KEY POINTS:
It was the turn-out of concert promoters' dreams, with the Vector Arena packed to the rafters and cries of "Bravo" breaking forth even before the hero of the evening had sung.
Andrea Bocelli's fans were out in force to hear the popular Italian tenor in mainly operatic repertoire.
The Overture was Mascagni's Intermezzo with Marcello Rota and his Czech National Orchestra sounding a little on the puny side. Indeed, throughout the evening, the sound was a let-down, despite the impressive sound-desks and mixers below.
Nevertheless, Bocelli delivered just what his rapt audience wanted, even if his light tenor was sorely tested in moments of passion. Surging flames on the giant TV backdrop did not instil Di quella pira from Il Trovatore with the fury of an angry son about to see his mother incinerated.
There were many such visual distractions. Anna Leese sang O mio babbino caro against giant flowers bursting into bloom and just why was the orchestra bathed in purple light for this number?
Weirdest of all were the digital snowflakes behind O soave fanciulla, Bocelli's big Boheme duet with Leese.
Duets - and there were a lot of them - counted for very little when there seemed to be so little engagement between the singers. Baritone Gianfranco Montresor made far more of his Tosca aria than he did in his vibrato Bizet tryst with Bocelli.
Similarly Leese, who seemed a little reserved overall, was at her best in an elegant Vilja's Song from The Merry Widow.
It was the experienced Tina Arena who made the right connection with the tenor and even Can't help falling in love, that hoary old nod to Elvis, broke through my hardened defences.
Towards the end, Bocelli made much of changing his jacket for a shift to ballad country. We had come to the tiramisu course of the evening, although there had already been a few dips into the sugar bowl already, including a Vieni sul mar that threatened sea-sickness with its bilious big-screen visuals.
Now Bocelli's opera show has come and gone, meatier things await with NBR New Zealand Opera's Jenufa next month and, just a day away, a wonderful new Met production of Hansel and Gretel at the Rialto and Bridgeway Theatres.
