Kick off 2023 in style with André Rieu in Dublin – André’s celebratory concert is exclusive to cinemas across Ireland and is the only way to start the new year with your family and friends for one weekend only on 7 th and 8 th January!
Is Christmas Time your favourite time of year?
I’m very fond of Christmas; throughout the whole year I’m on the road with my Big Family (all my orchestra members, who are very dear to me). Christmas is the time of the year everybody wants to spend with their own Small Family: in this particular case, it’s my wife Marjorie, our sons Marc and Pierre with their wives and, last but not least, our five grandchildren. While Maastricht is covered with snow, grandpa André is cooking for all of them, the rest enjoys each other’s company.
What do you enjoy the most at this time of Year?
Being together with my loved ones, unpacking Christmas gifts and relaxing. But first of all, I have a couple of Christmas concerts in Maastricht to look forward to: the beginning of a new home town tradition, I hope!
When bringing in the New Year any traditions that you and your family do ?
We’re enjoying a dinner together, taking a nice stroll in a wintery Maastricht or watch a nice movie together (like Home Alone or Mary Poppins). When the boys were still toddlers, we used to watch the sketch “Dinner for One”, which Marc and Pierre imitated the day after – that was so cute and even more hilarious than the original one on TV!
Will this be the first time that an Irish concert will be shown in cinemas worldwide?
Yes it will be. We are performing live in Dublin every year, also in April 2023, but it will be the first concert in cinemas worldwide.
What’s different about Irish Audiences ?
They’re the most humorous audience in the whole world! Never met such wonderful sense of humor. I remember telling the tragic story of Madame Butterfly, who fell in love with an American sea captain and was very unhappy when he didn’t show up anymore. But the Irish audience couldn’t stop laughing out loud about the story I told them, and at the end I had to laugh, too. They simply didn’t believe me nor my tragic story telling.
Any New Year wishes for 2023?
To stay healthy, to discover new places for concerts and to make as many people as possible happy with the music my orchestra and I will play
