“My heart is full until the next time….,” I said, when I wrote about our night on July 6, 2015 at PBS! Yes, it was time for a refill!

Just about 6 weeks after that momentous night, the tickets for the February 27 concert went on sale. We had already gotten our tickets from PBS, but did not know what kind of seats they were, just that they were main floor and included the meet/greet. Just for a lark, I went on Ticketmaster and looked at the tickets. They were for sale to the public that Friday, August 21^st, I believe. It was after 4p and I couldn’t believe my eyes! What do I see? The very last two seats in the front row, orchestra pit! Talk about OMG! I looked again and they had disappeared! What? No! Suddenly, they reappeared again. Ok, this is fate, they are mine and I hesitated not a second longer. “I felt the credit card in my hand, and they were no more!” (Delilah? Lol)  Luckily, PBS took my tickets back, as they were just about the same price as the front row with meet/greet VIP package, so only a difference of about $50!

Then, we wait…Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Gianluca’s birthday, Valentine’s day, wow, it was coming soon! Five, four, three, two, one, blast off – down to Detroit we went! It was IV-Day!

We arrived just before 7p at the fabulous Detroit Fox Theatre. If you’ve never been, it is pretty incredible. We got our tickets from will call and go into the doors, held open by the doorman. We find our VIP table, get our little gifts of a small tote bag with their picture on it, along with an actual hand-signed/autographed badge with their picture on it, so we could get into the meet/greet. You could barely make out their signatures, if they hadn’t been signed over their pictures on the badge, it would have been nearly impossible to tell whose was whose!

They opened the doors about 7:10p, so we were able to mingle a bit, find some other fans we knew and then make our way to our seats. Yes, we walked, and walked, and the stage kept getting closer and closer! Holy Toledo – someone was in our seats! That was quickly resolved and we sat down. We were directly in front of the speakers – I thought this would be a bad thing, but I must be going deaf, because it was perfect and I heard every word and it wasn’t overly loud at all. I could almost literally touch the stage and was certainly less than 3 feet from it! Pretty amazing! We were kind of half way, in the middle of the row to the right of the stage – right in front of where Maestro conducted the orchestra.

We did some more mingling, found where others were sitting and took some pictures. I did get a picture of the songlist – apparently it’s taped to the stage. Ok, I’m a real novice when it comes to concerts, never been that close to the stage! I looked at the time and it was about 5 to 8 and the orchestra was not even out there yet? However, an eagle-eyed person spied the guys looking from the wings of the stage and could see Ignazio and Piero. I’m like “where, where?” Then I saw them, too. I did a girlish wave and said “hi-i…” I have no idea if they saw me. Lol!

Finally, about 8p or so, the orchestra started coming on stage. That night in Detroit, there was something going on at about every major venue downtown and traffic and parking were a nightmare! So, there were many people that were late. That is probably what the guys were looking at – many empty seats! So, to give people a chance to get to their seats, the concert didn’t really start until about 8:20p or so. But that was not a big deal. I turned around and waved to my 2 friends from work in the balcony and she texted that they saw me! Said they could not miss that periwinkle blue!

Then the orchestra started and the overture to Grande Amore. That was pretty awesome…that ended and the intro to Volare was starting and out came the guys, first Gianluca, then Piero, then Ignazio! I stood up and was clapping and dancing (the only one) and when Gianluca came out he saw me and pointed to me and smiled! Then the blasted security made me sit down! Hrmph! Ok, I was not happy. Oh, well…. I was not fond of the Fox personnel…

As I’d mentioned, it started late, so people were still streaming in, a half hour into the concert. Piero, in his cute little Sicilian accent, started making jokes…..after they had sung the 2^nd song, he says, “so, should we start over so the new people can hear what they missed?” After the 3^rd song he says, “don’t worry, you didn’t miss a thing, that was our first song!” Then after a few more songs he says, “we will come to your house and sing for another 30 minutes after the show!” Of course, the people that were there thought it was pretty funny and we were laughing, but as I think about it now, those people coming in late, probably didn’t think it was too funny?

Ok, I have to say something about the lights – they were awful at times! I was in the front row, so I thought we were the only ones affected, but my dad, about 10 rows back, and my friends in the balcony, all said the same thing! They were really blinding when the bright, white strobing light was in your eyes. While singing L’Immensita, Ignazio was on my side of the stage, almost right in front of me. The light also was right in my eyes. I literally had to shade my eyes to watch him sing. I didn’t take any pictures at that point because I thought he’d come back to my side, but he never did – at least not standing still!

Yes, they, or I should say Ignazio, got crazy with Delilah! Ignazio goes over to the Maestro (and yes, it’s all planned – I could see them talking right before), takes the baton away from him and does his crazy thing of conducting the orchestra. He’s all over the place and then Piero comes to the right of the Maestro and then takes his microphone and puts it under Ignazio’s chin – don’t think that one was too planned, if so, it went awry! He ended up hitting Ignazio pretty hard under the chin with the butt end of the mic. Ignazio’s reaction? He kept conducting the orchestra and when it came to the part where he sings “he felt the knife in his hand and she laughed no more…” Ignazio replaced the “she” with “he laughed no more” meaning Piero! Lol! But all in good fun? Later on Ignazio kept feeling under his chin and we couldn’t figure out why – we think it really hurt and he was checking for blood or something?

Every song they sang was magnificent! How did they sound? Well, if I said they were anything less than the perfection we expected, I would be very wrong! They and their voices were positively awesome! They added a special nuance here and there to various songs – new notes to crave for the next time we hear them. What can I say, Ignazio was perfection personified. His rendition of Tonight was flawless. You could hear every “t” in every tonight, what, bright, and light! We saw our loves last night and Ignazio certainly sang with his heart on his sleeve in Tonight for Alessandra! Ignazio even got teary-eyed in 3 songs – not even Alleria! Lol! Igna and Gian were doing the intro to Unchained Melody and doing a little back and forth, not even banter, so to speak and Igna was saying how great love was and everyone should be in love, he asked the audience “how many here tonight are with someone they love?” He looks then says “can you do it again, because I could not see a thing!” Then they brought up the house lights! He says “good luck!”…then he asked Gian if he was ready, Gian said yes, and started singing. Then I watched Igna as he gently took his finger and carefully wiped a tear from his left eye. Although, don’t you usually cry from both eyes?? Hmm…. No, pretty sure it was a tear! Lol! I think he teared up on Tonight and Memory, as well. He sang Memory with a different passion this time, like a longing, almost – probably for his love… Caruso was so moving; the ending, so passionate! I really wanted to stand up after that one (funny, the guys were kind of standing there expecting someone to stand up, but I don’t think anyone did), but most of the audience was a dud and they pretty much only stood after the solos or duets, which was pretty sad. I also kind of felt like a Mexican jumping bean standing up after so many and after Gian’s last solo, I just stayed in my seat.

Part II to come! 

Jana