Grazie Mille for everyone that sent in a donation to this site. Shortly after the posting announced we would be sending a floral message, the donations started rolling in. We have such wonderful and generous fans on this site, and we can’t thank you enough. Kelly and I were overwhelmed! We had more than enough money to send flowers. 🙂
We wanted to share what was sent and said… I really liked this as it seemed bright and cheery. It said orange roses and white gerbera daisies.
We signed it: With deepest sympathies to the Boschetto family – with love Il Volo Flight Crew. (In Italian…)
Thank you also for sending such heart-felt condolence messages on the last 2 posts. They are beautiful…
A few days ago we received a nice little email from Sheryl Anderson, sharing her “addiction” with us…. I thought I’d share it with you, with her permission….
Dear Kelly, Pat, Daniela, Jana, Jo Ann,
I just wanted to express my appreciation for all your website efforts to promote IL VOLO. I am in St. Augustine, FL, USA (oldest city in US). Since January, I have become “addicted” to watching their concerts, interviews, etc. With the Pandemic keeping me at home, they are the “light” of each day. If there is any way that you could get a message to them, please do.
My first overseas journey was to the northern part of Italy in May, 2019.
I simply fell in love with Italian history and values. These three young men do such a good job of representing everything Italian–from their self-assured “humbleness”, to their Italian good looks, to the Catholic religion, landscapes, small cars, and not least, the closeness to their families. For me, my brain chemistry is affected by watching the “best possible” for human connection.
I know they must have relationship challenges at times, but they have the foundation of trust in self and trust in the other….Indeed, they are a blessing to me and to the world and I look forward to following their career.
Warm regards,
Sheryl Anderson
Thank you, Sheryl, for your warm thoughts and thanks, it is much appreciated! We keep this site going for you, ours, and Il Volo’s fans. I always say though, we couldn’t have this site without you fans and all of your wonderful comments, etc.!
I did have to tell her we do not have any direct contact with the guys, but we are told a few of their friends and relatives read this site, so maybe word will be passed along… 🙂
The guys, as well as their extended friends and family, like Alessandro, Giampiero, Eleonora with her beautiful Instagram posts, and Fabio; are certainly doing their best to keep their fans entertained and as happy as possible during this pandemic nightmare. We all hope it will be contained soon, not sure if it will ever be truly over… but I know many of the US fans, myself included, are awaiting the green light to fly back to Italy again… 🙂
(Sorry, I was off an hour, didn’t realize Italy hadn’t changed time yet! It is 11a EST….)
Hello folks!
Looks like Gianluca is reaching out to his fans and will be live on Billboard Italia, via Instagram. If you don’t have Instagram, you can go to www.instagram.com to download it. You can also access Instagram on your computer, but I honestly don’t know if it will work for the live feed. There are not a lot of details, but I believe Billboard Italia will be contacting Gianluca via live video on Instagram. You will need to be sure to subscribe to Billboard Italia and wait for the notification the live feed is active. You should get a notification that Billboard Italia is starting a live video.
So, have your questions ready! Thank you Dani Ci for the heads up! 🙂
(Cosa vorresti chiedere a Gianluca = What would you like to ask Gianluca?) 🙂
Looks like Gianluca is reaching out to his fans and will be live on Billboard Italia, via Instagram. If you don’t have Instagram, you can go to www.instagram.com to download it. You can also access Instagram on your computer, but I honestly don’t know if it will work for the live feed. There are not a lot of details, but I believe Billboard Italia will be contacting Gianluca via live video on Instagram. You will need to be sure to subscribe to Billboard Italia and wait for the notification the live feed is active. You should get a notification that Billboard Italia is starting a live video.
So, have your questions ready! Thank you Dani Ci for the heads up! 🙂
(Cosa vorresti chiedere a Gianluca = What would you like to ask Gianluca?) 🙂
I had the pleasure of discovering Jo Ann, when she answered my plea and so graciously offered her room to share at The Palms in Vegas! We were so excited to meet each other after several long phone calls. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to Vegas, but she did, which she will tell us about in a future post. 🙂 Of course I am always on the hunt for new recruits, so I asked if she’d be interested, and she said yes! She speaks, Italian and Sicilian, as well as English and hales from the Denver area. She will be working with Daniela in sharing some of the workload on the various translations, etc. So, Igna and Piero, you have no more secrets! Now, if she could pick up some Abruzese, well, the guys would have no secrets at all! 🙂 Welcome aboard to the crazy Flight Crew, Jo Ann! Without further ado, here she is!
By Giovanna
Ciao a tutti! Since this is my first time writing for the Flight Crew, let me introduce myself. I grew up as Giovanna Singer di Marchione in New Jersey. I answer to Giovanna, Yochanah, or Jo Ann, depending on what country I’m in.
Guarigione a Distanza: Long-Distance Healing
Nine or so years ago, my mother and son, watching a film clip on television, shouted across the house for me to come out of my office and hear something. I know my mother was really affected by it, because she was joking with me in Sicilian dialect “Giovanna, veni ca, e tale!”(“Jo Ann, come here and look!”). My mother hadn’t spoken Sicilian in 25 years, due to depressive illness and traumatic memories, and I despaired of my son ever hearing her speak it with me. I ran into the room in time to hear one of three boys, ‘nu ragazzinu (a young guy) with eyeglasses stretching “ma na-a-a-a-a-tu sole” into an 8-beat measure. I was dumbstruck at the smooth richness in such a young voice, in a teen my son’s age. I also couldn’t believe the “cioccolato fondente” (molten dark chocolate) baritone coming out of the smallest one, or the powerful vibrato from the tall one.
Up to that moment I was frustrated that Mama had abandoned her past. This was a woman who grew up singing with Tommy DeVito and Frankie Vallie (of the 4 Seasons), whose own mother sang in the chorus at La Scala in Milano. Her cousin, Lou Monte, sang Italian fun songs on the Ed Sullivan Show, after he re-recorded “Hello Dolly” silly-style with Louis Armstrong, where even Satchmo did a verse in Italiano. (I can tell what generation any reader is if they used to watch the Ed Sullivan show, or remember Louis as “Satchmo”). I don’t remember what was the TV show or clip where Mama saw and heard Il Volo. I only know that it triggered something good in Mama’s memory. For the last years of my mother’s life, we read Sicilian joke books, spoke and sang Sicilian and Italian, and immersed my son in the pride of where we came from. I have Piero, Gianluca, and Ignazio to thank for that, although we’ve never met and I didn’t even know who they were yet.
Eventually I figured it out, but it took a few years. I was running around the world on engineering projects, and they don’t have much bel canto music in Zambia, Zimbabwe, the mining towns of Slovakia, or the mine camps of upper Saskatchewan.
Il Volo Parte: The Flight Takes Off
A birthday hiking trip in Toscana, Italia in late 2015 started changing things. Stepping out of my hotel the first morning in Firenze, I noticed a poster with the name “Il Volo,” (which was probably an ad for a CD or something). The name struck me funny, since I was standing outside the Santa Maria Novella train station, not the airport! I took a good look, and recognized one of the young men in the photo, the one in the eyeglasses, which were no longer red. The tallest one now had a
Chiesa Santa Croce. The Notte Magica concert was held on the piazza in front of this beautiful façade.
striking young man’s face and an earring, and lost his round cheeks. The youngest one was starting to look like a matinee idol. My second thought was, “They had spectacular voices even as young teens. I wonder what they sound like now?” My first thought was “Italian boys really grow up well, don’t they?” The answer to what they sound like came quickly. The guys had won San Remo earlier that year, so the radios in some of the negozi in Firenza, Pienza, Volterra, and Volpaia, played “Grande Amore,” occasionally. That was my Benvenuti in Toscana: my Welcome to Tuscany, Il Volo style.
Ecco Che Arrive Il Bello (Here Comes the Funny Part)
Back in Colorado the following autumn, I got irritated at a friend who kept calling me to turn on the TV and watch PBS while I was trying to take a nap after a long workout. I finally gave in. There were the three faces from the poster, now in tuxedoes with even more stellar voices, shaking the Piazza di Santa Croce with Maestro Placido Domingo. That did it! No mistaking who they were now. This time I got irritated that I had been in that piazza six months too soon.
But I already derived great pleasure from Il Volo’s music even before I ever went to my first concert. These three boys always seem to be associated with good things happening in my family. I will always keep the warm memory of my son (a
Tempio Maggiore Synagogue of Florence. Almost a next door neighbor to Santa Croce. It’s home to some of the best cantorial in Europe.
drummer and baritone) and his sweetheart Anya (a soprano), eating dinner Italian style al fresco on my deck, announcing their engagement to me to the background music of Il Volo’s recording of “L’Amore Si Muove.”
When I took my third or fourth trip to Italy, my first to Sicily, in 2018 I was frustrated that due to the needs of one of our group, we scheduled the trip so we reached Taormina just a few days after the Il Volo concert there was over. It was
The Teatro Antico in Taormina with the beautiful backdrop of Mt. Aetna, which becomes the stage for Andrea Bocelli, Il Volo, and others.
obvious, though, that Il Volo’s presence in the Italian press had expanded since 2015, mostly for the better. They were on covers and center spreads in magazines in many of the edicole (newsstands), on the coffee table magazines in my hotel, the CD displays in the music store. Buon per loro! (Good for them!)
Next time: Finalmente! At long last, I attend my first Il Volo concert. I decided my first should, of course, be in Italy, where the guys harass each other in Italian and everyone knows all the lyrics . . .
This is what happens when everyone knows all the words to every verse.
Giovanna
Grazie Mille, Giovanna! What a lovely intro and such celebrities that reign in your family! We can’t wait to hear about your first concert with the guys in Italia! 🙂
