International pop star George Michael launches his first European tour in three years at Prague’s State Opera House on Monday night facing some technical hurdles to his new orchestral format.
The British pop idol’s Symphonica tour has some of Michael’s biggest hits over the last 30 years and favorites from other artists adapted to the orchestra. But the new orchestral version has apparently caused some headaches for the 700-seat Czech theater, which in the past hosted the likes of Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Enrico Caruso.
Former Wham! star Michael complains in a Twitter post that “most of the whole shebang I’ve put together for you doesn’t fit on the tiny stage.” “But hopefully what we lose in terms of staging we’ll gain in terms of intimacy,” he adds. Other venues include the massive O2 World hall in Berlin, Florence’s large Piazza Santa Croce, and London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Whatever the technical problems, Michael’s one-night Prague debut to a four-month tour finishing in London on December 17, with a last gasp one-off concert at the Palais Garnier, Paris, on April 29, 2012, is already a sell-out in spite of ticket prices starting at Kč 2,500 — around a tenth of the average Czech monthly wage.
One of the artists whom Michael will be paying tribute to on Monday night will be British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, who was found dead at her London home in July. In a Twitter post, Michael said he would perform one of her songs as a tribute.
He also admitted being very nervous ahead of the Prague debut performance because the show was so different to any he’d done before.
Michael made it big with a series of hits with the band Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s before he launched a solo career in 1987. He has sold around 100 million albums and his 25 worldwide tours so far have been visited by 1.3 million people.
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