Review of 'Andrea Bocelli'

https://www.andreabocelli.com/tickets/2025-04-25/manchester-uk/co-op-live/

My wife has always wanted to see Andrea Bocelli live. We both love his incredible smooth yet quite emotive voice but in the past we have balked at the price of tickets. Now living in the north of England when we found he was visiting the Co-Op Live in Manchester, a new venue we have never visited, we agreed to just pay the money and get tickets. In this case we found tickets in the lower section of the balcony (level 3) opposite the stage at the far end of the arena. We were able to see the stage very clearly and the acoustics were amazing, making the night one we will remember for quite some time.

Shortly after the 8 o'clock start time the Czech National Symphony Orchestra arranged themselves on the simple stage that was backed by a series of large vertical screens that showed largely static backdrops during the show (which mostly looked like they were generated by AI, with apologies to the artist if they were not) that were flanked on either side by two large screens displaying close up video of the performers. They were joined a short time later by the Manchester Chamber Choir (it was nice to see he used a local choir) who arranged themselves on risers behind the orchestra. The orchestra was conducted by Carlo Bernini who did a great job not only conducting but also helping the blind Bocelli on occasion on and off the large stage (via a rather inelegant set of temporary steps on the left).

Bocelli was simply amazing with such a smooth, clear voice that seems to have aged little despite him celebrating 30 years performing professionally though he did comment to the crowd after the second encore that he is getting too old for this. This was a simply staged performance focusing primarily on the music rather than any fancy staging or acting, the only exception to this being a pair of dancers who appeared for several pieces in the second half of the show. For the most part it was simply Bocelli standing stock still at the microphone, arms to his sides, and singing his heart out, stunning the audience with his vocal talents.

As with his other concerts he was joined by several other artists including the wonderfully talented flutist Andrea Griminelli (I swear looking all the world like Robert Wagner - yes, I am showing my age), and violinist Rusanda Panfili whose first piece was a haunting English classic. As for vocal talent Bocelli was joined by soprano Mariam Battistelli whose wonderful smooth tones thankfully resorted only minimally to vibrato and blended wonderfully with Bocelli during duets. In the second half of the concert his “pop guest” was Pia Toscano who did a wonderful rendition of Célion Dion's hit “All By Myself” then duetted “The Prayer” with Bocelli. It was great to see the respect that all guests had for Bocelli, carefully blending their performances with his, showing him the respect he is due as well as even helping him on and off the stage when required. It is hard to know what Bocelli himself thought of the performers but there was obvious mutual professional respect here. When performing the guests, of course, give Bocelli a break between his exertions and allowed him to deliver tremendous vocals. At one point he touchingly duetted with a video of the late, great, Luciano Pavarotti. The concert ended with “'O Sole Mio” followed by three amazing encores that had the audience on their feet: “Vivo per lei” (O.R.O.), “Time To Say Good Bye” (“Con te partio”) and the incredible finally “Nessun Dorma” (Giacomo Puccini).

There was a 20 minute intermission only 40 minutes after the show began with the second resuming for another hour. Though not long the performance was truly incredible and kept the audience in raptures throughout, mesmerized by the maestro and his guests. It well and truly deserved the audience's standing ovations. This was a class act. Bocelli only said a few words to the audience but these included humbly thanking us for spending our time with him. How often do you ever hear a performer say that?

An incredible, powerful performance from the best tenor of our time, Andrea Bocelli. Yes, it was expensive but it was, absolutely, worth it. Something we will never forget.

Our visit to see Bocelli was soured by the trouble we had with traffic on the way to the venue parking despite arriving hours before the start, running, we barely made it to our seats before the performance began (5 minutes before 8) with the non-existent traffic management of the parking and venue stewards allowing cars to cut into the front of the considerable queue. Unfortunately, while there may have been less problems with public transport it would have been impossible for us to get home afterwards due to lack of trains going to our town at that time of night. In the future we will have to leave even earlier (4 hours for the 1.5 hour trip was obviously not enough, so perhaps 5 hours) or stay at a Manchester hotel.

Rating: “I have absolutely no complaints”

Review Date: 2025-04-25

Location: Manchester (England)

Address: Etihad Campus, 1 Sportcity Way, Manchester M11 3DL ENGLAND

Public Transport: (Metrolink) Etihad Campus

URL: https://www.cooplive.com/

Co-Op Live opened in 2024 and is currently UK's largest indoor venue with a capacity of 23,500. Located on the Etihad complex south-east of the city centre Co-Op Live has two large car parks and a Manchester Metrolink station, “Etihad Campus”.

Looking like a large black box, the building is quite spacious with a large number of places to eat and drink inside.

Acoustics in the auditorium are very good and the seats quite comfortable though I found it hard to see the seat numbers that were written in a dark colour on a black label.

Seating arrangements are the same as with any large arenas of this kind, with sections arranged in a large rounded rectangle around a flat floor (“Level 0”) with the stage at one end. Around the floor area there is a raised seating area (“Level 1”), hospitality suites then a large, fairly steep (but not as steep as the O2 in London) balcony (“Level 2” and “Level 3”) accessed by a series of escalators.