A fright at the opera
For £1,400 each, the holidaymakers expected Andrea Bocelli singing his hits. Instead, they got a ‘boring’ opera about an executed poet
THE advert boasted that fans of Andrea Bocelli would be treated to a spectacular summer concert in the beautiful Tuscan countryside with the Italian singer and special guests.
But a group of British tourists who shelled out almost £1,400 each for the trip – and were expecting to see the likes of Ed Sheeran and Barbra Streisand on stage with the tenor – were left bitterly disappointed.
Not only did Bocelli – who sings both popular songs and classical music – appear only fleetingly, but there were no other stars in the show.
On top of that, rather than the tenor’s greatest hits, the performance was an opera about an executed French poet that few of the audience had heard of.
Anita Lowe, 62, who went on the 11-night excursion with husband, Christopher, 63, said she broke down in tears because she was so disappointed with the event. She complained to tour operator, Leger Holidays, but is furious they have offered just £350 compensation.
Mrs Lowe, a cleaner from Oldham, said: ‘I wanted to see him singing his wellknown songs.
‘We didn’t book to see an opera. I thought it would be like a concert at the O2 in London, where he performs his greatest hits with guests like Ed Sheeran. ‘When he did it in New York he had Bar- bra Streisand, so when it said special guests we expected stars.
‘If it was La Traviata or Verdi or something it would have been better, but it was a classical opera that no one knew anything about.
‘I watch some opera on TV and I like Pavarotti, but this was a full opera with wigs and heaving chests.
‘We couldn’t understand the transcript – it was all in Italian. We wouldn’t have paid all that money if it had been advertised as an opera. It’s like booking tickets to see the rugby and getting there and being greeted with a ballet.’
The opera was Andrea Chenier, a fouract classical opera by Umberto Giordano, which is based loosely on the life of the French poet Andre Chenier, who was executed during the French Revolution.
As well as the concert, in Bocelli’s home town of Lajatico on July 27, the coach holiday also included visits to Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Montecatini and Volterra.
Other Britons on the tour included retired businesswoman Jenny Bell, 66, and her husband, Peter, 68, a retired electrician, of Prestatyn, North Wales.
Mrs Bell said: ‘I was beyond disappointed. I thought the opera was maybe being put on as an intro for the first 15 minutes, [and then] I thought the concert was about to start. Some people didn’t even know Andrea Bocelli had been on because he had a very minor role. It was a very boring opera.’ Mrs Lowe said around ten holidaymakers on the trip had been offered a total of £1,650 by Leger Holidays, which she claimed was nowhere near enough. In a letter the firm apologised but insisted it ‘must categorically stress to you that we, like many other independent visitors of the performance, were not made aware that the concert was due to be an opera, as naturally we would have made you and your fellow guests aware of the information.
‘Nonetheless... I am truly sorry for the prolonged disappointment you have been caused by the performance of Andrea Bocelli, and if you believe you have been misled by Leger Holidays.’
A spokesman for Leger Holidays added: ‘We are particularly concerned regarding the disappointment our customers have experienced and we are liaising with our guests individually.’
Bocelli, 59, who is blind, is a singer, songwriter, and record producer. Celine Dion once said that ‘if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli’ while other have called Bocelli’s voice ‘the most beautiful in the world’.
‘I was beyond disappointed’