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Concert
Summary
By
Lourdes (Team USA) |
Charlotte Church's first concert in Florida was held today in West Palm Beach and I was fortunate enough to have purchased tickets to this grand event three months prior. My mom, my little sister Maria Teresa (age 8) and I drove an hour and a half north from South Miami to the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach. We arrived early, 6:15pm so we decided to grab a bite at the theater cafe. At 7:00pm the doors opened for us and we and possibly hundreds more people sat ourselves down in the beautiful auditorium. Amazing, it was full house and a sold-out event! The concert started at 7:30pm exactly and there was first an introduction and credits to Mr. Simon Fireman who was sponsoring the event, etc. The Florida Philharmonic began with an overture...so as to prepare ourselves for the evening's attraction. After the performance, the conductor, Matthias Bamert, presented Miss Charlotte Church and she began with "Tonight" from West Side Story. Charlotte also sang "Pie Jesu", "My Lagen Love", "A Bit of Earth", "Bridge over Trouble Waters" (this one had a poppy-sound to it, which was awesome!), "If I Loved You", "Summertime", "Bali H'ai", "La Pastorella" and "Amazing Grace". You should have seen the expression on her face as she was singing "La Pastorella", she did a perfect
imitation of acting all flirty! She even explained afterwards the story of the song, which is of a shepherdess who's suppose to act that way and it was very amusing.
The orchestra performed about four beautiful pieces by themselves, including the "Blue Danube" and "American in Paris", while Charlotte rested herself. She would come out again, dressed in a different outfit, one more stunning that the other.I brought some opera binoculars, even though I had nice orchestra level seats, but they were a good help to see her in detail (yes, I even saw she was wearing dangling diamond earrings and she always wore these beautiful sandals. Charlotte changed about 4 times during the whole performance. My, her outfits are gorgeous!)
There was a 20 minute intermission and that's when Mark came up to me and introduced himself and we met. We talked for a while until the second half of the concert resumed. After it was suppose to be over, the crowed cheered and clapped that Charlotte came back, twice, and that's when she sang "Danny Boy" and "Bridge over Troubled Waters" (again!). It was a beautiful grand finale. She was presented with flowers and even a stuffed animal, a flamingo (Florida's bird), how adorable! I got to take pictures. (though they were strictly prohibited but heck, even though an usher saw me and told me sternly I mustn't, what could he have possibly done worse? lol) I took some from where I was sitting and I managed walked down closer to the stage and took more.
After it was all over and everyone was leaving, I met up with Mark again and we go up to a lady in charge and Mark asked if it's possible to meet Charlotte backstage and she kindly told us to go to the back of the building, to the stage door. We all went, and fortunately, there were only like 10 other people also waiting to meet Charlotte, so there wasn't a big crowd at all. We waited for about half and hour outside the doors and then a guy told us we could come in. Charlotte was there, but she told us she had to be quick. She took pictures with some little girls first and autographed their cds and pictures. I came up to her and told her "Charlotte, I would like to present this to you" and gave her a framed picture I drew of her in colored pencils. I really didn't expect her to act how she did, her face really did light up and she goes "Ohhhhh, thank you!" and looks at me in the eyes with such a big, grateful smile! I gave her my cd so she could autograph it and then I put my arm around her and my mom took a picture of us. I also asked her if she could autograph a picture of her that my sister had brought and she did. I said "Thank you Charlotte, thank you" and she smiles and goes "You're welcome!" Then to my surprise I saw her right hand had a bracelet exactly like the one I was wearing (those that are kind of thick, silver, and have a little heart charm hanging, they're the latest). I said
"Oh look Charlotte, we have the same bracelet!" and she goes "Ohhh, right!" and smiles back at me.
Then I saw Mark hanging back between two guys and I motioned to him to come over here, immediately. (how could he just STAND there? lol) Mark goes up to Charlotte and introduces himself and Charlotte's face lights up again and she goes "Oh Mark! I finally get to meet you!" and I go "Look over here, picture!" and I took a picture of them both. I saw them talking for a while and then Charlotte had to hurry away into her
limousine, and the small crowd gathered and we all waved goodbye to her. Oh, I should also mention her father was there and I talked briefly to him, and her little cousin Elliot along with his mother and father. He was so adorable, as we were waiting to meet Charlotte, he comes out and goes inside the limo to wait. Elliot kept lowering the limo's window and sticking out Charlotte's flamingo and hiding back again. (so cute!)
Well, that is my concert review, and I'll end by saying this is absolutely the most beautiful concert I've ever been to. Charlotte's voice sounds absolutely more magnificent live, it's incredible. And ending up with meeting her and getting pictures and all...it was wonderful. My biggest thanks to Mark, for he was the one who first let me know about the concert and it was through him that I got to meet Charlotte in person as well. Thank you Mark, you're a great guy, it was wonderful to meet you too.
- Lourdes
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