Andrea Bocelli special

[Alexa]

I have to start off by saying that two hours of his music was a bit much for me...as lovely as his voice is, so many of the songs sound too similar.

However, I thought there was some really good skating. Nothing in particular stands out, but I thought many of the skaters had some beautiful programs.

Any thoughts?

[NJSk8Fan]

I also am not a fan of the Bocelli style of music, it was WAY too much for me...I was distracted from the skating because of my dislike for the type of music/singing. I wanted to turn the sound off and just watch the skaters. I actually mostly dozed off during the show. :oops:

[Oracle]

I enjoyed it but then I like Boccelli, Groban & Opera in general, not that I consider Boccelli an opera singer. Todd Eldredge was spectacular but I enjoyed Roca & Sur, Kadavy & Boitano. Does Shae Lynn Bourne do nothing but stroke & pose? If so, then I'd just as soon watch Kadavy & Bobek & the other girls who no longer have triple jumps. At least, they offer variety with single & double jumps.

[Meredith]

I enjoyed the Bocelli show a great deal primarily because of the music. Roca and Sur were especially wonderful, as were Boitano, Gordeeva and Eldredge. No one skated badly and all skaters seemed to get into their performances.

[flippet]

I only caught the last hour of this. I was supposed to tape it for my mom, but I forgot. :oops: Anyway, what I saw was pretty good. I really enjoyed Nicole's number--the choreography was very nice. I like to see choreography that is 'organic', so to speak--something that grows naturally out of the music, not something that makes a cariacture of either the music or the skater's personality. And this was organic. Todd's number was also very nice (his usual choreography gets 'better' the less you're exposed to it, I guess!)...and talk about cat feet! I really thought he was going to lose it on a couple of those jumps. Roca and Sur were excellent, as usual. The thing that bugged me though was the usual gripe---stop ignoring the skaters to show the singer!!! :evil: They missed a bunch of R&S's program that way. But the nice thing was that Bocelli was NOT live during most of the show, so they did in fact show ALL of most of the skaters' programs, and without commentary! That's nice.

Btw...who do we complain to about not split-screening singers with skaters? Disson? NBC? Whoever it is, I'd like to bop their noggins a bit.

[loveskating]

Well, it was just my cup of tea! My favorite music is opera...and I love Bocelli, although he is not exactly truly an opera singer. His voice and phrasing are just as good at Tito Scipa's, however, so I was in HEAVEN!

THANK YOU ROZ, et al!

I love the way the complexity of opera music helps one to catch all the movements of the skaters...I think it gives them a depth of movement, even assists in creating that depth, which is not seen with other types of less complex music with no line (or the obvious rythem of the piece IS the line) and there is little surrounding it.

I might have enjoyed a bit more homage to opera in the costumes of the skaters, but that was minor (recalling that when Kristi skated to Un Bel Di, she wore a Japanese styled costume). Overall, the entire show was dignified, pleasing, enjoyable and I greatly appreciate it exists at all.

Mr. Bocelli, who is a wonderful person, seemed to enjoy himself greatly...I was surprised he agreed to do something like this, and I suspect that although blind, he likes figure skating and has found some way to connect with it. He is just HUGE in the rest of the world, has no need to take such an engagement unless he wants to.

[PumpkinHead]

Roca and Sur were magnificent, "The Prayer" is absolutely one of my favorite programs of all time, and I was so glad they did it for this show! What a stunning team. I wish I'd become an ice dance fan much sooner, I missed most of their career together.

[jcspkbfan]

I'm also not usually a fan of skating shows devoted to only one performer's music (no matter who that singer may be!) since two hours of nothing but programs to the same recording artist does tend to bore me after a while. I usually prefer Kurt, Kristi and Brian Boitano's Disson specials where there's more variety in the skaters' performances and we get to see the "host skater's" personality come through much more.

But that being said, this was probably the most enjoyable "two hours of nothing but performances to the same singer's music" show I've ever seen. All of the skater's programs were beautiful in their own right, and I especially enjoyed both of Shae-Lynn's programs and seeing R&S' "Time To Say Goodbye" (my all-time favourite program of theirs) and Todd's "Il Marro Calma Serro" (one of my all-time favourite Todd programs with a much better costume than the original green frilly curtain thingy!) numbers again. And it was just wonderful to see Katia on the ice--and landing 2-axels--again, period. :D