Concerto di Natale 2008, a deception

Yes, I told you and I went.

We were late because of an unexpected mist completely covering the A4 motorway, between Padua and Verona, but at the end, and 3 minutes before the beginning, we were there.

Surely my opinion is biased: I went for Loreena McKennitt and she's my unit of measure. Despite her short performance, I strongly think that the concert was a deception. First: the well known Italian host Mara Venier was not suited to lead such an event. Mainly, she misses the elegance of other hosts, such as Cristina Parodi, and gave no glamour to the event. It seemed, on the contrary, the typical arteriosclerotic television program which may hypnotize just my grandmother. The trite sketches in Venetian dialect were as new as the Flood. The artists that performed could be categorized as:

• the good: who didn't shine, as Dionne Warwick, Katia Ricciarelli, Alabama Gospel Choir and Loreena McKennitt. Either because of the bad acoustic, or because the repertoire was banal.
• the bad: did you expect to see a non-talented winner of a television show performing at such event? I don't.
  
• the ugly: all of the others.

Poor Loreena appeared almost at the end, after a ten minute break to prepare the stage for her band. Omitting the sad detail of a missing cable which delayed her performance, she and the Philharmonic gave us the most beautiful sound and feeling of all the night. Sadly, it lasted just two songs, after which Loreena literally escaped from the stage before the host could catch her.

I hope this was just an accident and look forward to seeing higher quality standards in the future editions of this show.