Musically gifted from birth, Andrea Bocelli is one of the most celebrated singers in modern history. He’s sung for Popes, Presidents and royalty, performed in all the greatest concert halls and opera houses around the world. He was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006. Last year, his record-breaking ‘Music for Hope’ event from Milan’s Duomo became one of the biggest musical live stream performances of all-time.
In 2011, Andrea Bocelli performed at the iconic Central Park in New York.
Bocelli is no stranger to major international sporting events, having sung at the Olympics, the World Cup, and the Premier League final in the UK. He has a Golden Globe, seven Classical BRITs and seven World Music Awards under his belt, plus a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Maestro Andrea Bocelli and Veronica
Music is the Voice which tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.
Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte
Briefly: Andrea has around 16 studio albums to his name with 4 compilation albums. He has also released extended play albums, live albums, digital albums, video albums and collaborative albums. There are also complete opera recordings of his performance. He has worked extensively in music. Additionally, Andrea likes horse-riding and is an avid fan of the Italian football club Inter Milan.
I have no intention of introducing Andrea Bocelli: his voice is universally known. Here are some thoughts he and his wife, Veronica so gracefully shared with me for our interview.
Olga Roh:
I cherish a truly unforgettable moment together with a handful of lucky witnesses, when we saw you after a concert performance at your Lajatico residence: we saw you performing stunts on a black stallion. Is the interaction with horses something you connect with your musical performances? What allows you to relax and recharge?
Andrea Bocelli:
Riding is a passion that has been rooted in me since my childhood. My first horse – little Alcide – was given to me by my grandfather when I was eight. I have trained horses since I was young. In a horse I appreciate its intelligence, its ability to express affection, its will, its athleticism, and the complicity that is established between rider and mount when riding. For me, riding is not only my favourite sport but also a privileged means of locomotion, my bicycle, my motorcycle.
Olga Roh:
You and your wife Veronica are the key figures at the core of a charity Andrea Bocelli Foundation for an incredibly good cause – helping young talented young people become great artists in the future. It is an enormous pleasure and honour to be a guest at your family home for one of this charity’s events in beautiful Tuscany, in Forte dei Marmi, the so called “fort of marbles”. It is a fabulous location, but what is the reason you chose this bohemian place as your home town?
Andrea Bocelli:
Because it is a place overlooking the sea and because it has a mild climate which does not trigger my hay fever. I also like the fact that for most of the year it is extremely quiet, the way I like it, and in the summer it can be lively and fun, the way my children like it.
Olga Roh:
We all remember with goosebumps the time of the Three Tenors. Are you planning as one of the biggest operatic tenors to do something similar for your millions of fans? The dynamic of the three tenors is so badly missed.
Andrea Bocelli:
Never say never. At the moment, however, there are no plans on the matter. Furthermore, I believe that the “Three Tenors” have expressed a singing quality which is almost impossible to emulate.
Olga Roh:
You performed with quite a few world class musicians. Do we have any number to mention? 100? More? Who are the artists you cherished most to sing with? Anyone you love to work together with?
Andrea Bocelli:
I’ve never counted them, to tell the truth. Each artist is a world in itself, to be discovered and from whom there is always something to learn. I find it difficult to name names, since there are so many artists with whom I have been fortunate to share the limelight in over a quarter of a century of career … On the pop side, I enjoyed singing with Celine Dion, Elton John and the list goes on. In the field of opera, I remember occasions when I had the privilege of singing with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carrera …
Olga Roh:
You created a new direction in modern music and made a big difference in its popularisation. Performing a mix of classic operatic and popular music, you attracted so many new fans who had previously shied away from classical music. Harmony, quality, popularity and accessibility of the language of music. What is the future in this genre of music performance?
Andrea Bocelli:
I have not invented anything new because already a hundred years ago Enrico Caruso, Tito Schipa and many other darlings of the opera faced a repertoire of great songs and author’s romances at the same time. For my part, I only tried to make a modest contribution to a breath of fresh air in opera: a world that perhaps sometimes risked forgetting its popular vocation. In my view the main distinction remains that between good music and bad music. The challenge is to continue disseminating and advocating quality, wherever it is.
Olga Roh:
When you plan an upcoming performance, do you look for new composers and do you ever look for seldomly performed opera arias? Are there any hidden jewels in music we have yet to discover?
Andrea Bocelli:
The operatic repertoire is boundless, it is a mine of wonders and unfortunately many titles, even by important authors, have left the repertoire of theatres and are unknown to most. Curiosity, the desire to know – both new pieces and forgotten ones – has never left me. Of course, the time to investigate is never enough …
Olga Roh:
Is there any person you trust as your first confidant when you learn a new musical score? Or do you judge your own performance? Who is your first spectator?
Andrea Bocelli:
I have long-time collaborators and musician friends with whom I compare myself, of course. Yet I believe that I am my most intransigent critic: I always record myself in concert but also often when I study, and from listening (and from the mistakes I make) I try to improve my performance.
Olga Roh:
With your extremely busy schedule you might lack the time for keeping true friends who are a blessing in our fast-forward moving world. Or are there still some happy few to be named your friends?
Andrea Bocelli:
Friendship is a form of love; it is an essential part of my life. I perceive it everywhere in the world, when I go on stage, this affectionate friendship towards me. Many of my closest friends, however, are people I have known since childhood and adolescence and whom I still frequent, naturally dealing with the nomad life that my professional activity imposes on me. But it is not the quantity that is dedicated to loved ones that is important, but the quality.
Olga Roh:
What adventures are you still ready to accept in your life, with your «cœur vaillant, rien d’impossible» and with your lovely wife, Veronica?
Andrea Bocelli:
Ours was a “meeting of souls”, from the very first moment. We fought together, we faced the wind with open hands … Veronica proved courageous, and from the first day I met her (it was 2002) she dived into my life and faced that wind, with strength, with a positive and constructive spirit. We are together at the pace of twenty-four hours out of twenty-four, and every day we renew the desire to be side by side and to face the new.
Every time the sun rises it is a new adventure, whatever you bring with you, and not a day goes by that I don’t turn my grateful thoughts to the sky, for this incredible privilege that is life.
Olga Roh:
«Noise does no good, goodness doesn’t make noise». Your life is dedicated to the queen of arts, music. It is the measure of all things? However, not many people know that Andrea Bocelli also supports many charities and helps young musicians to achieve recognition. What projects and charity foundations are closest to your heart?
Andrea Bocelli:
The philanthropic field is ancient, even though the modality was different, more silent and “private”. Over the years, my wife and I have felt the need to create something stable and structured, so as not to lose the wealth of relationships and the bond of trust gained with so many people. From the 90s until 2011 I participated in many solidarity initiatives around the world, but without being able to really closely follow any individual projects, until their complete realisation. The Andrea Bocelli Foundation was also created for this: to be a philanthropic intermediary able to give full guarantees to those who, by joining it, believe in the mission and in the selected projects. The foundation (based on its mission, which is “Empowering people and communities”) takes shape from the thought that unity is strength, and that alone you can do a lot but united you can much more.
Olga Roh:
One of your special stage appearance attributes is your tender smile. Is it dedicated to the music or to the attendees of your concert?
Andrea Bocelli:
I do not know. It is certainly not a studied expression. Perhaps what transpires is the gratitude I feel for the kindness of those who have spent time and money to come and listen to me. It is the joy of being able to share once again the beauty of music, and the miraculous ability that this art form has of giving a little serenity and optimism.
Olga Roh:
Your older children inherited your musical genes, Amos is a pianist and Matteo a young but acclaimed singer. True talent is obviously within a person, one is born with it and it cannot merely be taught or learned. As a responsible head of family, you help and support your children. How about your little daughter Virginia, does she have the musical talent of her family? Can we name the Bocelli family a musical clan? What do we expect from your family in the near future?
Andrea Bocelli:
My eldest son did not actually choose music as a profession, even if he was nourished by music from childhood through the piano, whose course of study he completed, in the conservatory … The mindset of Amos, more devoted to the scientific dimension, led him to major in aerospace engineering. Matteo, on the other hand, has decided to try to make his musical passion a profession, with objectively very promising results. Studying music (just as little Virginia, the princess of the Bocelli family, who plays the piano and sings, has been doing for some years already) is always an extraordinary possibility of inner growth. It is a baggage that enriches the soul, it is a friendship that accompanies you for life.
Olga Roh:
In how many languages do you sing and how many languages do you speak?
Andrea Bocelli:
I sing in six languages, although not all with the same quality of diction. However, I find it exciting to be able to investigate many forms of expressive communication, thanks to the different types of musicality inherent in each language. Each with its nuances, its musicality, its rhythm. I especially love Italian, because it raised me and I know its innermost nuances. Moreover, it is the language around which melodrama was born over four hundred years ago: opera in fact has a very close link with the word, with the intrinsic musicality of the Italian language. However, I believe that every language brings with it a lot of potential …. I know French quite well, a language that I have studied in depth also due to some operas that I have faced over the years; I know English with dignity, a language I learned in adulthood, when I became a “citizen of the world”, traveling from one continent to another.
Olga Roh:
The French writer Marcel Proust once replied to a dozen questions in 1880‘s as part of a game which became a cult questionnaire among the novelist’s friends and acquaintances. The questionnaire has been popularised by the daughter of the 19th century French president Félix Faure, “Antoinette Faure’s Album” and has been used by many generations of the most extraordinary people. We would like to have Andrea Bocelli among the people answered to Proust questionnaire for our magazine!
What is your greatest extravagance?
A particular taste for challenges, especially in my youth, basically doing what was forbidden or in any case not recommended for me.
What is your most treasured possession?
Faith, love. Faith in love.
Which words and phrases do you most overuse?
When I find myself abusing a sentence, using a word inappropriately, I opt for silence.
What is the characteristic you most like in a woman? And in a man?
I love everything about women that we men do not have: there is a wonderful complementarity between man and woman. One thing is certain: there is no point in deciding who is superior and inferior. It is ridiculous to think in these terms. Man and woman are different entities. However, of both of them, I very much appreciate the intellectual honesty.
What does risk mean to you, do you accept risks and hazards in your life?
In life, those who do not do, do not take risks. I am an advocate of action, of doing. And by doing it, of course, you risk making mistakes (and yet you learn from mistakes).
Are you a temperamental person?
I don’t think I’m capricious … They say I have a passionate temperament.
If you got a chance to be born again, what would you most like to be?
A drop in the sea, or perhaps a tree, or a flower … But in truth any form that testifies to the wonder of creation and therefore of its creator would suit me.
What is your motto?
Evil do not do, fear do not have.
Andrea’s wife Veronica is an omnipresent muse in Andrea’s life, his love and friend. I asked Veronica what the recipe for a happy life is next to a genius and how she had become an indispensable part of his life!
Olga Roh:
Cara Veronica! Here we are with a tricky question: what are your qualities – a woman behind a great artist, singer? Do you have a recipe on how to be perfect?
Veronica Bocelli:
I have no recipes for perfection, and I’m afraid one often notices this. I try to do my best, to reconcile the public and private, professional and family roles of the life I have chosen. The problem are the results, which sometimes risk being far from perfect, questionable or otherwise unsatisfactory … A quality? From an early age my parents educated me to seek and find beauty even in small things, to understand the need to be useful, learning to “see the work”, to act to solve a problem, even when it is apparently possible to avoid it.
Olga Roh:
Not many women could deal with the immense attention of the female fans towards a star, does your love have a protective wall?
Veronica Bocelli:
Being his partner but also a manager, my presence next to Andrea is often a necessity as well as being a mutual choice. And then, to be honest, Andrea is a person who is unlikely to leave alone willingly: that he is appreciated by women, I am fully aware of it. Today I trust a little more than a few years ago, but it is better to always be on site, always cautious: he is an artist, women approach him even when he is not looking for them. And he struggles to resist them, because sexuality is a strong part of his being: the same passion that he puts into everything he does, from horse riding to looking after children, to the modes of transport he owns – and passion which I hope he will continue to have for me.
Olga Roh:
Does Andrea sing something for you while performing? Maybe when he sings an “encore” after the main performance? Is there perhaps something dedicated to Veronica?
Veronica Bocelli:
Andrea has a very romantic temperament, he dedicates interpretations, songs and even poems to me (which he usually sends me during the night, via e-mail, and which I therefore discover by looking at my phone upon awakening). While not signed by him, “Vivo”, one of the songs taken from “Sì”, his most recent album, may offer you an example. The first verses go like this: “I live with you again, the meaning of life is you for me, my point of arrival”. They are moving words, they are the expression of a mutual feeling, which still strongly unites us today, after so many years.
I am so thankful to know these wonderful people and knowing they are holding their hands for already over 20 years makes me sigh happily – thank you for your beautiful and true love story. Thank you for this light in the sea of life. We will be waiting for more, incredible songs sung by Andrea Bocelli – a modern legend!
By Dr Olga Roh Lady Inchdrewer
