After a long bus ride from Boston via New York City, the first tangible
sign of what was to come were the billboards lining the road into Atlantic
City, advertising the various acts at the casinos. Diddy, Mary J. Blige, Gladys
Knight, Chaka Khan, L’il Jon with DJ Vice, and…. Jackie Evancho!
The bus dropped everyone off at
Bally’s. I walked about a mile down
Pacific Avenue to my motel. Pacific Avenue runs parallel to the Boardwalk,
behind the casino/hotels which front on the Boardwalk. The side of Pacific Avenue
across from the casino/hotels is a mix of small storefronts, old houses and
small apartment buildings, many of them boarded up. If I had been with a bunch
of my buddies, we could have sold our gold chains at any one of about ten
different pawn shops, eaten some great fried chicken, gotten tattoos, and
thrown several pretty wild bachelor parties. The contrast between the old and
the new was jarring. Further inland from Pacific Avenue, the rest of Atlantic
City looked like any other place.
After a quick shower and change into
appropriate attire, I headed over to the Trump Taj Mahal. Check-in time for the
VIP tour and the meet & greet was 4:00 PM to 4:30 PM. It’s a good thing I
got to the casino early, because once inside, it took me almost 15 minutes and
asking directions three or four times to find the Box Office for the Mark G.
Etess Arena. Once you’re inside a casino, they don’t want you to know where you
are or what time it is. I got to the Box
Office, and met up with several fans, including Joe, Alex, Ian, Frank, Russ, Grace
and Shu Shu, and I’m sorry if I omitted your name.
At about 4:30 PM, the VIP group (I
think about 15-20 couples and 10 more guys) were led into to the arena to
quietly observe part of the rehearsal/sound check. The arena is not fancy, to
be sure. It’s a large open arena, with a bare concrete floor. It’s quite
suitable for boxing matches and trade shows. There’s a stage on one side, and
bleacher style stadium seating around the other three sides. Total capacity
would be about 5,500, but the side seats were curtained off. On the positive side, there was a huge
sound board and good theatrical lighting.[1]
From the seating chart, there looked to be about 2,400
seats on the floor (folding chairs, held together at the legs with plastic
ties) and over 1,100 rear stadium seats. The stadium seats looked to me like they
were retractable, and I believe they only pulled out about half of them. The
floor seats were fairly full, except for the rear corners, and the rear stadium
seats were about half full. I chatted with the Atlantic City Fire Marshall at
the intermission, and he estimated that there were about 2,000 people in the
audience. I think it was more like 2,200-2,300.
The rehearsal/sound check was very interesting.
We got to watch for about 45 minutes. Mostly it was the orchestra playing, but
Jackie came out and sang “Imaginer.” Even
in the sound check, her concentration and emotion were intense. When she came
out onto the stage, the conductor introduced her to the orchestra, apparently
for the first time. To me, the implication of that (i.e., that they hadn’t rehearsed
together before) was amazing.
At the end of the rehearsal, we were
moved from the front rows over to a group of seats at the side of the arena,
for the meet and greet. The meet and greet itself was very disappointing. Non-existent
actually. Apparently, nothing had been set up or arranged in advance. They just
brought Jackie out onto the concrete arena floor, near where they had seated
us. There wasn’t any place for her to sit. She just stood in front of the black
curtain hiding the side bleacher seats, and posed for pictures with each of us.
There was no chance to say anything to her beyond a quick “hello.” Basically, what we got was a 10-second
photo-op in a very unattractive setting.
For the price of the VIP ticket ($250),
something – anything - should have been set up in advance at a more suitable
location. There were only about 40-50 people in the VIP group, so there would
have been time for something a little more organized. On the plus side, my VIP
ticket got me a front row seat, right in front of the stage, about 5 seats from
dead center.
The concert itself was out of this
world. Jackie’s getting better by the day. Overall, Jackie was in complete
control, with total command of the stage. She owned every song. She delivered
each one flawlessly. She was pitch perfect, with no trace of the nervousness I
saw last month at Avery Fisher Hall, in New York City. She can do it all -
power, finesse, emotional intensity, dramatic flair, delicate phrasing,
exquisite diction. She was at the top of her game - and she keeps raising that
bar higher and higher. And through it all, she stayed true to her personality.
For this concert (and I assume for
Buffalo) Jackie had a mike stand with a removable mike, so she could use it as
a stationary mike, or a hand-held mike. This worked very well for her. Some of
the songs really benefited from the hand-held mike, and for others, the
stationary mike was more suitable or appropriate (like “The Lord’s Prayer.”)
One notable (and very welcome)
difference from the concert at Avery Fisher Hall was that Jackie spoke
frequently between songs. For her first remarks, after the first song, she
warmly and graciously welcomed the audience, sounding very mature and
confident. She told us that during the first half of the concert, she was going
to sing some of her favorite songs from “Dream with Me,” and that after the
intermission, she would sing some songs from “Heavenly Christmas.” She was poised, relaxed, bright, confident,
engaging and totally charming, with no trace of the nervousness she showed at
Avery Fisher Hall.
Except for jotting down the title of
each song, I didn’t take notes during the concert, so I don’t remember how
often she spoke, but she did address the audience in a like manner between
several of the songs. She also introduced Chris Dallo before each of his
songs. Later in the concert, she
acknowledged the conductor and the orchestra. Seeing her speak so much and so
well between songs added a nice new dimension to the whole concert experience.
The orchestra warmed us up with an
upbeat familiar piece or two from one of the popular comic operas. There were
no programs, so I can’t tell you what they were. The conductor was young,
energetic and animated. The orchestra was excellent – very professional. Jackie
attracts the best.
The beginning of Jackie’s part of the
concert was very dramatic. The lights were low, and the orchestra began playing
“All I Ask of You” before Jackie entered the stage. A single spotlight was directed to the edge
of the stage to our left. Jackie entered the spotlight just as she began singing.
It was reminiscent of the opening to “Lovers” at the Sarasota concert. She remained there for a few moments, and
then walked slowly to center stage, still illuminated by the spotlight. That
set the tone for the whole evening.
I immediately forgot that I was
sitting in a temporary chair on a concrete floor in a trade show hall. Jackie delivered
a beautiful performance of “All I Ask of You”– pitch perfect vocals, as clear
and flawless as the studio version on DWM deluxe, and the “usual” emotional
intensity – which we have come to expect, but should never take for granted.
Her next song
was “Imaginer.” It was light-years
beyond Sarasota. Her French diction was clear as a bell, and her accent sounded
very, well, French. And also, she added a verse and a line that I believe she
had not sung before – at least not before Buffalo. The translations are mostly
mine, with some help from Google Translate, and are not entirely literal. Also,
I made some changes to the lyrics available on the Internet, because they were
clearly not correct French:
“J'ai
ramasse toutes mes prières
celles que pour nous necessite de
faire.
Je garde l'espoir que l'on entendra
dans ma voix
la certitude qu'on survivra.”
(“I
have said all my prayers, the ones we need to say. I remain hopeful that people
will hear in my voice the certainty that we will survive.”)
“Ne
laisse rien ni personne te decourager. Il te suffit de chanter.”
(“Do
not let anything or anyone discourage you. You just have to sing.”)
I won’t comment on each of Chris
Dallo’s songs separately (except for the duet with Jackie). He’s a good tenor,
and very entertaining, but he can’t do what Jackie does (who can?). He doesn’t
emote like Jackie does and he doesn’t draw the listener into the song like
Jackie does. Like many other singers, he sings at the audience, not for
the audience. But I don’t blame Chris. People expect bravado from an operatic
tenor. They expect an unspoken “Ta-Da”
at the end each song. If I had to pick, I’d say his best individual offering
was “O Solo Mio.” All in all, it was
certainly a good idea to have Chris singing at the concert. Jackie got three nice breaks, and you can be
sure that helped her sing 14 songs without a trace of fatigue.
The next song, “The Impossible Dream”
was “most excellent.” Soaring, dramatic, powerful - but I can’t say it was
better than her performance in Atlanta. That one will be hard to beat. If ever.
Then came “Mi Mancherai.” It was great to see it in the line-up. I don’t
think she sang it at any of the DWM tour concerts. It’s a beautiful song, and
she performed it with impressive precision. The only phrase I can think of to
describe that aspect of her singing is “attention to detail.” “Mi Mancherai” really showcases how she
can combine technical skills, energy and emotion into a cohesive performance.
For me, this song alone was worth the price of admission.
“The Lord’s Prayer:” As powerful and
moving as ever – technically as good as the studio version, and emotionally,
nearly as powerful as Dallas. But not better than Dallas. Like her performance
of “Impossible Dream” in Atlanta, I think her Dallas performance will always be
the benchmark for “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Jackie ended the first half of the
concert with “A Time for Us” and “Angel.” Wow and wow!!
“A Time for Us” is my personal
favorite, and Jackie did not disappoint. It was as haunting and desperate as
ever - I would say every bit as good as her performance in Atlanta. I thought
her Atlanta performance would stand right up there as her best, for a long
time, but it appears that won’t be the case.
“Angel:” What can I say? It just keeps getting better and better.
Jackie knows the song inside and out – every nuance, every note, every
syllable. In my opinion, “Angel” was her strongest song at Avery Fisher Hall, and
was one of her strongest songs in Atlantic City. It certainly was the crowd’s
favorite solo effort of the evening. Sorry,
Sarah McLachlan, I know you wrote the song, but when it comes to singing it,
it’s Jackie’s song now.
The second half of the concert was the
Christmas half. It began with two or three more entertaining orchestral pieces
(from “The Nutcracker,” I hear tell). Then Jackie sang several Christmas songs.
“The First Noel” and “White Christmas” were merely perfect. “I’ll be Home for
Christmas” went further than that. It was heartfelt, beautiful and
gut-wrenching all at the same time.
“Believe.” I want to say it was
incredible, but of course that means un-believable, which just isn’t the case
for me anymore. I have listened to it and watched her sing it so many times
that I know it’s real. I believe. I
was mesmerized. The way she sings “Snow
is softly falling…” was just another exquisite moment that was by itself worth
the price of admission.
OK, and now to THE duet. It was
clearly meant to be the highlight of the concert, and I think for most of the
audience, it was just that. Musically,
it was moving and magical. Jackie’s duet with Susan Boyle on the “Dream with
Me” CD is pretty good, but I thought Jackie and Chris made a much better duo. I
also thought the part where he sang in Italian was very cool.
My only reservation about the duet performance
was that Jackie and Chris held hands and looked at each other through most of
the song. That made it look like they were singing a romantic ballad to each
other. “The Prayer” is a religious song, not a popular ballad. I know they are
good friends, but I thought Jackie was just too young to be holding hands with
20-year old Chris. Perhaps they could have held hands standing side-by-side,
like she did with Sarah Brightman. In my opinion, Jackie’s stunning and
powerful performance of “The Prayer” in Los Angeles, on the AGT tour, was the
way it should be sung.
After the duet, almost everyone in the
audience gave Jackie and Chris a standing ovation. We were prepared to applaud
for as long as we had to in order to get an encore, but Jackie didn’t make us
work too hard for it. She and the conductor came right back out onto the stage
and Jackie sang “O Holy Night.” Like “Angel,” she knows this song backward and
forward and can deliver it with great self-confidence. Also, it’s clear that
she really enjoys singing it. It’s one of the few songs in her repertoire where she can smile
frequently during the song.
After “O Holy Night,” Jackie and the
conductor left the stage amidst more enthusiastic applause, and again, came
right back out. Jackie sang a beautiful rendition of “When You Wish Upon a
Star.” I didn’t put my stopwatch to it, but I believe she exceeded the usual
15-second-long note at the end. I’m thinking about 18 seconds. Pretty
impressive when you remember that this was song number 14 for the evening. She
obviously had prepared two encores, but no more. After WYWUS, the house lights
were turned on, signaling the end of the concert.
One final comment: “Lovers” was
notably (and regrettably) absent from the set list, but for her to sing 14
songs, while including some songs from “Heavenly Christmas,” something had to
give. For me, the very welcome addition of “Mi
Mancherai” made up for the omission of “Lovers.”
My overall opinion of the concert – outstanding. In my book, it gets an A+…..5-stars…..10 out
of 10, however you want to say it.
[1] More overall
impressions of the venue: I read someone else’s comments somewhere that he
thought Avery Fisher Hall was a better venue for Jackie. I have to disagree.
Avery Fisher Hall certainly has the “classy” reputation, elegance, and
permanent comfortable theater seating that were lacking at the Mark G. Etess
Arena, but Avery Fisher Hall is a single-purpose venue – namely, for the New
York Philharmonic. Therefore, there was no theatrical lighting or spotlighting
for Jackie – just house lights. So, as much as I enjoyed Jackie’s concert at
Avery Fisher Hall, I was disappointed with the bright lighting – I kept wishing
for a more Sarasota-like experience.
Also, I wasn’t impressed with the
sound mixing at Avery Fisher Hall – if indeed there was any. On the other hand, the sound board at the
Mark G. Etess Arena was impressive, and I thought the mixing was excellent. I
agree with another poster who wrote that the sound system at the Arena was clearly designed for rock concerts (multiple huge speakers hanging from the ceiling) and
that overall, the volume was a bit too loud. But I’m a little hard of hearing,
so it all worked for me! (lol).
