The first day of winter has welcomed Tarja Turunen and her fans to Milan, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 with cloudy weather, with rain and sleet, at times very cold. The scenery around Magazzini Generali, was very bleak, but it was warmed up by a group of metalheads, already queued from early in the afternoon waiting for one of the most interesting concerts of the year. The heterogeneity of the public was really amazing, there were underage girls accompanied by their parents, boys 20 to 30 years old, to entire families with children of few years only. Beautiful atmosphere to live and breathe that shows how beautiful music can unite beyond prejudice. For a delay in opening of the gates, instead of at 7pm, we are entering after 8pm, coincided with increasing intensity of rain that has made all the more unjustified additional delay hard to bear.

Immediately inside of the concert place, we notice it’s well below expectations, although we were warned that Magazzini Generali are far from exceptional in terms of space and acoustics as well as management. A railway stock is long and narrow, with pillars supporting a balcony within the sides of the runway were already small public was annoying, and when the entire hall was filled, the visibility was very reduced for those who were nearby the stage.

Going to the bathroom, I saw the singer of Kells, Virginie Goncalves, who, as any girl of public, was preparing herself for the show doing her makeup and choosing her clothes, accompanied by her assistant. This scene left me a bit puzzled, you know, I have no sympathy for Kells, even though it is a foreign band with two albums and a third one to be released soon, but at least should deserve more respect, than to make the lead singer to change clothes in public toilet, surrounded by thousands of strangers. In addition I noticed that inside the concert hall there is only one stand with Tarja’s merchandising, among other things sold at prices well above normal, surely requested by Magazzini Generali, a far higher price to give the authorization to sell and that is why at the end of the concert the singer of Kells, I saw, in the pouring rain, to sell their merchandise as a fishmonger at the market. A very sad picture.

Continue Reading