An Opera Concert at the outside gardens of a palace?! Um, yes please! I’ve never been to watch an opera singer perform let alone at a Palace in Italy. I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania, (‘Merica!) where operas aren’t really a thing. So it was very exciting for the opportunity to fall right into my lap.

Always up for something new, I asked my dad if that was something he would be interested in going to see. He said yes and that was that, tickets were purchased, and we impatiently awaited the day.

The concert was held at the Caserta Palace, which is within 40 minutes of Naples Italy.

As a very brief history, because I absolutely plan to go back for the full tour, The Caserta Palace is the largest royal residence in the world.

The construction of the palace was begun in 1752 for Charles VII of Naples, who worked closely with his architect, Luigi Vanvitelli. When Charles saw Vanvitelli’s grandly scaled model for Caserta, it filled him with emotion “fit to tear his heart from his breast”. In my opinion that’s all that needs to be said at this time.

You have to have a little pre game before heading to a concert, even if its an opera concert.

We got all dolled up and headed over to a friends for some fun.

Livin the life with some Coors Light.

Laughing, there’s always so much laughing.

Really getting into it.

Haha, I don’t even know.

Look! Over there…

What’s even over there?

What’s up there?

End Opera photo reel.

Of course I had to get a photo with dad!

And again…!

More and more people started arriving and the fun really began. (okay, Jon might have been there first)
Act like a tiger they said. Rarrr.

Giving our best effort.

Dad’s hanging out.

Now everyone is here and they are all trying to stop the wind from blowing hair into their faces. haha.

Hanging out on the balcony.

I jumped into the photo last second.

Don’t worry we rented a van to drive us to the concert. We didn’t want to have to worry about parking, walking a far distance, or traffic. It was pretty cheap for curbside service to be dropped off and picked up. Very worth it because it was almost a 40 minute drive and a WAY better deal than a taxi. Plus all 8 of us got to drive together 🙂

There was another van full of people also going, so we started a photo shoot right outside of the palace as we waited to get in.

Ken’s trying to be a ladies’ man with 4 ladies on each of his arms.

Then they stole my camera from me.

Paparazzi shot that’s a bit blurry. Headed into the palace, no big deal.

Are you going to say something? Yes we brought bottles of prosecco with us on the drive over, I dare you to say something. Truthfully it may look like I want to fight, but I wasn’t even looking at the camera.
From King’s Day to Caserta Palace, Amanda always gives me one of these when I point my camera at her. 

Hiii Ladies! Everyone looks stunning!

Now act like a tiger, what is that?!

Pouty I suppose, there’s always so many demands when Ken has the camera.

Hey girls, love your dresses, now its really time to get in line for the concert.

Of course it was a pushing/shoving/diving/punching kind of line. If I had a quarter for every time I have to tell Naples Italy to stay classy. Oh don’t worry half the Italians wore their best sneakers and warm up suits to the show. I’ve refrained from adding pictures of some of the things they were wearing!

After all that pushing and shoving we ended up inside, walking through to the back where we could head out into the gardens.

Its easy to see why the Caserta Palace is the largest royal resident. The grounds go on FOR-EV-ER and there are over 1200 rooms inside the palace itself. 1200 rooms! Could you imagine cleaning all that?!

As we waited for the concert to begin, Sherrie and I walked up to the main stage to have a look at things a bit closer. We were pretty far back there.

The stage up close and personal.

Then we got to talking to a few official photographers for the concert and they asked for a photo which we easily obliged, they also sent Sherrie a few photos that I’m going to share with you guys a bit later.

The moon was bright, not even the clouds could cover it.

As the orchestra warmed up, everyone waited on bated breath for Andrea Bocelli to come out. He’s a magnificent performer and he’s blind! Proof that you can be great at anything you set your mind to.

Just listen.

Andrea Bocelli on stage. A truly amazing performer.

Andrea’s accompanying Soprano Alessandra Marianelli, has performed pieces by Mozart, Rossini, and Verdi.

Look how beautiful the spotlights of colors play off the palace as the backdrop. Its hard to believe it was real!

The Maestro for the performance was Carlo Bernini, since 1986 he has been Andrea’s friend and artistic director. Since then the 2 of them have collaborated on concerts, operas, recordings, and classical discographies alongside the greatest conductors and international artists.

Spotlights reaching up into the sky, and the palace has turned yellow.

From the front of the stage with @GIANFRANCOCAROZZAREPORTER. Each of his photos are tagged as you can see below.

Lovely in black and white.

So close from the front of the stage.

 

Out came Le Div4s, 4 soprano singers that were created with an idea to spread the excellence of Italian music in the world using interpretation in four voices, respecting the original score.

I can’t say I loved them. I felt like they weren’t good enough to be paired with Andrea Bocelli’s voice, but its only my personal opinion and I couldn’t have done any singing at all in comparison.

Trying to get a shot of the stringed instruments. 

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE:

It truly makes your heart soar when you listen to Andrea Bocelli and Alessandra Marianelli perform this song.

Of course they got a standing ovation and they stood themselves. It was brilliant.

Just listen to the range of Andrea’s voice during the last few seconds of his finale. So impressive and mesmerizing. Simply beautiful.

Afterwards, we headed back to our van, jumped inside and sped off into the night. With big plans in the morning, it was straight to bed for us when we got home. More on that coming next!

This article appeared first on The Cassey Excursion.