The President of Georgia took Spanish tenor Placido Domingo round renovated Batumi. Mikheil Saakashvili showed him the Opera House that is under reconstruction. Famous tenor checked out the acoustics of Opera new building with his own voice.
Before that Maestro shared his impressions with President Saakashvili. The President recalled those years when he was standing in long lines to get tickets for Placido Domingo's concert.
"I recalled a period with Sandra, when we lived in New York. We had an apartment in East Side, Central Park. We were waking up at five o'clock in morning on Saturdays, walked all the way through Metropolitan, sign in line (cashboxes used to open by 9 AM) and were getting tickets for the whole week for this performance. I even approached you once toyou're your autograph. You had so much patience that spent an hour giving autographs. Sandra's mother accompanied us at the premiere. She has many incredible photos of you", the President of Georgia stated during his discussion with Maestro.
"You cannot imagine how inspired I am. Long ago, when I first sang with Paata Burchuladze I told him: when I come to your country, you must meet me there. I told the same to everyone who I knew from Georgian singers and practically all of them are here. What I see represents ideal place for tourism", Placido Domingo noted.
Before visiting the Opera House the President and the First Lady met world tenor at Batumi Constitutional Court building.
Tamar Kvesitadze, the author of giant statue "Ali and Nino" attended the meeting as well. The statue impressed Spanish tenor so much that he expressed a wish to meet the author.
"I want to introduce our sculptor to you, I saw how you were looking at statue made by her. This statue was very small from the beginning, later we have decided to make a big one", Mikheil Saakashvili stated while introducing Tamar Kvesitadze.
"You have created a magic statue, a symbol of love and calmness", Maestro noted.