Detroit Opera House - Location for a PBS Concert DVD

**Gistok** · October-28-11, 02:12 AM

Was at the Detroit Opera House Detroit PBS sponsored IL VOLO Concert taping... was awesome... got seats in the 2nd row balcony [[usually Trustee Circle $$$ seats). Forgot how close to the action the front of the balcony can be at the Opera House. The audience was great...the performance... breathtaking... the power that these 3 kids have in their powerful voices is nothing short of incredible.

One song they didn't sing was one of my favorites, a Spanish love song... Hasta El Final... it showcases the true power of their voices... [[and why they already have 2 Latin Grammy nominations)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pryu8EoFPU

The Opera House stage was decked out in their best ancient Roman stage props... 4 enormous columns and a massive stone staircase. The atmosphere was festive, since all outtakes were done so that a second take would be done if not flawless the first time. We got 3 full hours of concert music, with some really funny banter between the performers and the producers... when they weren't entertaining us with their voices, they were entertaining us with their wit!

IL VOLO had a 50 piece orchestra, and world renowned Steven Mercurio as guest conductor. Looking forward to the December 7 [[8PM) world premier only on Detroit PBS.

**KarmicCurse** · October-28-11, 03:42 AM

I'm glad it all went well. I work at Barnes & Noble and whenever there is a PBS pledge drive concert people call by the dozens asking for the CDs. I'm sure there will be a particularly big interest this time since it was local.

I've never been to the opera and have been considering it recently, specifically the upcoming Marriage of Figaro performance. The least expensive seats at $30 are along the very, very back row of the balcony. I don't really want to pay much more since I'm testing the waters so to speak, but I also don't want to experience it for the first time from that far back. I've been on tours of the Opera House a few times and that very back row is staggeringly far and vertiginous. Forgive my frugality, but does the Opera House release tickets prior to the show at a lower cost? Would main floor tickets go at $30 instead of $110 if I simply asked at the box office before a performance?

**Gistok** · October-29-11, 03:33 AM

IL VOLO put on a magnificent concert last night...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqOnx2T2bhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_mw6-VQJSw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Tr3Z0hK2k

**Wesley Mouch** · October-29-11, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by KarmicCurse

I'm glad it all went well. I work at Barnes & Noble and whenever there is a PBS pledge drive concert people call by the dozens asking for the CDs. I'm sure there will be a particularly big interest this time since it was local.

I've never been to the opera and have been considering it recently, specifically the upcoming Marriage of Figaro performance. The least expensive seats at $30 are along the very, very back row of the balcony. I don't really want to pay much more since I'm testing the waters so to speak, but I also don't want to experience it for the first time from that far back. I've been on tours of the Opera House a few times and that very back row is staggeringly far and vertiginous. Forgive my frugality, but does the Opera House release tickets prior to the show at a lower cost? Would main floor tickets go at $30 instead of $110 if I simply asked at the box office before a performance?

Don't know the specifics of Michigan Opera Theatre / Detroit Opera House's ticketing policy, but present two statements:

1) MOT is strongly in interest of developing ticket sales. Like every arts organization in the US, they rely on ticket sales -- they can't just live on philanthropy today -- if they ever could.

If you were to contact MOT directly and tell them your story, I think they might be receptive. Call their development department, and tell your story.

2) Almost all tickets today change prices a lot -- both via secondary sellers such as craigslist/ebay/stubhub but also at MOT. Watch their website. Subscribe to their mailings. Visit ticket office. No guarantees, but there's a good chance.

3) There's always the option of sneaking down after show gets started -- especially if you are nice about it -- and discreet.

**Gistok** · October-29-11, 01:02 PM

SInce I haven't been to a full Opera in over 10 years, I don't know the specifics, but what Wesley Mouch said may be sage advice... but with 1 caveat.... when the opera begins... if you're not in your seat, they will make you wait until intermission to seat you... or at least that's what I've been told. You may have to wait at the [[inside) entranceway to the auditorium... where you can still watch... but not from your assigned seat.

**Gistok** · December-04-11, 02:41 PM

Just a reminder that those that missed an opportuity to see the live Oct. 27 Detroit Opera House PBS Concert for DVD for IL VOLO. It will be exclusively premiered on Detroit PBS in 3 days on Dec. 7 at 8PM. and shown across the rest of the country starting on March 3, 2012. This Detroit Opera House concert will be the groups official first DVD. I'm curious to see just how much of the Opera House will be shown in the concert. Originally they were going to do the DVD concert in Italy... but it doesn't get "more Italian" on this side of the Atlantic, than the Detroit Opera House.

Here's a song they did at a charity ball in Malaysia back in August when they did their world interview tour... Gianluca Ginoble, the lead singer, has already been christened the next Andrea Bocelli... and looks like a gene splicing experiment between Mario Lanza and Elvis Presley....

http://youtu.be/I89avIqKEkU

**Gistok** · December-07-11, 02:06 PM

Bump....

lol.... I've already got the coordinator of IL VOLOs world wide fan clubs [[on 5 continents) asking me to tape tonight's [[only shown in the Detroit WTVS PBS viewing area) performance and ship it to her in LA.

**lgc22** · December-07-11, 05:53 PM

Il Volo's PBS concert CD and/or DVD can be purchased here [[as pledge gifts for donating to DPTV): https://secure2.convio.net/dptv/site...?store_id=1141. Great way to support Detroit Public Television!

Also check out their interview and performance on Fox 2 News: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com//dpp/mor...mance-20111207

Looking forward to watching the concert tonight!

**Gistok** · December-07-11, 11:33 PM

Thanks Igc22!

The concert was great!

They didn't show as much of the Detroit Opera House as I had hoped, but what they did show [[mainly the procenium and organ grilles) ... the lighting gave them an opulent shimmering gold color..

I just got an EMAIL from Montepagano Italy... hometown of Gianluca Ginoble [[what some call the lead singer)... and they wanted to know how to get the DVD. I'll forward them the website. Not sure if they ship that far... lol...

As good as this was for Detroit PBS, it was even better publicity for the DOH... since the title of the CD/DVD/BLURAY is "IL VOLO Live at the Detroit Opera House".

**corktownyuppie** · December-07-11, 11:37 PM

"IL VOLO Live at the Detroit Opera House".

Great news. I'm not an opera fan, but I've been to the DOH countless times for broadway shows and others. Got to see it at the theatre tour this summer. It's beautiful and a wonderful representative for Detroit.

**lgc22** · December-08-11, 10:50 AM

Gistok- You can thank the young fans on Twitter for the link. :-) DPTV is probably experiencing a surge of interest from Italians who want to donate to them! Yes, the concert was great and the Detroit Opera House was a perfect setting. Very exciting to see Il Volo have their first televised concert and it was nice they came back to be live in the DPTV studio during the premiere last night. The concert will help them gain more exposure and popularity, and maybe they'll be as big as Bocelli someday. Next, they need to sing with Celine Dion. :-)

**kenp** · December-08-11, 11:12 AM

Another thing the Opera House has going for it is the size of the stage. I think its one of the biggest stages for that kind of venue in the country. That lends itself to certain shows.
I have seen all kind of shows there from rock to ballets to opera, what a great place and I am so thankfull it was restored.
Hope the UA has the same fate

**Gistok** · December-08-11, 11:57 AM

Kenp, the Detroit Opera House stage is nearly 8,000 sq. ft. in size, making it the 3rd largest in the USA. This means it can handle ANY type of performing arts acts there are, since Opera takes up the most space. It is much larger than the Fox Theatre's stage, which is why sometimes the 2 venues switch shows.

I have an old New York Times article somewhere from 10 years ago, where New Yorkers were curious why major world class opera stars, who usually visit New York and San Francisco, and little else in between when performing here, have been coming to the DOH to perform. They sent their opera critic here to check it out, and they were amazed that our old 1922 "Vaudeville barn" could have such amazing acoustics, and such an elegant old world "opera house" look to it. Critics have been raving about it ever since....

Recently I was doing some reading on what is perhaps the most famous modern opera house in the world... the Sydney Opera House. From a purely architectural perspective it is a work of beauty and brought much fame and prestige to Sydney Australia. However from a maintenance and functional perspective, it is far less than ideal.

Sydney spent 14 times its' initial cost, and 10 years longer than anticipated to build it. It had problems from the very beginning, and they had to make the larger of the halls symphonic instead of opera, and the smaller opera hall has too small of a stage to handle any but the "truck and coach" opera shows, and cannot put on a full opera. They also had to spend about $90 million in maintenance costs to take care of problems such as the roof tiles were leaking, and some acoustic adjustments had to be made.

Anyway... to locals the DOH is just another one of Detroit's restored old theatres... but to world class opera snobs... who will fly in and out from around the globe for a single performance... the Detroit Opera House is a gem.

As Michigan Opera Theatre General Director Dr. David DiChiera often says... the old Capitol Theatre "was born to be a great opera house".

Kenp... since you mentioned it... we can only hope that one day Detroit architect C. Howard Crane's other local acoustic gem [[besides his Orchestra Hall design)... can one day do what its neighbors [[DOH and OH) did... rise from certain death to return to acoustic glory....

**Gistok** · December-08-11, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by lgc22

Gistok- You can thank the young fans on Twitter for the link. :-) DPTV is probably experiencing a surge of interest from Italians who want to donate to them! Yes, the concert was great and the Detroit Opera House was a perfect setting. Very exciting to see Il Volo have their first televised concert and it was nice they came back to be live in the DPTV studio during the premiere last night. The concert will help them gain more exposure and popularity, and maybe they'll be as big as Bocelli someday. Next, they need to sing with Celine Dion. :-)

Yes, I too was surprised to see them come back to DPTV for last nights pledge performance. They had just finished their exhaustive USA/Canada Tour [[17 cities) in Sept/Oct, and their European Tour [[Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Munich, Paris, Nice) finished just the other day.

They had already met many of their idols back on Feb. 2010 at the WE ARE THE WORLD 25 - HAITI songfest, where they got to meet Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Enrique Iglasius, Lady Gaga and others. The famous stars were saying... "who are these guys"... when they heard their amazing voices....
http://youtu.be/I1rFXCyMqQA

As to them wanting to sing with Celine Dion....
http://popcrush.com/il-volo-celine-dion-duet/

**lgc22** · December-09-11, 09:04 PM

They've definitely been busy these past few months and it seems like they're not stopping to take much of a break with their Latin American tour coming up next year and a new album in the works. It's amazing that they were part of We Are the World with all those seasoned celebs. I remembered reading or hearing somewhere that they wanted to sing with Celine Dion. Now that they have a PBS concert under their belt, they need to work on getting that gig with Celine! Though they didn't have Celine in their concert, it was nice that they sang with Pia Toscano, another up-and-coming singer like them. By the way, did they sing any Christmas songs at the concert taping? I thought they were going to tape some Christmas songs to be shown on another program. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the entire concert so I missed the latter part of it.

**Gistok** · December-10-11, 12:54 PM

No Christmas songs were sung at the concert, which was already 3 hours long. They had to redo a few songs, but the audience didn't seem to mind.

Their Christmas CD is surprisingly short [[only 5 tracks), and they sing their first German song [[making it now 6 languages they sing in, with Italian, Spanish, French, English and Latin being the other 5. German song?... why Stille Nacht [[Silent Night), of course.

They will be back in the USA before Christmas to do a show with chef Rachel Ray on Dec. 16 [[these guys LOVE to eat, mainly Italian), as well as another stint on Jay Leno on Dec. 22.

**lgc22** · December-11-11, 01:51 PM

Thanks for the info. I wonder what program the Christmas songs were supposed to be for and if they taped it later. I heard they will be on a Christmas show called Nuestra Navidad which is airing tonight, Sunday, Dec. 11, at 7pm Eastern on Univision. Interesting that they sing Silent Night twice on their Christmas album, in English and in German. I guess maybe they hope to reach more fans in the German-speaking world. There was even some mention of them learning to sing in Chinese?! [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...opera-boy-band)

For anyone who's interested, you can listen to full songs from Il Volo's Christmas album and their debut album on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ilvolo/

**Gistok** · December-11-11, 03:26 PM

Igc22, thanks for the link. I have no clue why they only did 5 songs on their Christmas CD... seems kind of strange... although these guys still are tutored in schoolwork [[and learning several languages), so they may not have had the time...

They added German to their repetoire because they are very popular in German and Austria [[where they made it to #1 on the Pop Charts). These guys are kind of unique in that they seem to be popular among young, middle aged and old alike... when was the last time you heard teenagers go crazy over Operatic-Pop... never!

Here they get a standing ovation from a usually sedate German biergarten crowd...
http://youtu.be/96Ob5jHgKF4

And here they get ovations from a screaming bunch of young Malaysians....
http://youtu.be/fgUx8DVyGHo

And even the American crowd shows a lot of teens suddenly interested in this genre of music...
http://youtu.be/Hz5SfzN2pzg

But for their Christmas album, they could have added Ave Maria... which young Gianluca did 2 1/2 years ago at age 14 for the Italian TV competition that he won....
http://youtu.be/EXRilrHfM9M

**lgc22** · December-11-11, 07:07 PM

Ave Maria would have been a good addition to the Christmas album! I think they made the album an EP because they're still gaining popularity and they weren't sure if a full-length album would be profitable. But yes, they certainly are popular among all ages including the teens. As mentioned in the Fox 2 interview, they've been called the bridge between Bieber and Bocelli. And as the YouTube links show, they're popular with audiences around the world.

**Gistok** · December-18-11, 04:58 PM

I just saw the IL VOLO DVD concert on a 51 inch screen TV.... wow! Ken Ehrlich, the producer did a great job on making this a spectacular evening in a great venue. What this reminded me of a bit, was the Andre Rieu concerts.... they're always produced with spectacular backgrounds, such as the Vienna Hofburg Palace, or the Dresden Opera House, or the historic town square of Maastricht Netherlands.... magnificent backdrop to great music.

And that's the way it was presented for the IL VOLO concert at the Detroit Opera House, with angle views of the singers with a background of the shimmering atmospheric golden walls of the procenium, organ grilles, and the brilliant blue and gold of the sounding board and the great dome of the house, as well as views of the opera boxes and the lofty balcony.

And unlike performances by Andre Rieu , many of the performances were done out among the audience, giving a unique view of the house, as well as the participation of the audience [[of all ages).

On the big screen it was just amazing. Yes this was a feather in the cap of Detroit PBS, but it was a real dazzler for the Detroit Opera House.

**Gistok** · December-19-11, 02:15 AM

Want to see how the Detroit Opera House will look to the rest of the world as the venue for a concert DVD.... check this out... 1st minute is from 2 years ago, when IL VOLO was only 14, 15, 16... as separate individuals... then to where they are today... in the closest thing in America to an Italian Opera House... [[and make sure to "maximize the screen"... it's HDTV)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=P-as2MpDAUA

PBS Detroit did an amazing job... but the venue is the real winner...

**Gistok** · December-19-11, 11:28 AM

Here are 3 more PBS Concert songs at the Detroit Opera House....

1) "La Luna Hizo Esto", a Spanish love song that the guys sang with American Idol's Pia Toscano...
http://youtu.be/1OU_9W2bCq8

2) The 1898 Neapolitan favorite "O Sole Mio" that they sang in front of 30 million on American Idol....
http://youtu.be/hcrkUW4mN7o

3) "Mama" a European favorite, that has been translated into at least a dozen languages. They sing it to their mothers in the audience...
http://youtu.be/g-R4Zc1RdVQ

16 year old Gianluca Ginoble, the youngest of the 3 guys, the one who the New York Times says "has the looks of a Matinee Idol", is a year younger than Justin Bieber, and yet looks 5 years older! Ever since he won the Italian TV competition 2 years ago [[at age 14), he has already been annointed by many Italians as the next Andrea Bocelli. The going joke on Youtube is "how can Justin Bieber even be famous, as long as Gianluca is alive..."

**Gistok** · January-08-12, 04:03 AM

I didn't want to open up a separate thread for this... but this week... on Jan. 12... the Detroit Opera House [[1996-present)... nee Grans Circus Theatre [[1960-85)... nee Broadway Capitol Theater [[1934-60)... nee Paramount Theatre [[1929-33)... nee Capitol Theatre [[1922-29)... will celebrate its' 90th birthday... it opened Jan. 12, 1922.

Happy 90th Birthday to the most Italian of all American Opera Houses....

**the rock** · January-08-12, 12:41 PM

GISTOCK --I logged on to Detroityes for the first time in probably two years just to tell you that I obviously don't post anymore, but I look at this site fairly often. Must say that your knowledge of everything historical about Detroit never ceases to amaze me, and I have always enjoyed your posts.
My wife and I have been opera followers in Detroit since 1960 when the NY Metropolitan used to include Detroit on its Spring tour at Masonic Temple and we have had season's tickets to the current opera house since about the day it opened .
So keep up the good work, and I promise I will not use Detroityes as a substitute for Facebook again. jjaba would chide me if I did!

**Gistok** · January-08-12, 02:30 PM

Thank you very much The Rock.... that's very much appreciated!

I and many other old timers really do miss you and Jjaba not posting here on DYES anymore...

Tell Jjaba that even the Eastsiders are missing him! lol....

Also... the Detroit Opera House will be seen nationally [[and in Canada) on PBS on March 3, 2012... for a rebroadcast of the IL VOLO concert.