49,999 people + Opera Chic cheered last night the awesomeness of Roberto Bolle's free recital in Piazza del Duomo; Mozart's and Rossini's and Bizet's music, Bolle's and Ulyana Lopatkina 's and Ivan Kozlov's and Arman Grigoryan's and Vahe Martirosyan's and Natasha Novotna's and Vaclav Kunes's and Sabrina Brazzo's and Alicia Amatrian's and Jason Reilly's dancing.
Opera Chic saw a lot of kids, a lot of them, and families, an average age about 35 or 40 years younger than the people she sees at la Scala's shows down at the other side's of Milan's Galleria.
Now one has to factor in Bolle's star power, the free tickets and Jumbotrons for those too far away from the stage and all, but still if only Scala's administrators could manage to take all those people from under the rain of piazza Duomo over to la Scala, the future of classical music here would be a-OK for the next generation at least.
The audience is out there, if you take the time to charm them a little and show them that classical music is cool, and the farthest away from boring, if done right. Bolle has done that -- that's why we need his magic.