Andrea Bocelli: Mission accomplished!
‘If I could turn back the hands of time, would I change anything in my life? No, I would not. Every mistake that I made has somehow been useful to grow, and to avoid making it the second time... After more than 20 years of career, next to a wonderful woma
Being in peace with the whole world, starting with my family, in which harmony represents the condition sine qua non to be happy.
— in Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire, in answer to the question “What is your idea of
perfect happiness?” First, a little short story. Two years after Andrea Bocelli’s concert in Manila (2004), produced by his good friend Baby Arenas, my friend Francis Padua Papica bumped into Bocelli at the coffee shop of Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Francis dared me to say “Hi!” to Bocelli. Our bet was that if Bocelli recognized me, Francis would foot the bill.
“Hi, Andrea, how are you?” I “dared” apf uses proach Bocelli who was seated on a stool by the bar, enjoying what looked like a glass of iced tea. The man beside Bocelli, whom I presumed to be his bodyguard, was alerted but I pretended to ignore him. “I was the journalist who interviewed you when you were in Manila,” I continued. “I’m a friend of Madame Baby Arenas.”
I just dropped the magic name. Baby Arenas. Bocelli broke into a wide smile and, yes, made small talk with me, much to the relief of the bodyguard. You guessed it: Francis paid for our snacks.
Before we parted, I asked Bocelli when he was coming back to Manila. “Soon,” he smiled. That “soon” is on April 26 when he holds his Cinema World Tour concert at the Mall of Asia (MOA), presented by Music Management International (MMI Live). Cinema is his latest, first studio album featuring songs from such classic films as Doctor Zhivago, Love Story, The Godfather, Life is Beautiful, Il Postino, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and many others. At his MOA concert, Bocelli will have a guest performer Christine Allado, “an emerging musical talent with a voice that
Classical Soprano roots with a contemporary spin of pop and jazz,” and also featuring soprano Maria Katzarava and flautist Andrea Griminelli. Bocelli will be accompanied by the Ateneo Chamber Singers and ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra, with conductor Carlo Bernini. (For ticket information, log on to smtickets.com / andreabocelli.com or call [02]470-2222.)
You came to the Philippines a few years ago. What memories do you have about that visit?
“Twelve years have passed, but I still keep the memory in my mind. The one of 2004 was for me a very positive experience; I remember the warmth of the public, its attention, its generosity, the participation of an audience with whom I immediately shared a strong understanding… one more reason to come back with great enthusiasm!
“If I continue to travel the world after over 20 years of career, it is just because I love to keep a direct and confidential relationship with those who are so good to appreciate the fruit of my profession. When I sing, I always try to establish a personal relation with every single listener, hoping to enter the heart of those who are listening to me, conveying positive emotions.”
During your concert in Manila on April 26, you will be singing songs from your album Cinema. Did you have a hand in choosing the songs for the album? And why those songs; are they your favorites?
“There will be many songs from Cinema, but not only. The first part will be dedicated to, universally loved, Opera masterpieces, written by composers such as Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Umberto Giordano. In the second part,
besides a large selection from my latest album, I will also sing those popular songs that the public expects to hear from my voice… and surely I will be pleased not to disappoint them.
“Cinema is the result of a meticulous selection among hundreds of songs. I have, therefore, dug into my memory reflecting on the songs linked to cinema that have marked my life, that have made me grow, have moved and amused me. The result is a sequence of masterpieces, that cinema has given birth to over many decades, and that I believe it is important to resubmit today, renewed, thanks to new arrangements and to the most advanced recording techniques, so that they continue to be loved, appreciated, and to make people dream.
“If I have a favorite song? I love all of these songs. This album represents my ideal selection even if I cannot deny that there are pages like Maria, Music of The Night, Be My Love and many others that better than others are more congenial to my voice and which have the power to highlight better its peculiarities.” Have you heard those songs inside a moviehouse (from the movie)?
“I have happened to love and know songs interpreted, for example, by Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza, or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that initially I did not even know were taken from famous films. As I have already said, if movies are a ‘dream factory,’ the music that supports them often keeps and concentrates in itself all their magic and sentimental vitality.”
You have performed for three US presidents, three Popes and royal families. Please describe the experience of your meeting with them. How did they make you feel that you were loved?
“Beyond the role they play, I have had the privilege to meet many people in the world. The curiosity, the joy, and the opportunity to learn lessons, is the same…the fame of these people is not a value in itself. I can point out, however, that among public figures, it often happens that the more important and valuable they are, the simpler and more helpful they remain.
“Finally I must, anyway, make a distinction concerning the various Popes I have had the great honor to meet. Figures that for those who, like me, are believers, represent the highest religious authority. They are men of God, they are higher spirits and they represent a bright bridge between earthly existence and the transcendent.”
In 1998, you were named by People magazine as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People.” How did you feel about it? What do you think make people (not the magazine but your fans) believe that you are beautiful?
“I am inclined to believe that someone made a mistake or wanted to make a joke! What I can say is that I have always been captured by feminine universe. It goes without saying that the favor of the feminine public flatters me and gives me strength. Beauty, probably, is not so much in me as in the music that I try to share with my listeners, a universal language, a harbinger of great emotions able to open everybody’s heart.”
You took up Law in college and not music. Why did you decide to pursue a career in music instead of a career in Law?
“I reached fame late as an artist, when I was more than 35. I came up through the ranks, after many doors had been closed in front of me, and when I had already started working as a lawyer. I decided to attend the faculty of Law, perhaps also following my
parents’ insistence, because of their concern to give me a professional future. “But I have always been fascinated by Law, when it is meant as the study of the rules of civil coexistence. I have never thought, not even for a second, to give up music. Music, for me, has always been a need, a way to make life lighter. In the end, I have succeeded in making of my greatest passion also my profession.”
What song made you realize that you wanted to be a musician? Do you ever remember the first song that you ever sang?
“Not one particularly, but I know that I have been fascinated by Opera repertoire since an early age. I approached pop as a teenager. While at six or seven I listened to the most famous voices of the time, I knew by heart many Opera arias, and I sang them loudly in my living room in a sort of competition with my gramophone. They were the great arias by Puccini, Verdi, Mascagni, performed by the marvelous voices of Beniamino Gigli, Mario Del Monaco, Enrico Caruso, Franco Corelli...” How are you as a husband, as a father?
“Perhaps we should ask my wife! Anyway, they say that I have a rather romantic and passionate temperament. My wife Veronica is a companion, friend, lover, partner in joy and in sorrow, an essential point of reference that gives warmth, serenity and unity within the family. My children are my priority, they come before any other affection or engagement, they are my first purpose in life. I try to stay close to them, despite my profession, trying to pass on to them my values, more than by words, through examples.” (Note: Bocelli married his first wife, Enrica Cenzatti, in 1992; they separated in 2002. He and Veronica Berti were married in 2014.) Did you ever sing your children to sleep when they were small?
“I have done it for a long time with my sons, Amos and Matteo, when they were babies; they are now big boys. And I am still doing it, today, with my little Virginia who is just over three years old. Virginia is very intrigued by music in general, and by singing. And she has her own predilections: the favorite is E lucevan le stelle, a moment of great emotion in an opera (Tosca by Puccini), a piece of great theatrical power. Despite the dramatic text and the interpreter’s commitment, anything but light, she loves to hear it sung
by her father before going to sleep. It is, in fact, her favorite lullaby!”
You have performed so many times in so many countries. What do you consider the three most memorable and why?
“From the artistic point of view, I always put the same determination, the same identical commitment when I sing in a large theater, in an arena packed with people, in a hospital, a school or in a center for the elderly. I have given concerts all over the world, and often the stage was surrounded by the beauty of spectacular sceneries, such as the Pyramids, the Coliseum or Central Park and I can say, with no rhetoric, that every concert is important, every stage gives me emotions.” Which song comes closest to describing the essence of Andrea Bocelli?
“There are many. To mention just one, I would say My Way, a perfect song under all points of view, whose melody remains engraved in your soul. A song that boosts a powerful identifying process; in fact, it is able to give everybody the impression that the song is talking of them. While, if the question refers also to Opera, I feel a
very strong communion with the majority of the tenor arias of Puccini’s operatic heroes.”
You are an accomplished artist (with so many awards and accolades). Is there anything more that you want to accomplish?
“I believe that to receive awards is always a reason for satisfaction but it is equally embarrassing because then you have to continue to deserve them, and the more you receive, the more there is expectation on the part of the public!
“What I wish from the artistic point of view is to continue to sing until the public will ask me to do it. My goal is to be able to enter again the hearts of those who listen to me, giving a moment of serenity and optimism. The important thing is to communicate emotions, to go on and never stop believing in our passions.” Any plan of writing your autobiography? Would it be a tell-all book if ever?
“Not at the moment, but…never say never! At the end of the ’90s, when I was around 40 years old, I felt the need to retrace my existential adventure, to better understand the meaning of what had happened to me, and also, perhaps, to learn something from it. So I wrote a book called
Music of Silence, a sort of autobiography. “I remember to have started just as a joke, in the need to fill the long forced waiting in the dressing rooms of theaters or of recording studios. At that time, however my father was seriously ill. I wanted to give him this satisfaction, ideally, dedicating the book to him, so I hurried to conclude it and give it to the press, just so that he could have the time to leaf through it.” If you could turn back the hands of time, what would you change in your life, and why?
“Of my life I would not change anything. Every mistake that I made has been somehow useful to grow, and to avoid making it a second time. Looking back at my life it seems a fairy tale that tells the story of a country boy who, with his burden of difficulties and hopes, made a dream come true — the one of giving his voice to the world, to all those who are looking, in music and in a voice, for emotions, for a relief from the harshness of everyday life. Today, after more than 20 years of career, next to a wonderful woman that I love passionately, next to my three children that I simply adore, I think I can say without fear of contradiction: mission accomplished.”