The sun shines, the midnight sun...

The sun shines, the midnight sun, around the figure of that blond prophet who, there on stage, shouts the ancient hopes of love, peace, and freedom, quoting William Shakespeare and George Gershwin, Gustav Jung and Bob Dylan, Gil Evans and Enrico Caruso, Jimmy Hendrix and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Fifteen thousand participate in the new secular ritual that '90s rock has generated, continuing to be music that stirs bodies and shakes consciences: as with U2, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and Sting. Mister Gordon Matthew Sumner distributes emotions—which become absolutely touching in 'They Dance Alone'—and joy—which becomes decidedly captivating in 'We'll Be Together'—over a three-hour concert, confirming himself as an organic intellectual with great charisma and extreme charm, qualities that even surpass his actual artistic abilities. His show 'Nothing Like the Sun' nevertheless manages to prove itself an event. He—and the narcissistic touch of stars who have reached legendary levels, à la David Bowie—explains himself with meticulous attention to detail, infusing the performance with jazz and punctuating it with discreet, and unfortunately limited, memories of the Police.

Last night at the Simonetta Lamberti Stadium in Cava, the second stop on his Italian tour, which concludes May 7th in Verona, Sting fully expressed his radiant musical dimension in the most Mediterranean of his performances. He wore white for the first half of the concert, almost blending in with the dim, muted lights of the evening; black for the second half, his silhouette standing out among the instruments crowding the stage; Always displaying a light irony about the sex appeal attributed to him: from "The Lazarus Heart" to the aria from Handel's "Serse," "Caro Mio Ben," sung in an Italian clearly educated by the Spanish he chose to learn for "Nada Como El Sol," and rendered as a fitting tribute for a cultured and sensitive man like him to the land of Caruso. And in between, the bile dance "We'll Be Together" and the intense "Englishman in New York," on the theme of painful diversity, "Sister Moon," to say that we all live under the influence of the moon, and "One World Is Enough," one world is already enough. Then with "If You Love Somebody," Sting turned himself inside out, playing on the thread of his beloved psychoanalysis, and with "Bring On The Night," the ceremony of affections began. The song is dedicated to Gil Evans, a little over a year ago with Sting in concert in Perugia, his lifelong mentor, now deceased. The medley included a Dylan reference with "When The World Is Running Down."

It also represents the Police's final work and closed the first part of the set, which then opened with the poignant "Gueca" of "They Dance Alone," the mothers of the disappeared. It was the peak of emotion, spreading its trail to "Fragile," Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," which still remains unrivalled by the original, "Russians," and "Fortress Around My Heart." The ghost of the Police reappeared, evoking musical depths somewhat forgotten by today's Sting, at times light-hearted and colourless: "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "Message In A Bottle" partially reconnect with their past, connecting to the sounds and content of those years.

The show ended around midnight, just like in the Dexter Gordon movie. Sting surrounded himself with jazz musicians, albeit with less than optimal results.

Noteworthy performances by Bradford Marsalis on saxophone, Kenny Kirkland on keyboards, and Mino Cinelu on percussion. Guitarist Jeff Campbell, who isn't Hendrix (and Hiram Bullock doesn't know it), was out of place, but he found himself having to interpret them. They were joined by Tracy Wormworth on bass, Jean Paul Ceccarelli on drums, Delman Brown on keyboards and backing vocals, and Dolette McDonald on vocals, crowning the prophet Sting.

(c) Il Mattino by Generoso Picone (thanks to Valeria Vanella)

Sting, show emotions - This is how he made the midnight sun shine. The temptations of the blond prophet...

Fifteen thousand people attended the concert last night in Cava dei Tirreni by the charismatic English star. He spent more than three hours on stage, quoting Shakespeare and Bob Dylan, Gil Evans, and Caruso.

The long summer of pop music has begun for the youth of the South, too: fifteen thousand people, yesterday, crowded the lawn and stands of the Cava stadium.

And it began with a sunny date: for the warm, beachy day that fuelled the desire for a tan during the long wait; for the sun that the show evokes in its title, 'Nothing Like the Sun'; for the intense, long-lasting artistic brilliance (first with the Police, then on his own, extending it from music to film) of the protagonist of this first outdoor rendezvous, Gordon Matthew Sumner, aka Sting, or "sting."

He appears, while Mino Cinelu makes the percussion "fly": his white suit, elegantly paired with his blond hair and icy eyes, enhances his sex appeal, exuding sensuality, magic, that wicked yet ascetic allure, the halo of legend. Amidst a thousand coloured lights and to the strains of "The Lazarus Heart," he takes centre stage: "Sting" explodes the previously restrained enthusiasm: a powerful roar rises from the crowd, drowning out the applause.

Sting is determined to win big: a few phrases in Italian to further captivate the audience, which isn't just made up of teenagers; there are also fans from his Police years who have come to see him again, and perhaps criticize him for abandoning the traditional path, for his current rock, perhaps more refined but spurious, contaminated by jazz, swing, and Latin American sounds. But the "blond prophet" doesn't deny his past; on the contrary, he reintroduces it, with some songs he brought to success alongside his first traveling companions. This choice underscores his belief that he doesn't consider himself a rock apostate, but rather the apostle of a circular pop style that encompasses and encompasses escapism and social solidarity, a desire to dance but also justice, hedonism, and political engagement. An aphrodisiac blend, perhaps underwhelming, but captivating: fifteen thousand danced to "We'll Be Together," were moved by "Bring On The Night," and with "They Dance Alone," they participated, lighting thousands of flames, in the dramatic "gueca" of the mothers and wives of the disappeared. Euphoria, tears, and blood: in the three-and-a-half-hour, long and long concert, Sting, true to his stage name, "pricked" every emotion of the audience, exhilarating them on the first starlit night of the pop summer.

(c) Il Mattino by Lello Greco (thanks to Valeria Vanella)