by carolina1954 on Thu 23 Nov, 2006 6:54 pm
Well, we're back !
Lori and I got to Pisa at about 3.30 pm on the 21st and checked in our hotel, then went to the box office to collect our tickets, which I had phoned for the day before. We managed to get row 13, not bad as the theatre is only small, I was told it seats about 900, floor seats and 5 levels of boxes. There were posters outside the theatre advertising the concert, with the photo of Andrea and Fiorenza, in the Tosca roles. It was organised by the Rotary Club of Pisa. The concert was due to start at 9 so we went and had a bit of a look round. It was pouring with rain, so it was a quick look, then back to the hotel and get ready.. We got to the theatre about 8.45 and we were given a little programme with the same photo on the front, no indication what was going to be sung, other than it said it was a "Concerto Lirico" and it had the names of other singers listed inside, which turned out to be 1 soprano, 1 tenor and 2 baritones.
The backdrop of the stage was beautiful, and there was just a grand piano on it. We saw Carlo come out and adjust some papers on it. The lights went down about 9.15 and Pippo Baudo came out and chatted a little, all in Italian of course ! then in came the choir, who sung Va Pensiero. The choir remained and then Pippo said a few more words and then Fiorenza came out, with Andrea on her arm - to thunderous applause ! Carlo was at the piano and played while Andrea and Fiorenza sang a duet from Tosca. On checking, it is number 5 of CD1 of "Tosca". This was about 12 minutes long. Then we were treated to "Brindisi" during which Fiorenza had a little dance with Andrea. It was really nice, no microphones of course and Andrea was having a really enjoyable time of it, judging by his broad smiles, chatter with Fiorenza and relaxed attitude. He was presented with something in a box, some kind of award perhaps, no idea what it was. Fiorenza got one too and something else.
Andrea went off with a big wave and he did not come back. Fiorenza did and sang a couple more arias. After the interval the other singers each performed 2 arias. We were hoping Andrea might have come back and showed them how to do it but alas, no such luck !
Andrea's mother was there too, in the front row, looking very glamorous. She stayed until the end and went off into town with a few people. The evening finished about 11.20.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, so we did the touristy things, as we only had the 2 days there and this morning we flew home and Lori won a raffle prize of a free return flight with Ryanair ! Talk about luck.......
We had booked the flight to Pisa and accomodation back in August, as Lori had never been and we thought these dates sounded good, being a week after the Rotterdam and Antwerp concerts, we could just fit them in with Ryanair's schedule and at one penny each too.....