Palau Altea Centre of Arts did very well in promoting that new funny product. I could be easily fooled, seeing just the empty scene and thinking that the concert was cancelled. But, the reality is that the organizers of the event I visited installed that huge invisibility shield that made me think that nobody was there. It worked just for the musicians, as the chairs and music stands were visible. How intelligent feature of that hiding thingy.
Btw, this person in the next photo, (on the left, in a white shirt) just escaped from the effects of that shield. This is why we think we see that person blurred, but actually, it just needs time to get back its normal shape and appearance. When he took a seat, his look became steady.
He was not the only one who found a place in that audience that counts with almost 1000 seats (the exact number of people that can watch an event from there is 952). I also found a spot for myself. Not that we were any close to that number one Sunday early afternoon when this concert hall gave place to a classical music concert. Maybe the audience also took their personal small invisibility shields with them? Anyway, our applause at the beginning was enough strong to break the wall and at the very next moment, the musicians appeared. Wow!
It was already so exciting and promising. Such great effects we could enjoy: from invisible to visible. Plus the music. Strings and oboe, and a secretly proud heart. Everything was nice there when the young musicians from that chamber string orchestra started to play this Oboe Concerto in D minor, composed by A. Marcello. (it is just the first movement that you will be able to listen to in the video. Though I have the whole composition recorded, it is too long). They played with style, and in harmony. No mistakes. Seemed that they had practised it for a long time together...
However, I know the tough story behind that performance. It was prepared just in three, but very long rehearsals. Two studying sessions in the week before the concert and the last one just a few hours before the concert started. The conductor was not the one these people with strings and bows were used to. But it is a perfect experience how to play in an orchestra with a leading person who you don't know. You have to pay more attention and listen to the signs and gesticulation of the director.
The other participants in that concert had to do the same. A choir, with soloists. Accommodate your singing to the wishes of the leader.
But I don't know their story, they were strangers to me. Their music was nice too, and the small baroque orchestra played so professionally. But when they finished I put that invisibility shield on me and nobody saw me in that audience later. I disappeared, but for real.
Just days later, I am here and visible again, to bring you this story. It was a funny experience, though.
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