You are reading the subject line of this post and saying "What?!". But it is true, for one night, the City of Fresno and San Joaquin Valley, best known as the raisin capital of the world, gateway to
Yosemite, poverty capital of California and home of a pretty good football team, was for three glorious hours the cultural epicenter of the world. Why you ask? Last night over 20,000 sat in awe as the incomparable tenor Andrea Bocelli, in his only West Coast (not LA, not San Fran, not San Diego, not Seattle, not Portland, not Las Vegas, not Beverly Hills) stop on an eight city North American tour, took center stage at the upscale Save Mart Center in a stunning "Royal Christmas" performance that left every patron incredibly satisfied and wanting much more than Bocelli’s two generous encores could ever provide.
With the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Westminster Choir, London’s Royal Ballet, and the Kiev Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine providing internationally acclaimed performances between sets of Ave Maria and Adeste Fideles among other Bocelli classics, a magical evening it was, in our own Fresno, California. For all the roiling and boiling and tension going on around the world and in our home State, one could not leave the arena last night without being fully immersed in the meaning of Christmas and the spirit of Peace one can have in reflecting on the importance of the birth of the Christ child some 2,000 years ago.