FINAL CURTAIN FALLS

Sunday was not to be "A New Day ... " for Celine Dion. But after being showered with accolades and 100,000 rose petals, the singer was looking forward to the rest of her weekend in nonsuperstar mode.

"For me tomorrow morning will be coffee time," the singer said, sitting on the front stage steps of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

She was talking to reporters at 1 a.m. Sunday, two hours after bringing down the curtain on her final performance.

"I will stay in the house," making Christmas cookies with her 6-year-old son, she said. "It will be so wonderful to be able to appreciate that. Do the Christmas tree, some decorations and all that. ...

"It sounds very unreal right now, but tomorrow morning it will be back to reality and I will be back to Mommy."

The final performance -- No. 717 if you don't count previews and a couple of benefits -- started late, ran an extra half hour and had the star speaking to the audience for more than eight minutes during her first break.

"Tonight I was emotionally invaded," Dion later told reporters. "It was very important for me to pace myself."

The singer added that she was "very tired vocally," after three weeks of interviews and promotion for her new album. But she realized, "It's not about singing tonight. It's about embracing life, embracing that success."

The success of "A New Day ..." -- which grossed more than $400 million and was seen by nearly 3 million people since it opened in March 2003 -- was celebrated more by fans, family and producers than by celebrity patrons.

Husband-manager Rene Angelil sat next to the couple's son, Rene-Charles, and Dion's mother. After the show, Angelil told reporters, the star's dressing room was crowded with 10 siblings (she is the youngest of 14 children).

"A New Day ..." normally began with a roaming camera that put audience close-ups on a giant video screen. But the final substituted comments from Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, and the screening of a documentary included on a new DVD version of the revue.

At the end, the singer typically presented a single rose to an audience member. But Saturday, after giving the rose to her son, he returned to the stage and gave it back to her. Later, another rose surprise: Show director Franco Dragone presenting more than 700 white blooms, one for each performance.

"I wonder if I can keep them and dry them?" she asked.

The thousands of red rose petals that showered the stage for the show's finale were a carefully guarded surprise to the singer and 50 dancers, said producer John Meglen. Many of the dancers loitered onstage long after the show ended, hugging and snapping photos as the patrons filed out.

The singer almost made good on her goal: "Try not to cry," she later told reporters. But in her long speech to the audience, she recounted how an "undreamable" idea surmounted its challenges. "At one point, it was feeling like the Titanic was about to sink again."

"But we believed and we went on with it, even though the vibe was not that positive," she added. But for those who persevered, "It was worth it."

"Today is not an end," she told the crowd. "Today is a beginning, the beginning of the rest of our lives."

Bette Midler opens a new production, "The Showgirl Must Go On," in the Colosseum on Feb. 20. Cher is expected to be announced soon as Midler's main co-tenant.

Dion said her only advice to Midler was, "Have them fix the stage."

The steeply raked stage, designed to enhance the views from the upper balcony, will be removed in favor of a smaller, conventionally flat stage, and about 150 new seats will be added in the front rows of the 4,100-seat venue.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.