Andrea Bocelli at the Hollywood Bowl

Last Sunday, I had tickets to the Hollywood Bowl; and coincidentally, Charlie was in town, so we went to the event together. The event was a bit of a surprise to her as it would had never crossed her mind that I would be interested in such an event or even enjoy some of the music. It was game 2 of the NBA finals with the Orlando Magic playing at LA against the Lakers. So all around, there were men grumbling about missing the game for this event. Angel sent me updates to the game. And the game actually ended just shortly after the start of the concert. Had they not gone into over time, the game would have ended before the concert even began.

We got to the bowl nice and early; arriving at about 5:30. There was a huge crowd of people waiting to get into the bowl which is a little odd. Usually, the only people outside the bowl at the time are picnickers and folks lounging around getting food and such. But they were not allowing people into the bowl. The ticket check area was closed. They opened at 5:45. In previous trips to the bowl, folks were allowed in as early as they arrived. We got in, but got stuck in another line right outside the entrance to our seating area. Music was playing in the background and we could hear singing, so we figured that they were still rehearsing and were not allowing people into the venue. Another fifteen to twenty minutes pass and we are allowed in to our seats. We brought along some cushions, as the bench seating wasn’t the most comfortable of seats for the 2+ hour long event.

The really neat thing about this venue is that we’re allowed to bring our own food and drinks (alcohol too!) So earlier that day, we put together a little basket of food and some drinks. Getting there nice and early afforded a really relaxed dinner in the cool evening hours as the sun retired from the sky. All around, there were men checking pda’s, cells, radios, etc for updates to game 2.

We sat in section D row 9. Pretty damn close. This is the closest I’ve ever sat at the HB in all the twenty some years of patronage. The section right next to us on the left were boxes.

Now it’s odd for me to take pictures of random people, but the woman sitting next to me pointed him out when he got up to throw away his trash. Kelsey Grammer. Guess the real Frasier actually enjoys opera music. Just made me wonder what other celebs were sprinkled through the bowl.

Music from first half of the event were excepts taken from various well known and popular operas such as Carmen, La Traviata. I think there were only two or three that I didn’t recognize. At the intermission, Charlie and I went out for a stroll and the smell of fresh popcorn grabbed a hold and we hurriedly got into the rapidly growing line. While in line, there was a booth selling shirts and other souvenirs – Charlie picked up a shirt for me. As soon as we reached the front of the line and got our popcorn, the lights in the bowl were dimming signaling the end of the intermission. We rushed back and sat just as the conductor, Steven Mercurio was walking out. He announced that the Lakers had won game 2 in over time; 101 – 96 to a loud cheer from the crowd. The second part of the concert had more contemporary works. At the end of the concert, crews brought out a large keyboard for the first encore; and David Foster was brought out onto the stage to play the first few encore songs.

The second to last encore song was Con te partiro, followed by Nessun Dorma. A total of about 5 encore songs were added to the end of the concert.

Part of the bowl experience is the parking for those that drive. The parking is stacked, and it becomes a fun little puzzle of patience and driving skill. Patience for folks coming out to their cars, and driving skills to squeeze cars out when various cars start exiting. Getting to the car, I folded down the seats, and opened up the windows and sunroof and sat with Charlie watching some of the inexperienced bowl attendees twitch with anticipation of getting out. The car parallel to me was able to get free, so we put our seats into the upright position and I squeezed my car out which freed a good number of other cars. The unraveling of vehicular jenga puzzle is always fun and interesting to watch. Everyone around is always so helpful to direct traffic, or wave help as cars backup and move forward to unwedge themselves from the tightly knit weave – all because they want to go home as well.

Leaving Hollywood, I took Charlie to check out downtown at night. The streets are fairly empty and we walked around some of the artsy buildings in downtown.

The rest of the pictures and many more videos clips of various songs from the concert are here:
http://gamerabaenre.com/bocelli_hwb.htm