My blessed career

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli reminisces on 20 years of success and luxuriates in his Chinese connections

Sweet and romantic, Andrea Bocelli's timbre personifies the Italian bel canto. Not only that, his versatile voice can enliven opera as well as pop music. The Italian tenor, who has just turned 54, was recently named International Artist of the Year at the Brit Awards in London while celebrating an extraordinary 20-year career.

He has a vivid face that continually flushes and lights up with emotions and ideas he is expressing. In an interview with China Daily in Lajatico, in the province of Pisa where he was born, Bocelli reflects on his life and talks about his experience with China.

"Just like at the beginning of my career, music remains a requirement, exactly like love. And love is the true meaning of an award: the fact that there is an audience that follows you with passion. Love is the ultimate force that makes me cross oceans, still, at my age.

"I consider this important anniversary as a starting point, since this year my life took a major turn with the birth of my daughter Virginia. I now can't simply rest on my laurels."

Often hailed as Luciano Pavarotti's natural successor, Bocelli's musical breakthrough came on the stage of the Sanremo Italian Music Festival 20 years ago.

Since then his records, 22 in total, have sold more than 75 million copies.

"I would have never imagined such a result that night winning Sanremo," he says.

His breakthrough hit, Con te partiro, was heard worldwide. "These exquisite melodies of inexplicable beauty still bring a thrill after many years," says the tenor, who lost his sight at the age of 12 when he was accidentally hit on the head during a football match.

He will take his exuberant voice and charisma to Britain again this month and to the US in December.

Friendship is a cardinal part of his life, he says. "It's a form of love that breeds mutual understanding. When you are understood, you feel at home. It's the fire and the engine of our existence. I agree with these verses by the poet Kahlil Gibran: 'Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.' A friend is someone who understands me for who I am, without any pretence."

Among his special friends is the Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

"Lang is a true friend. He is the most important pianist in the world, a real superstar."

Bocelli recalls the first time he listened to him on the radio. "It was a performance he gave at La Scala. He was playing Rachmaninoff. I was so struck. Then, in 2007, we personally met. After that we met many times on the stages of the world.

"Lang and I have a natural affinity given our backgrounds. In the training ground of a childhood not untouched by solitude and suffering we were able to develop a particular sensitivity, idealizing the concepts of loyalty and determination, dreaming of a world ruled by high ideals."

The voices of Mario Lanza and Franco Corelli, and those of Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Mario Del Monaco and Giuseppe Di Stefano would sooth his childhood restlessness.

"They were my precious company: It is through them that I came to love melodrama."

Bocelli combines his profession as a singer with charitable work, having set up the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, which fights poverty.

"We are all called to create a better world, more livable than the one we have found," he says.

Asked if he is embarrassed by his enormous following among women, Bocelli, notoriously shy, says: "Women always fascinate me. Being favored by the female audience flatters me and gives me strength."

He overcomes cultural barriers with the power of his voice. "Art speaks a language that every intelligent person can understand. When the heart and art are in unison, their language is the same across all latitudes."

Asked about the Chinese soprano Song Zuying and their recent experience at Royal Albert Hall, Bocelli says: "Her creamy voice carries beautifully. Song is an extremely refined artist, a beautiful woman with a stunning voice. She overflows with charm and moves with effortless grace. We had already shared the stage before, at the Shanghai Expo 2010."

He hopes to share another important musical event with Song, he says, adding: "But now it remains top secret."

He is lucky to have worked with "some of the most beautiful voices of the Chinese musical world", he says.

"My love for singing and its incantation is never sated. I am certain this wonderful huge country is full of artists with extraordinary voices."

Speaking of the first time he sang in China, he says: "The most beautiful memory from that night was gifted to me by the audience, which was extremely warm. I never forgot the energy of the Chinese public."

His next tour in China? "I don't know, unfortunately."

However, he hopes it will be soon, perhaps next year. His experience in China "was so exciting and full of satisfaction. I felt the warmth, the enthusiasm of the Chinese people. China is a source of inspiration for the world".

Still, he is cautious in talking about his plans.

"My mentor taught me that you cannot make significant plans for more than 24 hours. I agree with a famous Italian film director when saying: 'Men have many plans for the future. How unfortunate that this future, quite often, has very different projects for us.'"

Bocelli is also wary of fame. "Actually, fame represents a barrier to understanding one's inner depth. When you are famous, it is easy to lose touch with reality.

"The risk is to lose oneself."

The lack of privacy can be unnerving: "When you are tired, everything is an annoyance, even the attention of the media or a simple passer-by stopping you on the street. However, usually I take this in a positive way, as a consequence of my marvelous profession."

His favorite place in Asia is Singapore, he says.

"I have many friends there, people who are close to me through the mysterious bonds created by my voice and their sensibility.

"I have many wonderful memories, and I'm happy to come back to Singapore to shake so many hands and to bring the special gifts that only music can give."

Of Chinese culture he says: "It's hard to avoid superlatives when describing China, having one of the longest continuous civilizations. It has produced, far earlier than the West, astonishing achievements: inventions and innovations that have changed man's destiny and accelerated its evolution.

"I am fascinated by philosophies that have bloomed in that great huge land. I appreciated ancient architecture, based on respect for nature, I have been conquered by the riches of their musical tradition, by the strong spiritual vibration you find in poetry, in sculpting, in the art of calligraphy."

As for the potential of China's music market?

"China has undergone a renaissance that has reinvigorated music industry, just like science, technology, commerce, and tourism. All these fields follow the impressive wave of growth. I strongly believe that new generations of Chinese possess lively creativity, a remarkable artistic talent that is going to astonish the world soon."

For China Daily

(China Daily 11/02/2012 page29)