Of Anna Paola Merone
Endless queues also due to excessive checks on spectators queuing up to watch the Irish artist’s show: smartphones “required” at the entrance
Bono’s audience is enthusiastic and elegant. Arrive at St. Charles already from 17.30, about three hours from the start of the show, and it is evident that she has managed the dress code of the evening following the indications of the rocker. Not even the incessant rain, which hit Naples for the whole day, has discouraged the fans of the Irish artist who – after having been subjected to long queues since the morning to transform the reservation into a ticket for the evening – exhibited many tuxedos and even evening gowns and the cocktail.
A diverse audience
Not everyone is elegant – there’s no shortage of prom queens in rhinestone crowns and gentlemen with improbable clothes and some evocative tubasbut unacceptable in the theater – but the glance is there, all to the advantage of the filming which, during the concert, is carried out and which will be part of the story of the U2 frontman’s “Stories of surrender” world tour, the which only stop in Italy is in Naples. Audience of fans, enthusiasts, curious. There are also many tourists. Everyone was asked to hand in phones, smartphones and electronic devices at the entrance. And to be seated in the theater by 7 pm, for reasons related to filming.
From Sangiuliano to Osanna to Lorito: the guests of the evening
In the audience the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, who also met the Irish artist. «The one between the great San Carlo theater and a star like Bono Vox – she said – was a perfect marriage that gave life to a unique show. A magical evening.” The general director of the Museums is still present Massimo Hosannathe Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Edmund Ciriellithe actor Francis DiLevafresco by David, the rector of Frederick II Matthew Loritothe former footballer Marco Materazzi and some well-known faces including the gallery owner Alfonso Artiaco and Riccardo Monti. And the landlord, the mayor Gaetano Manfredi, accompanied by his wife Cettina Del Piano. The phone ‘packing’ operations are slow and painstaking. Each smartphone is placed in an envelope which can only be opened with a special key when leaving the theatre.
The mighty surveillance service
Then the searches, the metal detectors, a powerful surveillance service with brisk manners. Smart watches must also be removed from the wrist and demonstrate that the glasses you wear do not have mechanisms capable of filming. It is also forbidden to introduce bottles of water which are thrown away. And, inexplicably, also the telescopes, to the great disappointment of those who have a ticket for the gallery, in the pigeon loft. Also away are the bottles of hand sanitizer, which accumulate at the gate. Where also some packs of deodorant end up, part of the safety kit of ladies who would not have wanted to face the evening without a guarantee of freshness. The atmosphere is somewhere between an airport and a stadium hosting a cartel match. Body searches don’t spare even a police commissioner with a passion for rock.
Perhaps excessive intrusiveness at the entrance
The audience – basically adult considering the cost of tickets, which came close to 350 euros – is managed with an intransigence which to many seems excessive. At the entrance to the San Carlo a large sign, a notice to the public/release: «By passing this space you could be filmed»…. But for Bono this and more. Even if the queue, across piazza Trieste e Trento, to access the theater is long and perilous through a path strewn with weeds and rubbish. A purgatory to access the magic of an unforgettable eveningin a breathtaking setting with an artist on stage who took the audience on a long gallop through U2’s hits reinterpreted in an acoustic key.
The visit to the Sansevero Chapel
Bono Vox yesterday morning was at the Museo Cappella Sansevero for a private visit behind closed doors. To welcome him the president of the museum Maria Alessandra Masucci. Bono leaned the cell phone next to the statue of the Veiled Christ to listen in the silence of the Chapel to the song he wrote with Zucchero, «Someone Else’s Tears». At the end of the visit he left his message of thanks in the illustrious guest book: «Veiled Christ’s crying someone else’s tears. Thank you”.
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