Curtis Peterson Auditorium
Lecanto, FL
February 14, 2009
by MJ Kittle
The average age of the huge crowd at Pensacola Christian College was
about 20 years old. The average age at Lecanto was 75 years old. The
crowd at Pensacola was over 6,000, almost entirely very conservative
college students. The crowd at Lecanto was about 1,000, which was
the maximum seating capacity at the PAC at Lecanto High school.
Anthony stayed at the receiving line at Pensacola until about 1 am EST.
He waited until the last one shook his hand. I cannot believe that he
(and Patrick) stayed at all for the receiving line, with the travel they
had ahead. They got to their hotel in Tallahassee about 4 am, a
three hour drive and in pouring rain and thunderstorms. We stayed
much closer to Pensacola, so we got back to our room much
earlier, about midnight, and we left the college when the receiving
line was still very long. They left their hotel about 9 am today.
We got up about 5 am EST, and were on the road before 6 am.
Of those who traveled from Pensacola, we were the first to arrive
at the high school. We saw Vince Mitchell drive up to the main
entrance of the high school PAC. He went inside to see where to
park for the dressing rooms, etc. I walked over to their car and
Anthony and Patrick opened the windows. I asked "who scheduled a
9 pm performance and a 2 pm performance the next day with a 6
hour drive between." Anthony said that guy ought to be shot!!
We were all really tired. I said that I only got about 4 hours sleep.
Anthony said he only got 4 hours sleep, but he had to sing!! I
responded that I had to cheer hard!!!
He did a wonderful performance both places, of course. Given
the change in the age of the audience, Anthony decided to tailor
his program a little. He did not sing Salut, Demure, Chaste et
Pure at Lecanto and substituted When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.
Some of the crowd departed early at Lecanto, so Ottavio deleted
Funiculi, funicula and My Heart Is Broken and substituted Danny
for those two songs. Everything else that he sang was the same.
Patrick changed his stories a little. He read the church bulletins
and told the story of the silver cup money that the husband
gambled on a dog and lost.
I asked about the New Ross article and he said that the accordion
player was the one who was producing a CD this year and not any IT.
