Ok girls, this is my report from Opera On Ice
The show started with an exhibition of all skaters on the ouverture of "Il barbiere di Siviglia" by Gioacchino Rossini. A group of children from some italian skating schools took part in the exhibition with the champions.
first great applauses for Carolina, Zhenya and Stephane. Then the presenters introduced Shizuka Arakawa, who skated to Puccini's “Madama Butterfly”. She is so delicate and expressive! And she has wonderful ina bauer
After Shizuka, Stephane took his turn and delighted the audience with his famous “Wilhelm Tell”.
I had already seen this program several times but I really love it, in my opinion it's his best program ever. The audience went crazy for his step sequence and started clapping hands on the rhythm of the music before the refrain started
then it came the moment for two lovely pairs: Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte skated to passionate aria "Amami Alfredo", from Verdi's “La Traviata”, Aliona Sawchenko and Robin Szolkowy danced to Roméo et Juliette (Interludio)...so charming. All the elements look easy for them and they just bring you out of the real world into their fable
The audience asked for an encore and they come back to ice
And then the moment came. He. The Tsar. Rigoletto, “La donna e' mobile”.
As his role requested, Zhenya made an unexpected entry: he appeared from the stalls and gave red roses
to the ladies in the audience. waaaaaaaaaaa
Then, he entered the rink (well, I'd better say he jumped on ice, since the rink was higher than the stalls) and he continued his exhibition. oh WOW. Actually, I didn't like his costume at all (when i saw it, I thought 'Victoria's secret?!?'
), but his performance was so catching! And he did a highest butterfly (I know I'm always shocked by his butterflies, I'm getting boring
but theyre sooooo wonderful...)
After his exhibition he went on stage with the presenters and the orchestra. The presenter asked him if he can speak Italian and he said "no, just <grazie, mi dia la ricevuta>” (“thank you, may I have the receipt, please?”) then he cheered the audience (he said “ciao!”).
That terrible presenter was not happy yet, so he asked the conductor to translate his question for Zhenya, since he can speak Russian (it was something like this: "no matter with all your physical problems, you always come back in good shape, how can you do this") but actually Zhenya didn't answer (smart guy!)
and thanked the audience and all his fans for supporting him so warmly
(I simply couldn't stand those presenters, they were not able to pronounce the skaters' names and it seemed that they have ever heard about them
...it was quite embarrassing...
)
After Zhenya, the show went on with lovely Carolina and Stephane as Romeo and Juliet (Je Veux Vivre). They're very poetic as a pair and Caro wore a beautiful white embroidered dress.
The Italian synchronised skating team hot shivers skated to “Va' Pensiero”, from Giuseppe Verdi's “Nabucco”.
After that, Anna and Luca danced to “La cavatina di Figaro” from “Il barbiere di Siviglia”. Stephane, Robin, the children and some girls of the Hot Shivers played the role of bit players in the very first part.
Shizuka skated to “Nessun dorma” from “Turandot” by Giacomo Puccini (and I shot her fabulous ina bauer, yeah!
) and then the great conclusion started. Stephane danced to “Libiamo ne' lieti calici” (“La Traviata”) and got great applauses. He did an encore and when the music ended he was still spinning at the speed of light or something more
and the audience went on clapping hands at the rhythm of the music...incredible.
Carolina skated to “Il Trovatore” and enchanted the audience who asked for an encore. All the skaters wore costumes that belong to the “Fondazione Arena di Verona”.
Then the tsar came back on ice as a matador in arena and enchanted the audience with his spicy “Habanera” from “Carmen” by Georges Bizet.
Since the first notes resounded in the air, the Arena, the audience, Zhenya, the rhythm of the music and the coreography melt together and become something spectacular.
The finale was “Gloria all'Egitto” from Verdi's Aida. The lights were switched off and the audience was asked to make light with little candles we were given at the entrance. So the arena was all dark, shining of thousands of little and flickering flames. All the athletes skated together dressed in their ancient-egyptian-style costumes and there was a solemn but at the same time warm atmosphere. A wonderful ending for a wonderful show.