André Rieu Has Fans Flocking To Shows at ANZ Stadium

Sydney ~ Going Dutch ... Margaret Sansom (front)

With fellow members of André Rieu NSW's Friendship Group. (This interview was set up by Jann from the Aussie Fansite with the Telegraph.)

By Ray Chesterton and Kathy McCabe
Sydney November 27, 2008

THEY may not shriek or faint, or throw their underwear on stage, but the adulation of the Australian fans of Dutch musician André Rieu is as passionate as his performance.

Since Rieu burst onto our charts and small screens a few years ago, he has inspired dozens of fan clubs and the kind of devotion which falls just short of Beatlemania hysteria.

Margaret Sansom is one of the thousands who will be waltzing her way to happiness during his Sydney concerts this week with friends collected by their mutual admiration for the handsome Dutch violinist.
Kathy McCabe: Rieu has his finger on rhythm of life Margaret, a Newcastle member of the André Rieu Supporters' Club has already seen him in action at the start of his first Australian tour in Melbourne. Sansom gushes with delight about the sensory extravaganza he conjures with music, dance and lavish sets which include the re-creation of a Viennese palace. "It was just fantastic. He was fantastic and delightful," she says. "I loved it. The atmosphere was wonderful."
Sansom and her group have organised a picnic in Sydney's Botanical Gardens before heading out to ANZ Stadium for his final Sydney concert on Saturday.
"We meet in Sydney a couple of times a month for lunch," she says. "There are about 20 of us."

Like many of his fans Sansom was introduced to the flamboyant violinist by television, in her case the ABC. Others saw it on the Ovation channel on Foxtel - a prime example of Rieu's canny marketing. Rieu's advisers presented Ovation with an extensive library of his work free of charge. The subsequent showings ignited the previously unknown artist's popularity in Australia."Every time we went to air with him we doubled our audience," says co-founder of Ovation Leo Schofield.
In the audience this week will be Anne Napoli, her husband Angelo and son Patrick, 33, who bundled themselves and some provisions into their car yesterday morning for the seven-hour trek to Sydney from Griffith to see Rieu perform. Anne is a fan but the trip is more on behalf of Patrick, who suffers from cerebral palsy. "He loves Andre's music," she says. "I'm just hoping we get the chance for Patrick to meet him and get an autograph."

As for Rieu himself, he understands the perception of him as a classical "rock star". "I suppose it is the same. The entoruage is the same, I have many containers and equipment and I face my audience like they do instead of the orchestra," Rieu said. "But I am a classical musicians and I have to play the notes; I cannot improvise like rock stars."

André Rieu performs at ANZ Stadium tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.