|
Impressions
Thanks to
Lauren |
|
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| Chicago
Theatre |
I
guess I’ll start off by saying that I’m not going to
write a lot of details about “my life history with
Charlotte,” and all that, but I’m going to stick to the
concert. Because if you’re like me, you skip over that
stuff anyway when you read the Concert Impressions -“What
about the concert?!”
Oh, also, you should probably have a bit of time on
your hands if you want to read this whole thing, because I
can tell right now it’s going to be lengthy!!!
Well…I
was nervous that we would be late, because by the time we
got out of the car in the parking garage, it was 7:10 p.m.,
and the concert started at 7:30. And of course, my sister,
grandmothers, and grandfather had to use the restroom as
soon as we walked into the lobby. I stood on the huge
circular staircase with my other grandfather while we
waited, my mouth dry and my palms wet.
The
Chicago Theater was so gorgeous! There was red carpet
everywhere, and the trim along the ceiling was all gold and
gilt, molded into beautiful designs. There was a giant
chandelier that hung down from the ceiling into the center
of the lobby.
My
grandfather and I asked permission to peek into the
auditorium. It was amazing! Row after row of plush red
seats, an extremely high, vaulted ceiling, and more than a
dozen beautiful murals of goddesses circled the room where
the walls met the ceiling.
As
we walked back to the stairs to wait, the lights flashed off
and on to warn that the concert was about to begin. I bit my
lip, silently willing my grandparents to hurry. When the
lights flashed once more, my grandpa said “Let’s go on
up. They know where our seats are.”
So
I found myself seated in one of the red seats, giddily
looking around me at the other people in the audience.
Through the sounds of the orchestra tuning, I could hear
snatches of conversation.
“The
acoustics in this place are wonderful…”
“I
saw in the program that the conductor’s name is Arnie…”
The
whole atmosphere was building up to something big, and you
could feel the anticipation and excitement in the air.
Finally
the rest of our party was ushered in, and about five minutes
later, Charlotte came onto the stage! She had her hair up in
a long ponytail, which she kept in the entire concert,
(also, as most of you know, she has grown out her bangs, so
she looked quite different) and she was wearing a floor
length, multi colored skirt with a matching halter-top. She
thanked everyone for coming, and then she introduced the
guitarist, Jesse Cook, who, with two other men, was opening
for her.
Then
she left the stage, and the music trio came onto the stage
and played six awesome songs. You could tell that everyone
in the audience enjoyed them, even if they were anxious to
hear Charlotte.
Finally,
(I hate to use that word, because they really were
fantastic) they were done, and Charlotte came out again.
This time she was dressed in a floor length, spaghetti strap
black dress with a sequined bodice. While the orchestra
filed back in, she and Jesse Cook chatted toward the side of
the stage.
Charlotte
said, “I had a couple of things I wanted to ask you,
Jesse.”
“Okay,”
“First,
how old were you when you first started playing the
guitar?”
“I
was about six. How old were you when you started singing?”
“I
was three.”
The
audience laughed.
Charlotte
paused, and then said, “Oh, I can’t remember what else I
was going to ask you!”
“Well,
then, can I ask you something?”
“Sure!”
“I
know you’ve met a lot of famous people in your travels;
the Pope, President Clinton, -”
“And
George W.”
“Yah,
George W., so, who was the most impressive person you’ve
met?”
“Oh,
gosh, that’s hard! Um, the Pope, well, he was the Pope.
(titters from the audience) Prince Charles was really nice.
You expect him to be all
stuffy and all, but he’s not. President Clinton was
fabulous, Hilary Clinton was really fabulous. Chelsea was
really nice too, -oh, oh! I remember my question. About how
many –”
“Wait,
you didn’t answer my question yet!”
“Oh,
um, I don’t know, it’s to hard to decide! I think; I
think - Hilary Clinton. No, no –a tie. A tie between
Hilary Clinton and the Pope.
Big
laughs from the audience.
Charlotte:
“So my other question is, about how many hours a day do
you practice?”
“Well,
right now I don’ t practice a lot, since we’re so busy
traveling, and with the tour, but when I was nineteen, out
of high school, I was practicing about ten hours a day,
which was way to much.”
“Ten
hours!? I am so undisciplined! I practice half an hour, then
say, ‘I’m tired now, can I go play?’”
Everyone
laughs.
Boy,
this is getting long!! I’ll start to wrap it up now!
All
of her songs were amazing, (I’m running out of
adjectives!) and you can’t describe the feeling of being there,
in person seeing Charlotte live. It would be way
to long if I said something about each of her songs. I’ll
just list what she sang. (these are not in order-my memory
isn’t that good!)
Tonight,
from The West Side Story
A
Bit of Earth, from The Secret Garden
La
pastorella (I love this song!)
Bali
H’ia
Bridge
Over Troubled Waters (very
cool)
If
I Loved You (lovely)
Pie
Jesu (of
course!)
Panis
Angelicus (fabulous!)
Somewhere,
from The West Side Story
My
Lagan Love
Mae
Hiraeth yu y Mor (this she sang without a microphone,
and was simply fabulous!)
She
also sang two encores, Summertime, and Danny Boy.
In all, she changed dresses four times. Her third outfit was
a floor length red skirt with a small train, and a
pinkish-red sleeveless top made from layers of shag. There
was an intermission in there somewhere, and then the
orchestra played two songs from the opera Carman.
Charlotte’s fourth dress was a sparkling, floor length,
powder blue dress with black spaghetti straps. With each
outfit she wore the coolest high heel sandals, and always
big, gold hoop earrings.
There.
I have tried to go into detail, so that if you weren’t
able to be at one of the concerts, you could almost feel you
were there in Chicago. It was an amazing night that I will
never forget. - Lauren
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