Rain, a delay but a standing ovation for Andrea Bocelli on his Believe tour at Inverness Caledonian Stadium

There were many empty seats in Inverness Caledonian Stadium when Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, his orchestra and choir took the stage half an hour late at just before 8pm last night.

But by the end of the show, the tenor, his musicians and fellow singers, soprano Cristina Pasaroiu and Ilaria Della Bidia, plus guest, Scottish violin soloist Nicola Benedetti, had charmed and entertained a crowd that enthusiastically got to their feet to give him a standing ovation for his party piece, Nessun Dorma.

Getting there had involved arriving in the late afternoon for some, with groups of a mainly elderly crowd walking to the stadium in the rain, traffic restrictions including drop-offs half a mile away at Stadium Road. A return shuttle bus from the bus station cost £14, no single fare offered.

Beforehand, taxis weren’t taking bookings for journeys home – and when the concert finished around 10.15pm, a procession of older people walked to the centre of town where a long queue waited at the taxi rank on Academy Street.

The rain continued to come and go throughout the evening.

But as one audience member tweeting afterwards said: “It was wonderful from start to finish despite the bit of rain.”

Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti was treated to an enthusiastic welcome from the audience each time she appeared as a guest, her own composition The Gentle Light That Wakes Me earning her biggest applause.

Although there were no programmes listing the music performed in the show, the set was packed with many opera classics such as La Donna E Mobile from Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto and the drinking song Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata.

One of the highest spots of Andrea’s Bocelli’s performance came with Italian song Time To Say Goodbye (Con te partire), a piece he has made his own.

But maybe surprisingly, there was no Highland song from the star, who donned a tartan jacket from a specially-made suit in the football club's colours which will be auctioned for charity.

Tonight Duran Duran headline the stage at the stadium after a set from singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti.

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