Andrea Bocelli

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Well, that was fun. It started off slowly. We parked in our favorite ramp, then headed toward the Target Center. We didn’t get far before the line to get in started. We waited about 40 minutes to get into the arena. The line outside was wildly long, stretching around the building. I enjoyed having windows on the skyway level to watch crowds of people walking along the line, trying to find the end. Unfortunately, some clever street level people came up to skyway level and made a short line coming from the other direction that merged into our line just before the ticket checkers. Oh, well. At one point, a woman came out of a stairwell and looked at the line. She said to her companions that they should just get in the line where they were instead of going to the back of the line. She tried, “No one will mind.” Several people laughed and I said, “Yes, everyone will mind.” She huffed away, saying, “This is ridiculous. There is no reason we have to go to the back of the line.” I was amused when she passed us in our seats during the third song of the concert.

It was fascinating to me that you can fill up the Target Center (there were empty seats here and there – I suspect they were didn’t-show-up people, not didn’t-sell-the-seats) (Internet says concert capacity is 20,500 people) for an opera singer. The audience was completely quiet during the songs and knew to applaud holding a note for a long time or for hitting a high note. Who are these people? I’m glad they exist. I am happy they came.

The first half was classical – he sang several duets with a baritone guy. We didn’t know any of the selections. Keith wondered why they didn’t tell us the names of the pieces. They put the other singers names on the screens. Next time I see Andrea, I will ask. The second half was more pop-y. The orchestra played a suite from Harry Potter after the intermission (intermission in an arena – my first). We heard Maria and Tonight from West Side Story, as well as having dancers perform to Mambo. Can’t Help Falling in Love is one of my favorite songs, so it was nice to have that included. The second encore was Nessan Dorma – which I assume satisfied everyone. It was something to check off on the bucket list – hearing Andrea Bocelli perform it live.