Summer: 2012

Taormina: Sting, "Ancient Theater, Like Me"...

The star plays with the audience at the record-breaking concert, which nearly collapsed due to the Pitchfork Roadblock.

The audience is thrilled by the songs they performed, which span 35 years of music history, from the Police onward.

"Ancient Theatre," Sting says to the audience in Italian, admiring the harmony of the auditorium. Then he adds, winking, "I'm a little ancient too." And the fact that Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, at 61, jokingly compares himself to a monument shouldn't shock anyone: he's one of the world's most important artists, having sold, alone and with the Police, nearly 100 million records and earned ten Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and three Oscar nominations.

Yesterday's concert in Taormina was a record-breaking one—breaking, with €400,000, the Ancient Theatre's box office record, previously held by Elton John—and a miracle: a truckload of equipment arrived six hours late due to the Pitchforks blocking the Villa San Giovanni boarding gates. And everything was in danger of being ruined.

But Sting's performance was also a captivating one, thrilling the 4,500 spectators—the theatre couldn't hold more—all standing to applaud and dance, filming and photographing the performance of Sting, who, in a white T-shirt and black leather pants, with a hint of a blond Mohawk on his head, looked like a young boy on stage. Joining him on stage were top-notch musicians—from his long-time guitarist Dominic Miller, who launched into some gargantuan solos, to David Sancious (keyboards), from the fiendish violinist Peter Tickell to the "Italian" drummer Vincenzo Pietro "Vinnie" Colaiuta—and a singer of the calibre of Jo Lawry.

It was a thrilling concert, lasting two hours, including encores, and during which 35 years of music history were retraced, from The Police (formed in 1977) onward. Sting begins with "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You," followed immediately by "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," the opening theme song for a 1981 RAI music show, Happy Circus. The audience warms up, sings along to "Englishman in New York," and also gets involved in "Heavy Cloud No Rain." Sting sings, with the strength and joy of a boy: "Fields of Gold," "Shape of My Heart," and "Seven Days." And the eyes of the older audience members light up as they listen to him once again perform Police songs: "Demolition Man," "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da," "Message in a Bottle," "King of Pain," and "Roxanne," which was greeted with a roar.

He also sings "Fragile," the song Sting performed on July 19, 1993, in Marsala, exactly one year after Via D'Amelio, closing the concert dedicated to the memory of Paolo Borsellino. That event was organized by Carmelo Costa, whose Musica da Bere group brought yesterday's concert to life, in collaboration with Taormina Arte and with the patronage of the Municipality.

"After Carlos Santana last year," said Costa, a member of the national board of Assomusica, which brings together live performance producers, "another show of enormous international standing, capable of attracting two thousand foreigners and the elite tourism that only occurs on these occasions. So, given that, after expenses, we organizers have very little left, it should be noted that we, the entertainment entrepreneurs, are the benefactors of tourism, while regional institutions prefer to waste money elsewhere."

Now the public's attention is focused on the next big event, Ben Harper's concert on July 25th, again at the Ancient Theatre. And here too, the rush for tickets has begun.

(c) Civita News