Andrea Bocelli to stream Christmas concert from Italy

Milan: Andrea Bocelli, the celebrated Italian tenor, will perform a concert entitled ‘Believe in Christmas’ from the Teatro Regio di Parma opera house in Italy on 12 December.

The festive musical event follows Bocelli’s record-breaking ‘Music for Hope’ Easter concert which he live-streamed from an empty Duomo cathedral in Milan during Italy’s nationwide covid-19 lockdown.

The Parma opera house will also be empty for his Christmas concert however the event will be streamed at different times to attract prime time audiences around the world, reports Variety.

The Easter concert saw three million people tuning in to watch live – the largest simultaneous audience for a classical livestream in YouTube history – and the video received more than 28 million views from across the globe in its first 24 hours.

However, unlike the Easter concert, the one-off ‘Believe in Christmas’ will be offered as pay-per-view and will not be available on-demand after it has taken place.

“With no audience in attendance, the only way to watch it will be to purchase tickets to the livestream broadcast,” said a statement publicising the event.

The live performance promises to be a high-quality production, filmed by multiple cameras and overseen by creative director Franco Dragone, best known for his work with Cirque Du Soleil, reports Billboard.

The announcement of the Christmas concert coincides with the release of Bocelli’s latest album, Believe, which includes a previously-unreleased collaboration with the late Ennio Morricone and a duet version of Amazing Grace sung with country star Alison Krauss.

‘Believe in Christmas’ will be live-streamed in Italy and Europe at 21.00 on 12 December, and streamed at various other times for east and west coast North America, Asia and South America.