Renee Fleming and Co

Well, last night was the big performance, something I've been anticipating for a while. Renee Fleming came to perform at the Cape Town City Hall. The show sold out in the first two days that the tickets were on sale, there was such demand that they accidentally sold the seats where the choir was to be seated! So the place was PACKED, not an empty seat to be found. The performance itself was phenomenal, imagine some one singing all of your favorite pieces, absolutely perfectly, I'm not much of a critic, but I was blown away (except at the spots where she forgot the words, but it was in Italian, so not many people noticed). The program itself went like this:

1. Rossini - Il Barbiere di Siviglia: Overture
2. Handel - "Danke Sei Dir Herr"
3. Handel - Rodelinda "Ritorna, o Caro e Dolce mio Tesoro"
4. Handel - Semele "Endless Pleasure"
5. Verdi - I Limbardi "Gerusalem, Gerusalem"
6. Verdi - La Forza Del Destino: Overture
7. Verdi - Otello: Ave Maria
8. Verdi - I Vespri Siciliani: Merce, Dilette Amiche

INTERVAL

9. Bizet - Carmen: Suite No. 1
10. Massenet - Cleopatre: "J'ai verse le poison dans cette coupe d'or"
11. Gounod - Faust: "Jewel Song"
12. Saint-Saens - Samson et Dalila: Bacchanale
13. Puccini - Gianni Schicci : "O Mio Babbino Caro"
14. Puccini - Tosca: "Vissi D'Arte"

ENCORES:

1. Zandonai - Conchita: "Ler Dalla Fabbrica"
2. Gershwin - Porgy and Bess: "Summertime"
3. Loewe - My Fair Lady: "I Could Have Danced All Night"
4. Verdi - La Triviata: Brindisi

Quite the program! I said yesterday that I'd try to post some pictures, well, believe it or not it's pretty difficult to take pictures while performing, and the press managed not to have any pictures of the actual performance posted as of yet, so sorry, you're in the dark for now, but I will see what I can do.

All in all it was a fantastic night, one of those concerts I'll remember as long as I'm remembering concerts.