Exclusive Interview With Andrea Bocelli, Part 2

By Ben York
Posted: Dec. 6, 2013

With one of the most recognizable voices in music, Andrea Bocelli is a global icon who continues to defy categorization bringing his music to millions world-wide.

• Andrea Bocelli Tickets

Bocelli has received rave reviews throughout his sold-out U.S. tours as an artist showing confidence and mastery in both classical and pop worlds. “His tone was smooth and brimmed with emotion…he owned Madison Square Garden,” celebrated the New York Post. The Sun Sentinel concurred stating, “Bocelli’s singing moves people…He brought suave phrasing and affecting emotion to an arrangement of Italian songs.” The Hollywood Reporter rejoiced, “It was a triumphant appearance.”

Check out part 1 here, and read the second part of our exclusive interview with the legendary tenor below.

USAirwaysCenter.com: What is one item you cannot go on tour without?

Andrea Bocelli: I always carry my computer with me, inside it there is a bit of my life, I use it as a database for my work and for leisure, as a music archive)…Besides in my luggage there is also a flute because playing it is for me” another way” of singing. Finally a bottle of Bocelli’s wine, because if during the tour I keep the strict diet of an athlete after the last concert, a bottle of the home-made wine from our family vineyards, gives me the scent of home….

USAC: Who is your favorite person to sing to?

Bocelli: Curiosity related to music has never abandoned me: therefore many are the artists I would like to work with, and not only the great names I have admired for years, but also the new emerging talents. Among the many colleagues I had the pleasure to sing with, if I have to mention the one that gave me more emotions, I think of Celine Dion, a great professional and a great person. I also remember with pride the occasions on which I had the privilege to sing with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and many other colleagues.

USAC: You are certainly a world traveler, but where do you feel most at home?

Bocelli: My family has farm roots: despite the kind of life I live, my character would push me to spend my life in Tuscany, where I have my roots, in the midst of nature in the open country side. But there also other places where I can say I feel at home: I have been coming to United States for the past fifteen years at least for one or two tours a year…I always get back to your Country, very willingly, as I have often said because I feel I am surrounded by love, I feel at ease just as if I were at home. When I sing in your country, every time, I establish with the audience a particular empathy which has no equal.

USAC: What song is the most difficult for you to sing?

Bocelli: Even the seemingly easiest page hides some dangers. In the operatic field some titles of the French Opera repertoire that I am very fond of, are - vocally speaking – a continuous obstacle….But Puccini too disseminates his scores of difficulties: I am thinking of Manon Lescaut, which I am soon going to record and that meant so much effort to prepare.

USAC: How would you describe your new album, Passione, in your own words? 

Bocelli: Passion is one face of love, and love is the engine of the world. The album “Passione” sings “high temperature love”, it tells in music of love as a hot rush of love and sweet sensual torment… In the album we have tried to give a range of shades as wide as possible of that mysterious, wonderful, kaleidoscope which oversees the concept of passionate love, the sum of heart mind and senses. Each song brings out a nuance; every song is a “variation on the theme” which boosts the driving engine of the content of this exciting new project. The result, of which I am very satisfied, is an anthology of some of the most intense songs ever: music that has inflamed and moved the young people of twenty or thirty years ago and that continues to do it in the new millennium.