MARBELLA - THE
‘Marbella, Marbella’ campaign, initiated by composer Dario Poli, kicked off 2010
to a great start at the Hotel Incosol on Saturday night, when the glamorous
Spanish TV compère Cristina Pita, opened the event to Agustin Torralbo’s couture
winter collection, aptly named ‘Marbella, Marbella’. The night began with the
terrific Welsh tenor Steve Lloyd-Morgan. With a beautifully rendered vocal solo,
he welcomed the nearly 400 invited guests to raise their glasses in a toast to
the City of Marbella, by downing a glass of the new ‘Marbella, Marbella’ wines,
as he elegantly and robustly sang the famous Brindissi
drinking song, from Verdi's popular opera La Traviata, which received an
ovation. Stephens’ first-class performance was later
followed by the dynamic singing star from Cuba, Yanela Brooks, who wearing a
dress designed by Agustin Torralbo for the occasion, powerfully sang two
rhythmic up-tempo songs, which really took the excited audience with her. After
a few short speeches to thank the main sponsors, the Danish bank Nykredit,
Fischer Mercedes of Marbella and the popular Danish magazine Solkysten, the
fashion show began with a steady, elegant stream of lovely models, starting with
the younger ladies wearing modern designed costumes, then gradually, and in
tempo to the styled music, lead to the most professional models, who were
dressed in a fascinating variety of stunning, original and colourful designs,
that often received spontaneous rounds of applause from the enthusiastic
audience, which included buyers from as far as the Middle East who had come
especially to see Torralbo’s new collection. The fashion show ended with Agustin
Torralbo leading all his models back on to the catwalk for a final display of
the entire ‘Marbella, Marbella’ collection. With cameras flashing, he was
received with tumultuous applause and the show was brought to a stunning finale,
when Yanela Brooks entered the stage once again, and sang her own brilliant
interpretation of the song that started it all, Marbella, Marbella in Spanish,
interspersed with some words in English, which induced one media professional to
write, “I was very impressed to hear the song for the very first time at Incosol
Hotel last night, sung by Yanela Brooks. It was simply sensational.” A video of
the song can be seen on www.marbellamarbella.es. A great raffle was held during
the evening, where the winner was given the choice of selecting any dress that
they had seen on the catwalk. - 10th Feb 2010
