Many of you, in the comments after the various articles on the Verona concert, asked me for the opinion of the press.
I have not forgotten about this and therefore here I am giving you my opinion.
I want it to be clear, that it is only my personal opinion, maybe I am too protective, towards Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, or maybe, like a mother, I want the best for them, because I think they deserve it, and therefore also this time, I was disappointed with the reviews in the press, or rather, I was half satisfied, but I certainly expected more.
Let’s start from the fact, that the concert was magnificent and you have all been able to see it.
The television ratings have absolutely rewarded the concert, they had the maximum ratings of the evening, therefore a real success.
The next day, it was Sunday, but I expected that the newspapers and television news, at least those of RAI, would write or say a few words of congratulations.
Those few newspapers that reported the news, did it purely as a news item, “Il Volo had the best ratings”, no compliments to the three boys.
On the Sunday after the concert, I watched the RAI news and also all the entertainment shows that also report the news of the various shows.
NOTHING, no one has talked about it, nor in the news, not even in the gossip broadcasts.
BIG DISAPPOINTMENT.
Here are some of the articles, of which I will translate the best parts.
ALL MUSIC ITALIA:
All Music Italia Article – Click Here
The music has restarted and it has done so in a big way with a show that is not only musical. Starring Ignazio Boschetto, Piero Barone and Gianluca Ginoble who, in the unprecedented role also of conductors of the evening, led the spectators and viewers of Rai 1 in an evening dedicated to sharing. Il Volo, Tribute to Ennio Morricone had the merit of turning the lights back on to music.
The opening on the notes of Ecstasy of Gold, the main piece of the soundtrack of Once Upon a Time in the West, was exciting.
Two and a half hours of music, memories and emotions in a journey not only linked to the figure of the Maestro, but which fits perfectly with the musical journey undertaken over the years by the three boys, increasingly careful to bring excellence around the world of our country.
Ignazio, Piero and Gianluca then retraced their 12-year career, with significant images and with the performance on the notes of ‘O Sole Mio, a song they sang as children, and Grande Amore, the piece with which they triumphed at the Festival of Sanremo 2015.
Music is sharing and it certainly cannot save the world, but it certainly has the merit of making it more enjoyable. Especially after the terrible year and a half in which we changed our perspective on the present and the future.
RECENSIAMO MUSICA:
RECENSIAMO MUSICA Article – Click Here
After a long season without concerts, live music officially resumes thanks to the concert held this evening, Saturday 5 June, in the splendid setting of the Verona Arena. Protagonists Gianluca Ginoble, Ignazio Boschetto and Piero Barone, the three souls and the three voices of Il Volo. Two and a half hours of beautiful music, a concert-tribute to the romantic and visionary genius of Ennio Morricone.
Broadcast live on Rai Uno, the event certainly did not disappoint expectations.
In the lineup some of the most beautiful songs already interpreted in the past by the trio ….. Inevitable some of the themes composed by Ennio Morricone for the cinema … national pop scene …. Finally, from the very first listening, the unpublished “I Colori dell’amore” (The Colors of Love), signed for the occasion by Maestro Andrea Morricone, a particularly suggestive piece, crowning an unforgettable evening. We start again … we start again in a great way.
SKY TG24:
SKY TG24 Article – Click Here
People, as many people as they have not seen in the same place for a long time. With the masks, the right distances ……. the music has started again, the Verona Arena has been granted to a few thousand people who have been excited for almost three hours together with Il Volo which paid homage to the teacher Ennio Morricone. A perfect evening for climate, program and joy, to the point of (almost) forgetting the waiting time “justified” by television times ….. an evening that will go down in history.
Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio start with Ecstasy of Gold, the theme of The Good, the Ugy and the Bad by Sergio Leone. Then a few words, presented Andrea Morricone ………. who will conduct the orchestra in some pieces during the evening. One is Your Love …….. the three artists remember when, in 2016, they participated in the tribute evening to the three tenors Pavarotti-Domingo-Carreras. The composition cannot be anything but the Nessun Dorma and the execution is thrilling; the orchestra, directed by Maestro Marcello Rota, and the choir the latter arranged as tradition dictates in front of the stage, immense …………… The colors of love is the piece created for Il Volo by Andrea Morricone followed, for the last standing ovation, by Libiamo ne ‘lieti calici, aria from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi and the reprise of Estasi Dell’Oro. With a dedication to the people that Covid has taken away and a thought to Vito, Ignazio Boschetto’s father who died last March, the circle closes, the music remains in the air. And, I’m sure, people are finally smiling under the masks.
SPETTACOLO.EU:
SPETTACOLO.EU Article – Click Here
Il Volo-Tribute to Ennio Morricone: success for the concert that bewitched the audience.
… aired on Rai1 last night live from the Verona Arena, it won the prime time with a 25% share, winning 4,702,000 viewers.
…… The exclusive concert-event of the international trio Il Volo, in honor of Maestro Ennio Morricone, saw Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca alternate conducting, accompanied by Marco Giallini and Laura Chiatti. The Filarmonia Veneta Regional Orchestra was conducted by Maestro Marcello Rota, with special participation in some pieces by Maestro Andrea Morricone.
The event, which also marked the reopening of the Verona Arena’s musical season, lasted over two hours, winning one standing ovation after another from the audience present at the Arena.
Certainly these are all positive articles, but they are few and moreover from minor newspapers, certainly not those that, after Notte Magica, have really said very badly about them.
But one yes, I had a great satisfaction reading IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO.
This newspaper had written very badly after Notte Magica, using titles like this: ”Il Volo on Canale 5, the great opera scam: we hope that people will keep them abroad, so, at least for a while, we get rid of them”.
IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO:
IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO Article – Click Here
The three tenors have returned to live music for the only concert scheduled for this year. The Verona Arena was sold out with a Covid capacity of 6 thousand people to applaud the most famous arias of Maestro Morricone and the many guests on stage. Emotion for a special dedication to Ignazio’s father that Piero Barone made at the end of the show.
The challenge was twofold. The great return to prime time live on Rai Uno and all three alone to conduct, without any intermediary. The result of “Il Volo – Tribute to Ennio Morricone”? In front of the screen last night there were 4,702,000 viewers and 25.8% share. Excellent listening that rewarded an evening that was indeed the celebration of the great Maestro but also the story of Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble, their story between anecdotes and songs from their repertoire included in the lineup. The event was organized in full compliance with anti Covid-19 guidelines and protocols.
……………Excited, the three tenors dedicated the event “to the people who didn’t make it. Our thoughts go up there to them.” Piero then added: “This concert is dedicated to Vito who we miss so much and is watching us from up there.” That is, Ignazio’s father who died of an illness on February 28th. The concert will be broadcast in the United States by the PBS network. Il Volo will return to America next year for a series of concerts, while the Morricone tribute album will be released later this year and will be sold all over the world.
But the journalists who had written so badly about Il Volo after Notte Magica, where did they go?
What happened to them??? This time they didn’t write anything bad, but not only that, they didn’t write anything at all, as if the event hadn’t happened.
And then the articles that I first translated are beautiful, but there is no direct compliment to the boys, nothing that says about their personal growth, artistic maturation, praise to their voices.
The only really beautiful article, no ifs and buts, is the one published by VANITY FAIR, really well written, you understand that whoever wrote it was really present and experienced the emotions of that concert.
VANITY FAIR:
VANITY FAIR Article – Click Here
The Arena di Verona reopens its doors to music starting from Il Volo with a show in honor of Ennio Morricone, live on Rai Uno. We stayed with them in Verona.
Months of closed doors, silence. The Verona Arena turns the lights back on and lets the music play, starting with Il Volo – Tribute to Ennio Morricone, a concert event, in honor of the great Maestro. Broadcast live on Saturday 5th June on Rai Uno, it marks the great restart of the summer season of one of the most important places for Italian music.
It is a special evening. The three boys appear excited, after days of rehearsals, which ended at two in the morning the night before.
A show prepared in detail, where for the first time the two tenors and the baritone also play the role of television hosts but choose not to read the hunchback, in order to be more free to be themselves. The difference can be seen, after a somewhat rigid start in the spoken parts, when they finally break up joking with each other. It is their beauty. Serious and composed as they sing, they appear much more fun (and entertained) if they let themselves go to their dynamics of colleagues (and especially friends) who have been working together for the past 12 years. Instead, no hesitation in the sung parts, from the first note of Your Love, the song that opens the concert, among the images of the film Once upon a time in the west. They show once again, in this first concert after a year and a half of stoppage which for them is also the first live television broadcast, that they are professionals able to fill the sky of Verona with three powerful voices that fit together perfectly and excite an audience that stands up many times, in continuous standing ovations, demonstrating great participation and emotion to the three protagonists.
“These have been difficult days for us. We’ve been thinking about doing a live broadcast for a long time, but we’ve always wanted to wait, we didn’t think we were ready. Today we want to send a message to young people. Never give up on your dreams. Because we didn’t do it,” says Ignatius, just as one of their dreams comes true.
…………It is their only 2021 concert in Italy and is also broadcast in the United States by the PBS network. “The best thing is to see so many people working on this event,” they say. And with them there are also the dancers, as if to emphasize that the art that must start again also passes through dance.
………….What you don’t see on TV are the ladies in the front rows waving to greet them or the people outside the Arena listening. The greetings of the three, when they are not framed and the words during the advertising blacks. There are also many foreigners who have come from abroad to attend the show. “We have experienced shortcomings and distances. There are those who have had great losses and those who have great satisfaction. We are dedicating this concert to people who have not made it. Our thoughts go up there to them,” says Ignatius. And among them there is also his father Vito, who died suddenly in March. “This concert is dedicated to Vito who we miss so much and is watching us from up there,” says Piero at the end, in a moment that becomes very emotional but which again leaves room for the professionalism of three friends who support each other. And so, while Ignazio sings perhaps at his best, the hands of Gianluca, visibly moved, look for his, to support him, in the most difficult, but also the most exciting, moment of the whole show.
They show their nuances, especially when they go on stage alone. Gianluca sings Your Song by Elton John showing his more pop side, dedicating the song to his mother, sitting in the front row. Piero, with Andrea Griminelli on flute, No puede ser nueva and Ignazio Listen accompanied by an eight and a half year old boy, Julian Iorio, on saxophone.
The tribute to the maestro therefore also goes through great songs such as Volare, My Way, O sole mio. And there is also Grande Amore, the song with which they won in 2015 at the Sanremo Festival. At the end they thank them, they dedicate an encore to the cameras off to the standing audience, they hope they enjoyed the show «We were very anxious. But we gave everything .
In their future there is now a period of rest. One more day in Verona and then everyone at home, waiting to be able to leave for a tour in 2022 that they hope will keep them busy for at least two years. Before then, however, a new disc for Sony Music, which will be this tribute to the maestro and which will arrive after the summer. “After a year and a half you gave us oxygen,” they tell the audience. And the public too, it is evident, has breathed this evening.
Of course, other newspapers have reported good comments, but they are publications linked to them by friendship, such as Il Resto Del Carlino (newspaper of Bologna) or the newspapers of Abruzzo and Sicily, even the newspaper of the Arena, but there was no doubt that they wrote well of Il Volo.
Mute scene, however on the part of all the television programs, nobody talked about it.
In short, I was satisfied because there were no obvious “attacks” on our boys, but I’m not thrilled with what was written.
I repeat, maybe it is my feeling, but I would have liked more, for so much work, so much art, so much beauty, which Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca have certainly been able to give us.
Let me know your thoughts.
Daniela
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.