Today I decided not to post a story. I want Daniela to take my post so she can report the events of Sanremo!
I hope you had the opportunity to watch Sanremo or at least heard Capolavoro(Masterpiece). All I can say is the song has the right title! Like every song they sing they take your breath away! It is a Masterpiece because they are a Masterpiece!
The guys have been having a wonderful time at Sanremo but, I’ll let Daniela tell you about that!
I hope you enjoy the events of this week! I will be back next week!
My message to the guys is you are phenomenal! No one can present a song or perform like you can. That’s why you are the Masterpiece!
Before I get into my story, I’d like to remind you that, for the next two weeks, the guys will be busy with Sanremo.
It was great reading the beautiful words to their song Capolavoro. It truly is a Masterpiece! Only six more days and we will hear the guys sing Capolavoro on the Ariston Stage at Sanremo!
I’m still busy doing research so I’m posting an old story. This will probably be for the next two weeks.
In the meantime, I’d like to remind you that Daniela Perani will be keeping you up to date on what’s going on at Sanremo.
I would like to remind you if you haven’t already Subscribed to Il Volo Flight Crew, this would be a good time to do it. The subscription is free, and you will have full access to all the stories in our archives. To Subscribe go to http://www.ilvoloflightcrw.com and enter your email. Every time a story is published, it will automatically go to your email.
Have a good week!
To read this week’s story The Epitome of Success, click in the box below:
As I promised last week, while I am researching, I will post old stories. This is the first of those stories!
This story if from 2021! Enjoy!
This has been an amazing week. How often over the last year have we said we missed the guys. Well they sure made up for it this week. One spectacular event after another.
So let’s start in the beautiful region of Apulia, Italy.
“La Notte della Taranta”, is one of the largest Festivals in Italy and one of the most significant manifestations of popular culture in Europe. The final concert of La Notte della Taranta, has had as many as one hundred and fifty thousand spectators in the past. It takes place in Salento, in the municipality of Melpignano, at the esplanade of the former Augustinian Convent specifically for the rediscovery and the enhancement of traditional Salento music. It is not limited to traditional music. It also allows for rock, jazz and symphonic music. This year’s host was Albano.
Listen to the voices of our guys coming alive backstage! It’s a calling! “Who sells olives.”
Meanwhile Albano awaits their arrival on stage. He tells us about the song. It is from the region of Apulia, the region where he was born. He says, “It reminds me of the autumn song. It is the November song.”
November is the time of the olive harvest and a man would always pass with a cart of olives to sell to the people. Albano and Ignazio sing a phrase in the Apulian dialect (“Who has olives, I have to buy them.”) Albano said when Modugno sang in the Apulian dialect he was very proud of him. Ignazio said, “So let’s hope, with this next song we will sing, to make you even more proud of your land.”
Albano tells the guys, “You know that I am proud to have you here beside me…”
Gianluca responded, “and we are happy ….”
Albano (continues) “…simply because I baptized these two..”
Albano is referring to Ignazio and Piero who he performed with on Ti Lascio Una Canzone. I remember those performances and that Albano was in awe of both of them. Then Albano continues about Gianluca who he didn’t perform with at Ti Lascio una Canzone.
Albano says, “And to you, (Gianluca) you I baptize this evening.”
Gianluca responds, “One day, sooner or later, we will sing together. But it is nice, I can say, that these events make it possible to spread a musical culture like this of the Taranta, and it is right that young people are attached to the roots of these great events. We must not lose this desire to carry on traditions, we too, as young people, are proud to be here tonight.”
Ignazio elaborates on this thought in one of their interviews…
“It is certainly one of the most important cultural events in Italy, and welcome, because I always say that Italy is a nation full of different cultures and traditions and certainly these events give space to make known their own traditions and culture, and therefore we are honored to be part of it, alongside Albano, an Apulian DOC, who has never forgotten his origins and there is also Madame (she is a singer) who is a young woman, like us. Hence the importance of carrying the roots, ALWAYS, in any situation, in any place.”
When the music begins our guys sing the National Anthem of the region in Griko which is a mixture of Italian and Greek. Another language to add to their list!
Griko is unique to this region but there are other regions, in Italy, that speak languages other than Italian. In many Arberesh villages where the people are Italian, Albanian and Greek they have their own languages. My grandfathers’ town Vaccarizzo Albanese is an Aberesh town and they have retained the archaic features of both Gheg and Tosk dialects. Many of the words they spoke at the festival, I understood. It was a beautiful experience for me.
The guys performance was magnificent. From the first larilò larilò lallero to the last, the whole stage was alive with their voices and a rhythm and beat that I can’t get out of mind! You could see how much the guys were enjoying it. Their interpretation of this beautiful song was awesome! Festivals are at the heart of the Italian people. They love them! This song is so full of joy and happiness.
The dancers were wonderful! Through the dance, they told the story of the people, of their labors and, their joys. The hardship of life and the happiness of home and family! Their singing and the dancing was very uplifting. And the guys’ interaction with the dancers and musicians on stage brought the whole story together. They brought the audience into the song and together they presented the history and culture of the people. This was very unique and the guys helped us to see another culture within their Italian culture. A magnificent delivery of the beautiful Anthem of the Griko people! Truly an amazing event!
Next stop Venezia! Talk about an exciting event!
Where do I begin…
In the afternoon the guys attended the award presentations where they were presented as winners of the 78th Film Italy Movie Awards. Upon exiting the building, they were interviewed by an unknown man…
Man: This is not Sanremo, this is the cinema exhibition!
Piero: But it seems a little like Sanremo, we meet, all familiar faces.
Gianluca: We are preparing a very ambitious recording project which is a tribute to maestro Ennio Morricone. We had the opportunity to collaborate with Vittorio Storaro in a music video, so we are here in the company of a great master of cinema, Vittorio Storaro.
Ignazio: He chose our voices for a tribute of the video of “Your Love,” which is shot in the Frasassi Caves, and therefore it is beautiful, this is not the first time we come here. It is always a beautiful atmosphere. Venice is a place that is stupendous.
Later in the day, the guys appeared in their transport to Lido. What do we see here? We see three elegant young men who are on the brink of a new direction in their lives. Not leaving all that they are and all they always will be, we know they will never leave the concert stage, but taking the next step on their road to greatness!
What we’ve been watching these last few months, every time we see the video of the Frasassi Caves, is the guys embarkation on a new and wonderful experience in their lives. They are the stars of this Short Film. They are what makes this film possible. Vittorio Storaro’s genius and the presence and voice of Il Volo have made this movie an award winning production.
To help you understand this better let me tell you what Storaro had to say about this…
The idea actually comes from what we have been through all this last year, the disgrace that has happened to us from the pandemic, which has closed all the arts a little.
But then there was an idea which came from Pirandello, who said: One, Nobody, One Hundred Thousand (the title of a Pirandello novel), and in this case becomes a Once Upon a Time, as the project of Il Volo and the music of Ennio Morricone, start from Once Upon a Time in the West, directed by a great director, Sergio Leone, with the music of Morricone, the subject of Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento, so there is a whole series of characters that carry some new message.
A message that also becomes a hope, not only in the present, but also in the future, because if before, once upon a time there was Nobody, where art enters, in this case Music and Singing, which is represented by Il Volo, the song with the music of Ennio Morricone “Your Love,” brings a new energy, energy that practically becomes: Once upon a time there was no one, and now Il Volo ~ over and over!
So we will see that Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio multiply.
When they descend from that blessed rope where the first boys went down here in the caves many years ago (50 years ago), it is a little like entering a seed into mother earth and thus forming a new generation, which is the generation of the future.
Il Volo, in this case becomes a symbol, as, not only does it enter the womb of the earth, it first regenerates the energy of life, but it can do it in all the squares, in all the theaters, in all the places of the world, and that, certainly is what music is, nevertheless it carries a great message of love.
Storaro was so right that carrying their music around the world will revive the music industry through this project. Through it the music will be alive again.
So that also sums up where our guys are headed! A part of their new direction. Presenting this movie throughout the world. It is our guys bringing a message to the world. A message of hope and love for all people and all nations!
So let’s rejoin the guys on the red carpet.
Along with the Storaro family we find Storaro’s newly adopted family Il Volo.
These guys certainly lit up the red carpet. Elegant in their Dolce & Gabbana tuxedos there was no lack of interest in their presence.
How did the guys feel in this moment? Perhaps the words of Ignazio in a Rappler interview sums it up. “It was amazing working with Maestro Vittorio Storaro, remembering all the most beautiful moments that he spent with the Maestro Morricone….It is our dream. The three of us will be on the red carpet with Vittorio Storaro.”
Of course Ignazio was referring to, Vittorio Storaro, their director, the veteran director who won three Oscars, including one for Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, Apocalypse Now, which he and the director shot in the Philippines.
The new short, dedicated by Storaro to the master composer, Morricone, who passed away in 2020. A clip of the movie was premiered at the fourth edition of Filming Italy Best Movie Award on the occasion of the 78th Venice Film Festival. And as you know Storaro won a Best Italian Film award and so did our guys for their starring role and their song “Your Love.”
Next the cocktail party…
Did you notice where all the women flocked to? Our guys! Who could resist these gorgeous guys. They grace the room with their presence. When they enter a room it lights up.
Italy what have you to say about your guys now. You have got to be so proud of them. Look at how they shine in the world! But there was never a problem in recognition. We in America have always been proud of them and called them our own. I hope this project will allow them to spend more time in the US! Maybe at the Academy Awards. Although we will only see the film for the first time on September 25th at the premier at the Frasassi Caves we already know how important this project is and how beautiful this film is.
Let them lose on the red carpet again! Our red carpet in America!!!
From this project we can see so many more projects like this on the horizon.
We are so proud of the award they won at the 78th Venice Film Festival, but that was only the beginning!
Next stop Verona…
Do you ever feel when they’re in Verona, they are home? I certainly do. To me they own the Verona Arena. Every performance there is phenomenal!
They returned to the Seat Music Awards to sing their beautiful song, “Your Love” and to pick up their second award for the week!
While writing this I remembered a year ago when they were at the SMA. It was to restart the music industry.
I’m going to go back to the story I wrote about the event last year. “Turn on the Lights”
I know we will never forget the night before the performance when the guys went to the Arena to check out the lights. It was beautiful and funny at the same time. Let’s pop in to listen to the guys conversation:
Ignazio to Piero: What are you doing?
Piero: What are you looking at?
Ignazio: The light that is there.
Gianluca: It’s Beautiful.
Ignazio: The gorgeous light. Gorgeous! Gorgeous!
Of course, Piero pulled out his phone and started to video.
But what was it about the lights that got Ignazio’s attention? Well they were as Ignazio said, “La Luce Stupenda! “The lights were gorgeous,” but I think he was thinking about the last lights that he saw on stage. When they turned off the lights at their last performance in the US and went home to a country in pain from a pandemic!
When the guys arrived on stage, they had a message for the world and all people in the industry:
Ignazio: 2020 will be remembered as the year where the world would be constrained to be turned off.
Gianluca: For the music employees the verb “turn off’ means the end of the show, when the curtains close and it is the waiting moment for the next show, but this time the waiting lasted more than expected, the silence was unavoidable.
Piero: Now, the world is getting ready to start again! Now the moment has arrived to raise the curtain! Now, we will turn on the music!”
This beautiful statement was followed by the performance of the evening. Their choice of “Nessun Dorma” sent an even stronger message. It’s says we may have to perform under these new world conditions, but we don’t have to change who we are or why we’re here. In this ancient Arena we look to the past while following the path to the future.
From their first note the whole arena lit up. Their voices were clean and crisp. Their presence was illuminating. Their notes rose above the Arena into the night sky to let the world know music is back! The final note of their song sent the final statement. All three voices rose in unison and their voices sent forth a note that took our breaths away! It said We Have Returned! ”Turn on the Lights.”
Isn’t it ironic that one year later they win an award for the short film Frasassi Caves for which they are represented as regenerating the energy of life? Music is their energy!
They so deserve this award.
So let’s get back to this weeks’ performance at the Arena.
Prior to the guys performance, the stage was set up with multi color lights but when the guys arrived on stage, I think they were even surprised. The stage was lit as it was for last years performance. Very simple, very plain but what was going on in the audience was a totally different story. All phones were lit up. It was magic.
They stepped on stage in their beautiful but informal all black attire. Elegant in its simplicity!
As they come face to face with the audience, I could see the emotion in their faces.
Look at how these people love them and how they love their fans!
And then it begins. …
This song is slowly becoming a signature song! A song that reminds us of sadness but brings us to a new and exciting time in the lives of our guys! It’s as if Vito left them a final gift, a new and exciting adventure in their lives. It is the song that will lead the way in their new tour around the world. Always before them will be this song and the movie which has already and continues to make its mark in history!
At the end of the song, Vanessa Incontrada and Carlo Conti spoke with the guys about the Tribute to Ennio Morricone at the Verona Arena.
Gianluca greets everyone, “Good evening!”
Carlo: “Il Volo, to start these SEAT Music Awards in the best way.”
Vanessa: “And what an atmosphere theycreated for you (the audience), with all the mobile phones on, great emotion I saw in your faces.”
Gianluca: “We are happy to see you again.”
Vanessa: “Us too.”
Carlo: Us too, us too.
Gianluca: Finally in the Arena.
Vanessa: Finally, but it has now become your home.
Carlo: In short, I mean, you did an extraordinary event on RAI1 just dedicated as a tribute to Maestro Morricone.
Piero: We had the honor of paying homage to Maestro Morricone here at the Arena of Verona, for us, the audience, for an artist, for a singer, it is oxygen. It was an evening full of guests, but for us, the biggest guest was the audience. After a year and a half, to see them again, sing for them!
Vanessa: We understand these words well, but will you take this event to the world? I guess so.
Ignazio: Yes, we start in March 2022, we finally start with the world tour and we finish in September – October, from America, we end up in Japan and then New Zealand, so beautiful.
Vanessa: You have many things to do, let’s say.
Ignazio: Yes, but it is wonderful, after almost two years, to start singing again. I remember that a year ago, in this same program, we said …. let’s hope it starts again, the music can’t stop and meet again after a year and see that the music has never stopped, it’s beautiful!
Vanessa: Seeing them (the audience), as you said, involved with you, is nice.
Carlo: A beautiful concert, a beautiful television event, but there is a tribute album to Ennio Morricone, when will this album be released?
Gianluca: Let’s say that it is a very ambitious project, that with great responsibility, right on tiptoe and a lot of humility, we decided to undertake this path which is a musical project that is a tribute to all the most beautiful soundtracks of the maestro Morricone.
Piero: And tonight we announce the date.
Gianluca: Yes, because this record will be released on November 5th, from Cinema Paradiso, to Once Upon a Time in the West, to the Good, the Ugly, the Bad.
Vanessa: His greatest songs, let’s say.
Gianluca: And we can’t wait to start the tour.
Carlo: Well a great album and therefore it will be released on November 5th.
Then Carlo presented the guys with their DIVA award…
Carlo: I seriously read the inscription: Arena di Verona Award for Il Volo, for the tribute project to Ennio Morricone, represented with great success right here at the Verona Arena, live on RAI1, and for the over 10 years of career, which led them to be known and appreciated representatives of Italian music in the world.
And so we come to the end of the events of the last week. But….
We’ve gone from Melpignano to Verona but what about Beyond. I said the end of the events, not the end of the story. So we follow the guys no matter where they go from Melpignano to Verona and Beyond but, where beyond?
Let’s listen to what Gianluca had to say about their future….
“Our dream is to see The Ecstasy of Gold performed at the Academy Awards.”
That works for me! Onward to the Academy Awards! Hope to see you there!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
The auditions and rehearsals are over and finally, we have the guys together at the Ariston Theater and they are about to meet but before they meet, I want to tell you a little more about the journey they took to get here and what this new adventure will be for them but, even more so for their parents.
For Piero and Ignazio, great sacrifices were made.
We know Ignazio’s parents worked hard and gave up all they had to make Ignazio have the opportunity to have singing lessons. In the end, thanks to someone dear to them, Ignazio finds himself on the stage of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
From a very young age, Piero worked endlessly for a classical education which would lead him to the stage of an opera house. Thanks first to his grandfather, who paid for the piano lessons, and the sacrifices of his parents, Piero found his way to the stage of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
As we know, Gianluca never had singing lessons and never competed in any singing competition. He was discovered while singing with his choir and that led him to the stage of Ti Lasio Una Canzone. So, there was no sacrifice by his parents but don’t think this is where the story of sacrifice ends.
No, the story just begins on the stage of Ti Lascio Una Canzone. The Big Sacrifice follows.
But let’s begin with the fourth night of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
With O Sole Mio in hand, the boys set out for night four of Ti Lascio una Canzone.
It’s April 25th, 2009, and these three teenage boys who only met a short time before are getting ready to turn their world upside down. They are one step from stardom!
The first time they sing together everyone is amazed. Who wasn’t amazed, Roberto Cenci! He knew exactly what he was doing. He realized by putting these three voices together he would create an amazing sound! How right he was!
So, let’s turn to Piero who will tell us how the guys first sang together….
I remember Roberto Cenci calling us all three to the center of the stage during the rehearsals.
‘Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio, come here.’
They start ‘O Sole Mio’ and we sing as we had divided the parts. Gianluca begins with the first verse and then it’s my turn, I attack with ‘Ma n’ato sole,’ (but another sun). This ‘Ma n’naaaato’ with the note kept so long and vibrated, as we still sing it today, was born in that first test because I learned, ‘O Sole Mio,’ by listening to the Three Tenors, that is Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Josè Carreras. And Pavarotti made those three words of refrain with a very, fast, but difficult beat. I did not have that technique, so I did it slowly. Then I asked: ‘Roberto, sorry, can I do it my way the ‘ma n’ato sole?’ He answers ‘Yes.’ And I say, ‘Unplug the orchestra when it’s time and come behind me.’
Ignazio tells us about the reaction to their singing it on that Saturday night….
That Saturday night there was a great standing ovation for us, with ‘O Sole Mio.’ I think that that performance marked the real starting point of our career.
When I had agreed to do the auditions, I was aware that it would be a great experience and would last only two months. But I never expected that we could get all this great success.
Gianluca puts the event in the history books…
The theater came down.
Piero on my left, me in the middle, Ignazio on my right. In the history of music no one had ever seen three children of thirteen or fourteen sing these kinds of songs. So, we must also thank Roberto Cenci because, if it wasn’t for him maybe today, we would not be here. It was nice, it was something…. How can I tell you? It was natural. I immediately enjoyed singing together, there was no problem.
But it was also all unexpected.
I thought there were three hundred thousand boys singing like me, and instead that night I discovered that there are only two: Ignazio and Piero.
Before the big night of O Sole Mio, the guys were already being praised by some very famous singers. These singers were in total awe of our guys. It seemed obvious that they were taking over the show! No one else could come close to them.
Piero did a duet with Al Bano.
Ignazio did a duet with Massimo Ranieri.
Gianluca did a duet with Riccardo Cocciante.
Ignazio did a duet with Fausto Leali.
Gianluca did a duet with Sara Pischedda.
Piero did a duet with Simona Collura.
In his book Ricomincio Dai Tre (I Start Again from Three) Michele Torpedine, their manager tells us what happened that night.
Alone in his apartment, Michele Torpedine was sitting on his sofa with the volume off on his TV. The show he was watching was Ti Lascio Una Canzone. He keeps looking at the screen and he suddenly thinks Ignazio reminds him of Luciano Pavaroti, Gianluca seemed similar to Jose Carreras and Piero is similar to Placido Domingo. He still had not heard them sing. Out of curiosity, he raised the volume and Michele says, “Here I am aware of another element, that is even more important than the first. The three casually put together to sing a song of the program possess an incredible vocality for their age.”
At this point Michele’s head is spinning. He’s thinking these guys are good and again repeats it to himself, they’re good! He thinks, “What if I try to put them together seriously? A trio he tells himself. Here’s what I could do….”
Michele says, “The next day I am a volcano. I want to talk to everyone: producers, managers, families.”
They all performed exceptionally well. They all came in first one night during the performance.
Gianluca won the first night with the song “Il Mare Calmo della Sera.”
Ignazio won the second night with “Quando l’amore Diventa Poseia”
Piero won the fourth night with “Un Amore Così Grande.”
And Gianluca won the final episode.
Piero and Ignazio showed great respect for Gianluca who won the final episode. They may have been disappointed, but you would never know it to look at their faces. Their reaction to Gianluca winning was beautiful! Look at the video….
And the biggest win of the night, they walked off the stage, Il Volo! Well maybe they didn’t have the name yet, but they were certainly on the road to stardom!
But this is just the beginning of the story!
We know that the guys got a phenomenal contract with Universal and began an amazing career. They went to America and all the rest is history!
In the beginning I told you that great sacrifices would be made not only by the guys but also by their families.
When I write about the guys I always think about the sacrifice they made when they became Il Volo. They left behind the best years of their lives. Their teenage years. They left their families and there were times when they weren’t home for months.
In the beginning they had a parent with them because they were underage but once they turned eighteen, they were on their own. We all realized that this happened to them, and we all thought this was a great opportunity but what a sacrifice they made. True but what about the sacrifice their families made. When one parent traveled, the other was left at home to care for the other children.
I can’t even imagine how the parent who was left home with the other children felt. Of course, you feel joy for your child but to say goodbye I’ll see you in a few months. That’s got to hurt. And the parent who went with him had to leave his other children at home. That had to hurt too.
This was a big sacrifice that was made by the parents but there were others who probably hurt even more. How about their brothers and sisters? I’m sure some of them didn’t even understand why their brother had to go away!
All around tremendous sacrifices. I remember Ignazio saying in his story that he didn’t see his sister for five months and it really hurt.
Yes, they went around the world and became super stars, but they paid a high price for it. The Big Sacrifice they made is now in the past. But I’m sure that the guys wished they could have back some of those years to spent time with their families. And I’m sure the families wished they had an opportunity to spend more time with them.
On the bright side of the story, they got to spend a year with their families during the pandemic. The Lord certainly had a plan with that pandemic!
One last note before I leave you today. I just started writing a new book and I need to take some time off to do my research. So, for the next few weeks I will post old stories on Wednesdays about the guys.
In the meantime, you can also read some of the old stories in the archives. Just go to www.ilvoloflightcrw.com and you can either go into the search bar and ask for a particular story or a story about a particular guy. Or go into Galleries on the top of the main page and pull up stories by the year.
I promise I will work as fast as I can to get back to you. In the meantime, Daniela will be keeping you up to date with all the latest news including all that is going on in Sanremo. The guys start rehearsals for Sanremo this week!
Be back in a few weeks!
Let me leave you with the first video of O Sole Mio!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and find some really great old story for you!
*What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each mans’ story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart)
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
In my last story, Gianluca accepted the invitation to Audition for Ti Lascio Una Canzone. We now have all the guys heading to Rome. Is this the day they will meet and start their new lives? We’ll have to wait until the end of the story for that answer. In the meantime, let’s get some idea about what was going on, on their journey to Rome. One thing we know for sure is when the guys set out for the Auditions at Via dei Gracchi there was no way they could have known that they were On a Collision Course with Fate!
Along the way to Rome, the guys had to be thinking about how this will all play out. I think they were thinking, “How do I present myself?” I’m sure they already had their music prepared but, they must have been thinking, “Is this the right song? Does this song really show them who I am….and what my voice is about?” They have to be wondering what will take place. ‘Do I just go into a studio and sing and…. will they ask me to sing other songs too?” Great pressure for such young boys. But they did have many things in their favor. For one their voices. It was certain that beyond the three there would be no voices to compare to theirs.
Gianluca sang with the choir and so this would be his first experience in a competition.
Piero and Ignazio were used to competitions so for them it was just another competition, or was it? I think if anything, Piero and Ignazio had a better feel for what they were up against. It was more realistic because they knew the ups and downs and all the drawbacks.
When they arrive for the audition at Via dei Gracchi in Rome their story begins.
The Auditions
Let’s listen to what Gianluca had to say about his experience….
I’m sorry for Piero and Ignazio, but I did not have to wait for a phone call to know the result of the audition.
Via dei Gracchi in Rome, I remember very well. It is in a fairly central area, in the Prati district and not far from the Vatican, a very long street full of very beautiful buildings. From Montepagano to Rome, the distance is not much, just over an hour. We, calmly, got into the car in the afternoon. There was the complete family: dad at the wheel, mom sitting next to him, I’m in the back seat with the two Ernesto of the house, my grandfather, who was proud and satisfied with that trip even if we did not know yet how it would end, and my brother, who at the time was only seven years old.
‘How much is missing? (Are we there yet?)’ I asked my dad. And after five minutes: ‘And now how much is missing?’ And after another five minutes: ‘And now how much is missing?’
Fortunately, the road was short, or I would have made him mad. I was very anxious I had never done anything so important. Already for me to go to RAI, in short, it is not something that I can explain in words.
When we entered, I realized that I would not be alone to audition. There were many other guys, all with their parents, a long line of people, but I was not worried because I was there just for fun, it was already an adventure.
When they called my name, I entered the registration room. Roberto Cenci was there. It was the first time I saw him. The impact was a bit ‘so’ because he has a very tough character, he did not convey much sympathy at the first meeting. But the essential thing is that I start to sing: ‘I wanted to be a little alone to think, you know …. I chose The Voice of Silence. I remember it perfectly. I was thirteen – the first audition was in November 2008 – and I already had this deep, baritone voice.’
I sang in the recording room and saw the others on the other side of the glass. There was Roberto Cenci, my grandfather with my mother, my brother, and my father, all in the other room. So, I sing and at one point, Roberto stops the music and says: ‘Stop all.’ ‘What happened?’ I thought. From where I was, I did not understand anything, I saw only the faces.
Roberto tells my family, ‘This boy was kissed by the Lord.’ All I could see were the faces of my parents. In my head, I kept asking ‘What’s up?’ And at a certain point I did not make it anymore and I opened the door and went to Roberto and repeated: ‘What’s going on?’ I was small, I could not realize. My father, made a face, I do not forget, he looks at me and says: ‘Nothing, good!’
‘Congratulations’ Roberto tells me, hugs me, makes me sing another song, calls all the others on the staff. ‘Feel this baby, you feel like singing.’ I remember these scenes very well. I see it again. And I was very excited, I was very happy, I could not even sing, at one point I even stuck. Because I did not expect such a positive reaction from Roberto Cenci and all the others, producers, technicians and I do not know who else was there that day, because Roberto had called everyone.
My mother and father never stopped smiling. My grandfather was very happy, if possible, more so than when we left. My brother was small, but it was clear to him that it was a party. In the end, do you know how late we stayed in that hall? Until nine in the evening, because Roberto Cenci called me back even after the audition to make me sing some more songs, to start making me try some duet. In short, when we said goodbye, I was exhausted, but I was bursting with joy.
From that day in Rome, I remember very well Ignazio’s mother. I do not remember seeing either Piero or Ignazio, but Caterina yes. During the audition they made us sing in a recording room, outside in the queue was Ignazio’s mother. Caterina heard the voice of someone singing, and she was listening to me. When I came out, she looked at me and said: ‘Congratulations! Bravo, very good!’ She heard me sing and she thought Andrea Bocelli was in the recording room.
Bravo for Gianluca.
Let’s listen to what Ignazio had to say about it….
But I did not really believe it. I remained as usual with my feet firmly planted on the ground. I must admit it, at first I was a bit perplexed at the idea of going to audition because, I am always the pessimist, but then, we talked about it in the family, as we have always been used to doing, and we said to ourselves: ‘Why not?’ So, in the end I went to do the auditions in Rome, funded by mom and dad, who in the meantime were continuing to make great sacrifices for me.
I arrived in Via dei Gracchi, where the auditions were held, with mom Caterina and dad Vito. There were many guys like me who were hoping for something positive without expecting anything, trying not to have too many illusions.
At the beginning I was quite calm, it could not be much different from singing on stage. Anxiety began to rise as my turn approached. And here they call my name: ‘Boschetto?’ I got up and went into the studio where the boys were singing. There he was waiting for me, Roberto Cenci, who looked at me and asked me: ‘Dear Boschetto, what are you singing for us today?’ I had chosen Ti Cerchero by Gigi Finizio and Melodrama by Andrea Bocelli.
‘Thank you very much’ was the only thing Roberto Cenci told me when I finished singing. All there? But how had I done? Was I okay? I had no idea but, climbing the stairs, Pannocchia, who was the manager who accompanied us, tells me that I have to study a song within thirty minutes. What song? ‘The Winner Takes It All’ by ABBA. To help me there was Luca Pitteri, a vocal coach who collaborated with AMICI and who at that time worked for Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
They gave me a CD player and I started to listen and study the song, and after exactly thirty minutes they called me back, we went down again into the studio and Roberto Cenci was still waiting for me. ‘Please, start’ he said, and the base started. I cannot say if I sang well, I do not remember anything other than the fact that somehow, they let me guess that I was inside the program, I had succeeded, but I tried not to build too many castles in the air as we returned home. What I did not know was that while I was inside singing the Winner Takes It All, outside my mother and Pannocchia spoke and he said: ‘Ignazio is in the program, madam!’ But they did not even tell me. Of course, I had a positive feeling, but how positive is the presentiment of one who is pessimistic. After a few days they called me back telling me that I had to go back to Rome. I did not know why, but already only the phone call, it filled me with joy. Maybe I had to take another test? I know it may sound strange, but I really did not know what to expect. Then in reality the reason for the summons to Rome was to tell me that I had been taken, I was in the cast of Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
Bravo, Ignazio, you’re in!
What does Piero remember about the Audition….
What do I remember from the audition?
I remember that it was in Via dei Gracchi in Rome, that I arrived there with La Voce Del Silenzio and the unfailing Un Amore Così Grande and that with the suits that my father bought me, I felt like a king.
‘Mr. Barone, we’ll let you know’ they told Dad when I finished singing. After five days, the longest of my life, they called and said: ‘Prepare these five pieces for the next audition.’ Those five tracks were:
Sei Nell’Anima of Gianna Nannini,
La Voce Del Silenzio,
Un Amore Così Grande
Voglio Vivere Così
Domenica E’ Sempre Domenica
The aim was to test myself on different genres, of course, to understand which one was the most suitable for me. So, I get to the recording studio in Rome and start singing. Only shortly thereafter, they stop the music. The first so, the second so and I was already demoralized: if a test does not make you even to the refrain is not a good sign. The first thing I thought was that I did not go well. At the third track I attack the refrain, ‘Un Amore Così …….” and they stop the musical base. When I left the recording room and arrived in the mixer room, I found dad with my brother and a friend who had come to Cosenza with us at the Tour Music Fest, all three beautiful smiling, quiet. I died and they are happy. There is something wrong. Roberto Cenci looks at me and tells me: “Bravo, Piero: you are inside the program.” But I really believed it only when they brought me to the seamstress.
Bravo Piero you’re in too. Actually, thinking back, did anyone ever doubt they would get in with those three amazing voices.
So now we know that the guys never met on that day, but Gianluca did meet Ignazio’s mother, Caterina!
So what happens next is like watching a train go by. Everything is moving fast and coming into place. The competition has begun, and people are starting to understand who these three boys are. Not just some kids who came to a competition with hopes, no they were three kids with voices that could knock you out. The producers, directors everyone around them is feeling something special. The next thought is what do we do with amazing voices like theirs?
The Rehearsals
To see where this is all going, let’s return to Piero who will begin by telling us what happened with the Rehearsals….
Ti Lascio Una Canzone was aired in the Ariston Theater in Sanremo, but the first rehearsals for the transmission we made in Rome starting in March.
Upon landing at Fiumicino, there was a coach from the editorial staff waiting for us. We were still just a group of kids who did not know each other, we came from different parts of Italy, and we were different ages. I did not know what to expect.
I get on this bus and the first person I immediately notice is a nuisance who sang (sang from morning to night, in continuation), who screamed, screamed, was never silent, never stopped. It went on all the way, I cannot forget it, especially because from Fiumicino to Rome center it is about an hour’s drive. All that time talking, screaming and singing, damn him.
On arrival at the hotel, it was not difficult to start meeting other guys. But you know how certain things go? It was easy for people in the same room to communicate with each other. But I wanted to get to know the others, so alone, I went down in the hall, and I found Luigi Fronte, who was a little one for me because I was fifteen, Micaela Foti and the guy who was singing on the bus.
‘Hi, pleasure, I’m Piero’, I introduce myself.
‘Hi, I’m Manuela.’
And this other one? ‘I am Ignazio, presents himself.’
With Ignazio from the first moment, a strong relationship developed. What do I mean? We were looking for each other. We were always together: I, him and Luigi. Luigi was the mascot, the little one who was with us. We rehearsed with Ignazio, we talked, we joked. Maybe because he was Sicilian like me. Gianluca, I did not know him right away, there was not a great bond from the beginning, he built himself with time.
From that very first Wednesday of trials, I remember perfectly because I saw the same images of the choir: I and Ignazio sitting on the left and around a lot of females. I sang, ‘Non Ti Scordar Di Me,’ at the first episode and ‘Mamma’ at the second, ‘Granada’ at the third.
We sang on Saturday night and on Sunday I flew back to Sicily. Monday, Denise was preparing all the things to learn, she told me the pages to study, ‘For history, do this. I have stressed the words to remember.’ I arrived at school on Tuesday morning, I did all the interrogations and left the following day.
When I got to the rehearsals, we had to have prepared the pieces that had been assigned to us.
The editorial staff sent them to is onl Monday and we had to study them at home for the next installment.
On Monday, between the end of the third episode and the beginning of the fourth, I get the text of ‘Un Amore Così Grande’ to sing alone – so far, all normal – and of ‘’O Sole Mio’ divided into three parts. What will this thing be?
In which it is said that alone you can go far, but in company even more. And it’s even more fun.
Piero, I think you boggle Ignazio’s mind. Slow down for a minute and let the others tell what happened to them. Ignazio seems to have some other concerns….
How much do you run Piero!
He is already on the fourth installment and I’m still here thinking about how nervous I was that first night. It was April 4, 2009, the evening of the start of the program. Who had ever faced a television experience? It is also true that this agitation of television I only had at the beginning. Yes, we were all aware that this was television, but for the ingenuity we had at that age, for us it was like singing in the home theater. And then, I had already seen theaters and stages. The thing that made me understand that there was something different was seeing all the famous guests. But for the rest, we realized little of the difference.
Even stranger was that until then I had arrived as quiet as usual. Perhaps because in the previous week I had the opportunity to meet my fellow adventurers, and I had immediately linked with Veronica Liberati, Sonia Mosca and Piero Barone, a Sicilian boy like me who did a little the kind that belonged to me. I had also known Gianluca Ginoble but I attended him less because he was part of the group of ‘jocks’ (even today we take it around because some remained so!)
‘La Nostra Favola’ was my debut song on the first episode, I even got the words wrong, but it went very well. On returning to Marsala, I clearly felt that things were changing, people recognized me, but I tried to take everything with great humility. The first rule for me has always been to keep my feet on the ground. The more weeks passed, the more people recognized me, but I tried to remain the same as always.
To get ready for rehearsals, the week before the episode, they gave us the songs to study for the evening. And on the third night I get the songs that I would have to sing the following Saturday, at the fourth episode. There was something strange. There were songs that I would have done alone, but also ‘O Sole Mio’ that I would have to sing with two other guys.
What news was that?
Okay, so it seems Ignazio has it together. He understands the situation and what is expected of him. Actually, not very different from what he was used to in competition except for the special guests and this strange trio thing.
And what did Gianluca think about the rehearsals….
Ignazio, I do not believe you were amazed by that news! In my opinion, the earthquake-Ignazio was not astonished but he did surprise others. At the audition, I told you, I have no memory of having seen either he nor Piero. But once the selections were over, we were all put together in Rome, I do not remember in which hotel, from where we started by coach to go to rehearsals with the RAI orchestra.
Here, from there it was impossible not to notice Ignazio. We were a total of about thirty kids with their parents, and he was screaming, singing, making a mess, he alone seemed to be the choir of the southern corner of Rome (football team) all together. Ignazio has always been like that, even today he is, he will never lose this way even at the age of fifty, and that’s what makes him special.
And Piero? Of him, I’m sorry to admit it, I have no particular memories of that period. We were all in the same hotel, but there were many of us and I tied up with other guys. But there was a nice climate, we all had a lot of fun together.
Of the Ti Lascio Una Canzone period, I also remember another emotion, that of the long journey I made every week by car from Roseto to Sanremo.
My week was organized like this: on Monday and Tuesday I went to school, I was in the eighth grade, and on Wednesday morning between six and seven we went to Sanremo with my father.
We arrived and the tests were announced for three days, until Friday. On Saturday there was the transmission and on Sunday morning we left for Roseto. It was a long journey, a bit long for the many hours in the car and the miles we traveled every week, a bit because I was away from home, in the hotel, away from the rest of my family and all my friends. But I’ve never been sad, I never complained, because I was so happy to sing.
On the first trip to Sanremo I remember the arrival. What do I mean? The first episode of the broadcast would have aired on Saturday April 4th. I arrived at the hotel on Monday, March 30th, while everyone else arrived on Thursday. There was nobody, the desert.
Of the other trips I remember Andrea Bocelli. When we started the rehearsals in Rome, in March, I spent Tuesday afternoons, after doing homework, listening to his (Bocelli) CDs, and I continued to do it also in the car to Sanremo. That’s how I learned all his repertoire. ‘Do you know this?’ They asked me to see how well I knew his songs. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I know all of them by heart:’
Among other things, from mid-January to mid-March of that year, ‘TV Sorrisi e Canzoni’ had published every week a disc of the discography of Bocelli, consisting of ten CDs. Every Monday I went to the newsagent and bought the newspaper with the attachment. Imagine a child of thirteen who goes to the newsstand, punctual and excited because I was very happy to buy a CD of a musical genre that his peers do not even know exists. But I was like that, I was really in love with that music. At that time, we say that it was as if each of us three had a role in transmission.
Piero was the Claudio Villa of the situation, Ignazio was Massimo Ranieri and Albano, and I was Bocelli. It was like having entered a little in one part and I became even more passionate about Bocelli’s music, who had become for me an idol and an inspiration.
My idol, however, was absolutely forbidden on school days, Monday and Tuesday, the only two who were free from the commitments of the TV. Ti Lascio Una Canzone started on April 4, 2009 and ended on May 30th, a period that coincided with the school months in which I had to prepare for the eighth-grade exam. Before that, there had been rehearsals in Rome throughout the month of March.
From March to the end of May, it was impossible to study on the days dedicated to rehearsals. I did homework and school questions on Monday and Tuesday, before returning to Sanremo. I told you, at school I have always been a lazy man, but despite all that year I managed to keep my average, in some matters I had the capacity six and some other seven. At the school interviews with the parents before the exams, my father heard the same thing from all the teachers: ‘All right, he kept the average.’ They were not telling me that I was a genius, I never was, but I managed to do well despite my commitments. So, my dad was satisfied.
From May 30th, when the broadcast ended, I had time to prepare for the eighth-grade exam, which went well.
If I really have to tell it all, what hurt me at the time were the comments of some of my peers in the country, who said that I was promoted only because I was on television. Imagine: I was thirteen, I had lived a dream, I had committed myself to meet all the deadlines at school and then those comments come. Fortunately, that summer took another turn.
It started on Monday before the episode of April 25, 2009, when I got the songs that I had to prepare and I saw that there was one, ‘’O Sole Mio,’ divided into three parts. Of course, a little strange it seemed to me. Almost all of us had made duets in transmission, but no trio had been composed until that moment.
I had no idea what to expect. Maybe I did not even ask. The important thing, I told you, was to sing and have fun.
So, The Audition is over, but the Rehearsals go on. Soon everything will change. No one could even imagine what would happen next.
That was quite a journey from home to Via dei Gracchi and on to Sanremo. The thoughts of how it would be are now in the past. Now it’s time to concentrate on what will happen next. The guys are in place to meet their destiny but are they prepared for what lies ahead. And are their families ready for what will happen in their lives and the lives of all their family members. It’s all moving to fast now. The train has left the station, and it is now in high speed. They are On a Collision Course with Fate! Next stop Stardom. See you there!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
In our next adventure, we watch the guys take a giant step towards their future and we begin to realize the sacrifices that would have to be made by the guys and their families!
*What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each mans’ story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart)
