Sting: 15-minute standing ovation in Rome...

And the British star talks about Berlusconi: I used to sing on cruise ships like him.

A 15-minute standing ovation for Sting last night at the Auditorium in Rome, for the third and final Italian leg of his Synphonicity Tour. And the British star, who has lived in the Florentine Chianti area for 15 years, between one success and another, also made a reference to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Introducing a song he dedicated to his father, "Why Should I Cry For?", he recalled his time as a cruise ship singer, "like Berlusconi," he said in perfect Italian, to the applause of the packed Sala Santa Cecilia. But not a single criticism went unnoticed, coming in the second half of the sold-out concert. Sting, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by an irrepressible Stefano Mercurio, reeled off a long series of songs from his thirty-year career. 

Suddenly, he explains, still in Italian: "This song is about an older man and a younger woman: tragic," he said before belting out "All Would Envy." Two and a half hours of music for the artist with 100 million album sales, in a night that began with "Faith" and closed with "Message in a Bottle." Among them are 'King of Pain,' 'Mad About You,' 'Every Breath You Take,' 'Fields of Gold,' 'Whenever I Say Your Name.' But also 'Next To You,' 'Russians,' 'Englishman in New York,' and 'Roxanne,' which he performs while taking up his classical guitar and diving into a sea of red that falls on the stage. 

"Thank you, goodbye Rome," he says, opening the show, punctuated by amusing and evocative choreographic movements from the orchestra, who actively participate in the performance. He invites the audience, mostly composed of fifty-somethings (though many young people try to touch and hug him at the end), to sing along and clap their hands during the symphonic marathon of a cultured, refined, yet terribly popular musician.

© Ansa