There is a review of the concert on
teamjackieevancho.proboards.com/ from texashossier. I ask him via the board and I also sent him a privat message too, if he agrees, that I put his review on our board. But there was no response. So I hope, he doesn't complain, when I put it on our board anyway.
Post by
texashoosier on Jan 23, 2017 at 11:32pm
I was at the Jackie Evancho concert at the UT Cowan Center in Tyler, Texas, on Saturday night, 21 January 2017, sitting in Row G, Seat 13 (about dead center, 7 rows back) of the concert stage. She started out wearing the black dress (floor length) that had the horizontal cutouts in it (you will excuse my description of her apparel as I am not great with women's clothing even after 32 years of marriage and surviving a daughter who is now of 28, in her teenage years....). However, she wore a killer dress after the intermission, the white, sequined inauguration dress with really great looking sequined high heel shoes. JJ tried to show the dress in photos on this webpage but the concert hall lighting pretty much butchered just how great she looked. To use her words, simply amazing... She told the audience she wanted to wear it as the inauguration coat pretty much covered it up during the inauguration ceremony. As for the rest of her, pretty much the standard, beautiful hair style we have come to adore over the years. A little more eye make-up since Midland which never ceases to amaze me why she does this as she has those extraordinary blue eyes that need next to nothing for enhancement. And of course, the captivating smile....
Below is the song list in order of presentation:
Set #1
- Pure Imagination
- Made to Dream
- Memories
- Music of the Night
First Break - PK played and conducted his composition of Mozart's "The Overture" (he injected The Who's organ solo from "Won't Get Fooled Again" off the Who's Next album which was pretty interesting (my opinion, better then his interpretation of Nessun Dorma from past Awakening concerts)
Set 2
- Fix You (Cold Play Cover)
- What a Wonderful World (tribute to Father)
- Impossible Dream (tribute to Lisa)
- Nessun Dorma (one her best performances that I have ever heard, live or recorded)
Intermission
- Kirasol(sp?) (First time played Live, She said she loves this song, a couple of us at the after-concert fan gathering were not sure what the song title actually is, it seems to be Italian as she spoke/sang the song in a foreign language we could not easily identify)
- Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Break #2 (PK plays music from Carmen, pretty good, but not as good as the Mozart piece in Break One - my opinion)
Set 3
- Jackie sings a parlay of shortened pieces of music from the last six years since AGT 2010 as follows:
- O Mio Babbino Caro (hope someone posts this up to compare it with her singing it at AGT 2010)
- Time to Say Goodbye
- Think of Me (wish she had sung it complete during the encore)
- Somewhere
- When You Wish Upon a Star
- The Prayer
Set 4 (I think there was a break, but may be mistaken)
Full Length Versions of the following:
- Writing's On the Wall (James Bond Movie Cover)
- Safe & Sound
- Lovers
Encore
- The Lord's Prayer
Total Concert Length about 2 Hours and 25 Minutes including breaks. Concert started pretty much on time at 1930 Hours and ended just before 2200 Hours (my estimate as my last clock check was at 2146 Hours right before Lovers)
What Else Did She Do?
- said that she would have a new album out in late Spring 2017 (that was said with some "maybe" in her voice)
- did not really say anything at all about the 3-Song Album "Together we Stand" which was released the same day (20 January) as the inauguration (probably should have played that up a bit more then she did - she should have opened the concert with the National Anthem - and then said something about this special album (which has three songs on it, The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, which if you buy off Amazon you get a free MP3 download of the songs). Kinda wish she would have included a couple of more Patriotic songs on it to make it a bit better deal to the price you pay ($7.98 on Amazon) to get the album, but maybe there is some other stuff on it I don't know about)
- gave the standard lead in descriptions of the song she is about to sing for all the songs except the opening; to be honest, she is not real good doing this. Why? She seems to be pretty nervous when she starts a concert and the words describing the why and what of each song spew out real fast, sometimes without some thought (she said before Nessun Dorma that she first performed it at BGT 2011; that I think was done first publicly at St. Paul's Cathedral in Houston in early 2011 and at least a couple of times in Florida, before the BGT 2011 performance, although I have to admit I don't know exactly when the BGT 2011 performance was filmed (she sure looked younger in Houston then the BGT 2011 performance).
- but....she was settled down before she sang a great version of Nessun Dorma. And I think that was because as she was starting to sing What a Wonderful World, she stopped and blurted out that this was the wrong song, that PK's music was the lead in to Impossible Dream. She thought the teleprompter was wrong but PK interjected that she was the one who got the songs mixed up and of course JME started laughing, the audience is laughing, PK is acting like an adult and is putting the humorous blame on her, and of course, just like in Midland, when we got her talking about her driving, her friends, and her new car, the ice was broken and she was much more at ease the rest of the concert. Again, as she mentioned she was about to sing ND (Nessun Dorma) there was that unique, visible & verbal ripple of anticipation that just flowed thru the audience when she was about to sing what is likely her signature song. And true to form, it was just fabulous, a great way to end before intermission, to a rousing, lengthy standing ovation from the audience. One of her best performances of ND that I have ever heard her perform, live, recorded or otherwise. God, she own's that song since the legendary Pavarotti died over a decade ago. By the way, she held the 3rd "Vincero" note about 10 seconds in length....her performances of Music of the Night and of course, The Lord's Prayer, as well as the opening song, Pure Imagination, received Standing Ovation treatement. Interestingly, her performance of "Writing's on the Wall" were very energetic and showed off her powerful voice. One last thing about the opening, was the Standing Ovation she received before she sang a note; in fact, everyone stopped clapping and started sitting down well into her start of Pure Imagination. My take on this is that Team E and her, did not see in advance, just how many people wanted to thank her for her performance of the National Anthem at the inauguration by standing and cheering her as she walked out on the stage. Team E missed on that score, just did not anticipate the Cowan Center audience reaction to what she did in DC. I really don't think Team E (with emphasis on Jackie) understand just how much people really like her singing the National Anthem. They need to realize that most of her fans are older and how much they hold dearly patriotism and their country. I sure know they underestimate the fact, that they are not back East or on the West Coast, but in the heartland and especially in Texas. Geez, had she sang "The Eyes of Texas" as a second encore, the audience would still be cheering....something to think about if and when they come back to Texas in the future.
- She did not get overly emotional talking about her Mom (like she did in Midland last year) and did a lot more talking about her Dad and how he is always with her at all her performances and how much she cares about him.
What She Did Not Do....
Really, no banter with the audience (other then the faux pas of the song reversal) about the rest of her life, something that I think she should do to continue to endear herself to the fans. Nothing about the car, school, life outside of school, etc. That was something I thought was great at the Midland performance last year. The personal touch always reaps rewards cause it brings the performer down to the audience level.
Notable Stuff:
- The Post-Concert meet at the Republic Icehouse was a lot fun; there was about 15 people there including a couple of guys who make following and watching JME performances a near profession in its own right (one whose name I have forgotten said this was his 92nd performance or fan-meet that he had been to) and who have vast knowledge of the history of Team E and JME. Thanks a lot to Mike Morneau and his wife, Marilyn, for arranging the pre-concert dinner at meet at the Potpourri House and the aforementioned post-concert gathering at the Icehouse which was only marred by the honky-tonk band playing right next to our meeting room. Since most of us were 50+ in age and our hearing shows it (I claim no knowledge of the women ages, only the guys), it kinda limited the discussion to small groups of 2 to 4 people - I of course have a genetic hearing problem extending back at least three generations - and that shortened our discussions somewhat.
- Great thanks to Len Rausch, one the true JME and Team E historians, for providing me with 2-3 hours of excellent conversation on a variety of subjects. Hope he did not freeze to death in the parking lot as we talked for over an hour after the Icehouse closed at midnight.
- a real point of interest to me was seeing Mike Evancho, Zack Evancho (the youngest son) and Rachel Evancho after the show. The two kids were picking up some candles that were used as props on the stage. Did not have the chance to speak with Mr.E but did talk with Zack for two minutes about his continuing to learn how to fly airplanes (does not have his license yet) and he mentioned he is interested in going into the military and flying planes. Told him that I just retired from Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth in August of 2016, else I would have invited him and his father to come by and I would give them a tour of the F-35 (latest stealth fighter) production line and maybe get him to sit in the cockpit of the F-35. He smiled broadly at that and said that would have been cool. My impression of him is that he is a good kid, very steady, and has the demeanor to be a very good officer if he pursues that in the future. I hope his family supports him in the future if this is his desire....
- Finally, there was one thing that was said that was really interesting just before the concert started. The Executive Director of the UT-Tyler, Cowan Center, Ms. Susan Thomae-Morphew, came out on stage before the concert to welcome the audience (there was likely less than 100 seats empty on Saturday night, a very full house) and during her remarks made a VERY interesting comment to the audience. She said that last spring (Spring of 2016), AFTER she had booked the Jackie Evancho concert, she received a telephone call from Donald Trump, who, she stated, "asked if it would be OK for Jackie to sing the National Anthem at his inauguration the day before the concert". I have contacted the Cowan Center and left a voice mail for Susan to call and confirm or modify what she said to the audience before the concert, so if she tells me something different, I will post and addendum in the future on this website with any correction.
Now, three things here....
First, that indicates that Team E had scheduled the concert in the Spring of 2016, months before it was announced.
Second, Team E was probably contacted by the Trump Campaign prior to the request to the UT-Tyler Cowan Center staff (cannot imagine they would not ask Team E, first, before contacting the Cowan Center for such permission)
Third, and I think most important, it shows the level of commitment of JME and Team E, to support her fans with appearing less then 36 hours after performing a historical rendition of the National Anthem, likely the most important performance of her life with the possible exception of performing at the Pope's 2016 visit to Philadelphia (guess that depends upon one's viewpoint)....if this story is true, that says volumes about Jackie Evancho, the person. It's not what you say, it's what you do that really counts in this world....and with all the hoopla in DC the night before and the day after the election, she still fulfilled her commitment and came to Tyler....
Fourth, and just as an aside, it shows that Donald Trump thought he was going to win well in advance of the election. That is not surprising cause you don't spend 10's of millions of your money on an election if you don't think you are going to win.....glad he asked her to sing the National Anthem at the inauguration.
Questions:
Still don't know what that "Kirasol" song spelling really is; Len Rausch said he was going to check on it as he was not familiar with it either, so any help on that would be appreciated. May very well show up on the new, forthcoming album. I think the spoken words in the song are said so fast before the longer, drawn out lyrics which are easier to follow, that this really is not a great song at this time for JME to perform in concert, but I know she needs to try new stuff out on the audience, so gotta go with the flow.
Final Assessment
Her voice continues to just get better. Her live performances are more interesting. And there is still much to come from this little lady. Cannot wait till she returns to the Southwest US so I can hear her again.
To everyone who reads this, please feel free to correct or comment on my concert report. I don't claim any special knowledge or detailed memory of everything that happened or was said at the concert, so feel free to agree or differ on my writings. I try not to give a lot opinionated stuff but try and stick to reporting factual data for people to think about and come to their own conclusions.
Texas Hoosier