistry between both of them was great.
The orchestra did the
Overture from Poet and peasant by Von Suppe.
Placido did
Amor, vida de mi vida from Torroba Maravilla by Moreno (I think all the ladies were swooning to Placido by the end of this song lol).
Katherine did a sunning version of
Nella fantasia from The mission by our very on Morricone (I think we all know this tune backwards by now lol).
Then all too soon we came to the last song which was a duet called
Perhaps Love by John Denver.
After all the standing ovations, bunches of flowers handed out they of course had to do an encore. In fact we ended up with
eight encores
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They alternated with Placido starting first. I know one song was
Granada which was fantastic. Katherine did
Time To say Goodbye and
Over The Rainbow.
Placido even conducted the orchestra for one song. He is a very good conductor. He likes to support youth orchestras and I think he loved our one.
They then finished with a duet which I didn't know.
Well that was a fantastic experience. I probably will not get the chance to see such a great opera singer again. And I know if Katherine comes back to NZ again I will go and see her again.
Makes my upcoming Hayley tour almost unbearable to wait for, roll on November.
