Sunday, February 05, 2006

Akim and The Flying Dutchman

It's Super Bowl Sunday and I haven't even seen one good commercial, but I did turn on the TV in deference to our national pastime. Seduced by the unlikely image of a woman dressed up like a Peacock, I left some Opera singing on. It turns out that it was a re-run of a show by conductor Andre Rieu called The Flying Dutchman.

At one point in the show Andre tells the audience that last year someone at a party introduced him to their two year old son and that his ambition is to be on stage with Andre. Andre then tells the audience that the little boy is here. Akim, a tiny three year old with a beautiful smile and a sweet face, comes out on stage in a nice tux with his violin and looks up at Andre, taking his hand. He plays a song with the orchestra accompanying him quietly in the background. I started crying. I found it amazingly sweet and touching and it was clear that the audience did too.

I wonder why we had such an emotional reaction. People in the audience were crying, wiping their eyes open mouthed, and then laughing that type of laugh that comes out when you are crying happily. I wished I had Tivo and could save it and show it to people. Since I'm without Tivo, I rushed online to tell you all about it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

my wife and i just saw a repeat performance on our local pbs station in chicago. i rushed to the net to find out who the young boy was and thankfuly read your review. it was very emotional. what a kid!

Anonymous said...

i just saw a repeat of the same performance here in Canada and I was just mesmerized with Akim, I'm glad that I saw your posting because it was a really amazing performance and he was only 3!