Carnaval Classical Concert

You know I love Madeira.
You know I love classical music and that I’ve huge admiration for the Madeira Classical Orchestra.

I was NOT prepared for the crazy and magnificent experience that is the Carnaval concert.

The fact that the ticket sellers were strangely enrobed should have been a clue.

The “usherettes” were clowns, cowboys and seriously menacing others.

The conductor, dressed in a comic version of traditional Madeiran costume emerged from a box.

The orchestra were all in fancy dress.

The evening was a feast of excellent music - but seriously wacky.

Jokes. Irreverences (mainly in Portuguese but cleverly translated into English and a few other languages.)

Luis Andrade is a magnificent classical conductor.
The orchestra rank with many other European orchestras.
The ballet dancers were clearly stunning performers (leaps and pirouettes to die for)

But it was hilarious, uplifting and fun.

My blip shows the conductor, at the start of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with the senior professor of percussion at the Conservatoire playing a pink Miss Kitty drum kit. (I’ve been to concerts featuring him and he’s recognisable, even in the guise of a devil.)

We were all charmed.
We wanted encores.

And the only way they escaped was by the conductor vanishing into his original box and waving goodbye !!!!!!

Unforgettable.


PS. I was late home from the Carnaval Parade and I put some photos as extras on yesterday’s blip…..