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Toronto 15 December. The world première of the new World Stadium Tour with André Rieu and his orchestra was a great success yesterday night at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. An audience of over 25,000 experienced a show never seen before, on the biggest stage ever used by any artist in the world.
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The full-size copy of the world-famous Schönbrunn Palace, familiar from the film Sissi, after the eponymous Viennese Empress, made a huge impact on the audience. The stage took 100 sea containers to transport and is 125 metres wide and 35 metres high, encompassing two ice rinks, fountains and on a separate second level, an original Viennese ballroom. Horses and carriages, a Viennese dance school and figure skaters made the performances by André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra extra spectacular.
[quote_right]”Finally everything came together. This has been a real dream come true for me. In years to come we will be taking the romance of Vienna to people all over the world!”[/quote_right]
It took over a week for 200 people to build this enormous stage under the direction of Pierre Rieu, son of the famous Dutch violinist. For André Rieu it was an exciting time. “At first many people around me did not believe it was possible to build such a huge stage and put on a show like this. And of course during the rehearsals all sorts of things went wrong. Like it took longer than we thought it would for the water to freeze on the ice rinks. But finally everything came together. This has been a real dream come true for me. In years to come we will be taking the romance of Vienna to people all over the world. We are already looking forward to it!”
The achievement was also a great relief for Pierre Rieu. “We always believed in it, but there were many months where it was just a plan on the drawing board. And it’s only here and now in Toronto that it has become a reality. When you hear the first notes sound from the orchestra, it gives you goose pimples.”
Tonight the second concert takes place in Toronto. In 2008 Rieu will be taking this mega-stage to countries including Australia and America, France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands.