Sting: My Songs Tour: International

Sting's Sweet Return to Cap Roig - The Briton presents a retelling of his solo and Police songs...

A year after Sting's last visit to Cap Roig, the festival's audience once again welcomed the English musician with warmth and complicity. While Gordon Sumner—our artist's name on the registry office—appeared in 2018 alongside Jamaican artist Shaggy, last night he did so in person. Sting was presenting his most recent album, My Songs, released in May of this year, in which he decided to revisit some of his songbook from recent decades, both his solo work and that recorded with The Police.

There was, therefore, a lovely spirit of reunion in these Baix Empordà gardens. And, it must be said, a certain sense of relief was palpable in the air. The musician's health setback at the beginning of July had caused many fans to harbour serious doubts in recent days about whether his concert in Cap Roig would actually take place, as he had to cancel several dates, the most recent of which was on Monday of this week in Bonn.

Fortunately, the stars have aligned correctly. The viral throat infection that had kept Sting on the sidelines from the 8th until very recently is now over, much to the delight of the fans gathered last night: a total of 2,108 spectators, according to organizers' sources in La Vanguardia, marking the festival's first sell-out this year.

As soon as he stepped onto the stage, and before getting into the swing of things, Sting addressed the audience. Dressed in a black T-shirt, he greeted the audience with a "bona nit," explaining in perfectly correct Spanish the vocal problems he's been experiencing these past few days. "I wouldn't want to have to cancel any more performances. So, if it's okay with you, tonight we'll do a slightly different concert. More intimate, calmer, easier on my voice." With that, he kicked off with a sweetly slanted rendition of Roxanne, a coordinate that also continued into the second song of the night, "Every little thing she does is magic," which the audience sang along with. And despite the calm announced by the musician, who certainly managed his energy by often relying on the choir members, the atmosphere didn't take long to heat up.

The temperature began to rise with Message in a Bottle, while the first episodes of epic music were created with the always unbeatable Englishman in New York, which the audience greeted with particular enthusiasm. The Briton continued with Brand New Day, a piece that gave him the opportunity to joke at the expense of the group's harmonica player, made up of seven members, including his regular guitarist, Dominic Miller, and his son, Rufus Miller, also on guitar.

Sting and his musicians' performance at the Cap Roig festival continued to sow stimulating moments and memories in the anthological vein described above. In the final stretch of the concert, he played gems like "Desert Rose," a composition that served up a careful arrangement with oriental tones at times. Not to mention great hits recorded with his previous group, like "Every Breath You Take," another of those songs that truly defined an era and continue to dazzle with their excellent form, always tested by that strict judge called time. King of Pain and Next to You opened the evening's encores.

(c) La Vanguardia