An Evening with Andre Rieu

In early December, James’ Mom and Dad had tickets to see Andre Rieu that they couldn’t use. It was sort of last minute, but we rallied and went! It was a blast. Andre is quite the character, aside from being a wonderful violinist. His eyebrow is perpetually curved up in a semi-sarcastic arch. Actually, not really, but he is very funny on stage and cracks jokes that has everyone chuckling. The music takes you back to another era, if not directly to Austria. The only thing missing was the Von Trappe Family. Interestingly, they did a Michael Jackson retrospective, which I found slightly odd, but at that point we were not counting odd moments! It really is an experience, if you ever have the chance to go.

I wasn’t able to catch it in a picture, but there were two violinists (both women) directly behind Andre and they were clearly cracking each other up – making funny faces with eyes wide. At one point the one gal’s shoulders were just shaking with laughter while she tried to contain herself. I can only imagine sitting there next to a good friend playing violins and trying not to laugh while this Dutch dude cracks funny (?) jokes.

Apparently, the ENTIRE group tours around together. There have actually been a couple marriages out of the group over the years.

At the end, everyone comes out for a champagne toast and they drop balloons on the audience. People then get up, go to the front and cheer for encores! This guy has a following! I actually recorded a video of the last piece, which I’ll try to post a link for once I get it uploaded to YouTube. Cheers, everyone…