International opera great Andrea Bocelli promised this week to bring audiences the operatic and pop hits they expect to hear when he performs Oct. 12 with the Greensboro Symphony at First Horizon Coliseum.
The 67-year-old, who often performs with his son, singer Matteo Bocelli, hinted he will bring guest vocalists to join on stage for a night of music that will range from Italian opera to the Tuscany native’s favorite Neapolitan songs.
Blind since a soccer accident at age 12, the Grammy award winner has held the world’s attention since his singing career took off in around 1998. So far, he’s recorded 15 solo albums and sold 90 million records, according to music industry statistics.
Part of his massive appeal is his ability to cross over from classical to pop music. He has performed duets with Celine Dion and English and Albanian chanteuse Dua Lipa.
How has performing informed your personality, your daily life?
Since early childhood, music has been my medicine, my favorite way to give lightness to life. Deep down, it was clear to me that music was a special language – something that can ‘change the moral character of the spirit’ (as the Greek philosopher Aristotle put it) that can teach us beauty, open our hearts and minds. It was that intuition that I delved into and experienced firsthand, initially during my years of studies, later as my profession of over 30 years progressed. Throughout my life, I’ve had the great privilege of being able to make a career out of my greatest passion. But, even before, when I thought this life was only a pipe dream, I never thought of quitting music — it makes us grow, because it holds within it a strong message of peace and love.’
What brings you the most joy and sense of purpose at this point in your life?
Every day is a whole new story to write from a blank page. I am authentically curious and interested in every experience life can offer and in everything around me. I love and pursue beauty, wherever it hides. I love my family, I love people and my work, I love music, an essential ingredient, and unavoidable necessity in my life. … if I can, through my singing, bring to people’s hearts and homes a bit of serenity and optimism, then that’s enough for me to be satisfied; to be a happy man.
Can you recall the first time you were moved by sound of someone’s singing voice? Were you a child?
Since my early childhood, I have been an avid listener and connoisseur of operatic repertory. I could distinguish the voices of my favorites (from Tito Schipa to Enrico Caruso, from Beniamino Gigli to the then young Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo), and I would listen to their interpretations every day. If I have to single out a key episode, it was probably when, at the age of perhaps 7, my nanny gave me a Franco Corelli record. He was a celebrated tenor who sang the most famous aria from the opera, “Andrea Chénier,” by Umberto Giordano. Listening to that record (and that wonderful voice) sealed my fate: As a boy I consumed Corelli’s records and, as an adult, I had the privilege of being his student.
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Tell me about the selections you will perform with the Greensboro Symphony
The program is the result of a complex, collective work, in collaboration with the conductor. We also consider the guest performers who will be by my side, to further enrich the show. The lineup for Greensboro is a well-established and successful one, that proposes a first part dedicated to the most famous masterpieces of the opera, including the great Italian composers, such as Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Umberto Giordano, and a second part dedicated to salon music, including Neapolitan classics, and those that the audience loves most and expects to hear me sing.
Your children are musical and have performed with you. Can you talk about how music has shaped their lives?
There is nothing more beautiful than making music with your own children. I consider it a great privilege and an unexpected extra gift in my life. I insisted that all three cultivate studies in music as well, because I consider it a language capable of molding the mind, contributing to one’s spiritual evolution, and thus making us better people. But, I never insisted on it becoming a professional activity. My first son, Amos, for example, is an aerospace engineer, although he has been nurtured by music since he was a child, by way of the piano, for which he completed conservatory studies. Matteo instead is a full-fledged colleague of mine, a brilliant and mature artist already with a number of significant achievements under his belt. Virginia is starting high school. She can carry a tune, she is definitely very talented at music, and she shows it in the progress she has also made in her piano studies. She has proved to be brilliant at theater and in artistic gymnastics as well. But, she has plenty of time to find her own path and fulfill her own aspirations.
Are there venues — natural or manmade — where you hope to perform in your lifetime?
Every time I take the stage, I experience it with the same intensity, apprehension, and joy. Leaving rhetoric aside, this is the most memorable moment of my singing. And I am certain it will be the same when I have the joy of performing in Greensboro. I have sung a bit everywhere throughout the world, including against extraordinary backdrops, from the Colosseum to the Pyramids, from the Forbidden City to the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida. Most recently, I had the pleasure of singing before Pope Leo XIV, in the Vatican’s amazing St. Peter’s Square.
I therefore don’t have a desire to sing in any particular location. I do remember, though, that I dreamed for a long time — a dream that was fulfilled in 2011 — to be able to hold a concert in Central Park in New York City just as my beloved friend and Maestro, Luciano Pavarotti, had done. It was amazing because it allowed me to celebrate the extraordinary, mutual affection that I have shared for decades with the American audience.
What are your passions beyond singing?
A passion I have nurtured since childhood is horseback riding. It’s a joy; a sort of psycho-physical therapy, which brings the body and mind back to a more authentic, immediate, and intense relationship with nature. The horse is a way to feel free, and freedom is the highest good that one can pursue. As for my other hobbies, in the summer I try to spend as much time as possible on my boat. I also love swimming; I’m a fan of soccer and boxing, and I’m an avid reader.
How do you care for your voice?
My body is my musical instrument: I try to keep fit, practice sports, and not give in to excesses. Staying in shape is not merely a whim, it’s a need! Studying remains a key factor. My training must be consistent, just as it must be for an athlete. As Maestro Franco Corelli would say: ‘Even a Stradivari violin — if it breaks, you can hope to buy a new one, whereas you only have one voice and if you damage it, you will never be able to buy a new one!’
When I have a series of concerts — one after the other — and when I’m on tour, this balance is even harder to maintain. I am careful about following a rigorous diet and about not overworking my vocal cords. For example, I stay in silence for a few hours. And then, often, in my dressing room, I play the traverse flute or the recorder, to activate my vocal apparatus and exercise the diaphragm without exerting the vocal cords. I do all of this to try to live up to the trust and kindness the audience gives me on stage. And that tension I feel every time — even now, when the spotlight comes on — I work to transform into something positive: a charge of beneficial energy, a surge of adrenaline that lifts me into a state of almost-happiness.
sspear@rockinghamnow.com
(336) 349-4331, ext. 6140
@SpearSusie_RCN
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