This is one of my favorite interviews! Ermelinda shared such beautiful memories of Ignazio with me! She truly loves him and was and still is one of his biggest fans. It gives me great joy to share this amazing interview with you!
Competition before Ti Lascio una Canzone
A couple of years ago, someone shared one of my stories on Facebook and Ermelinda De Bartoli commented on it. She said: “Susan, Ignazio was my student until the second year of high school when after being launched with the others in the Italian broadcast they were discovered. After then he really took off … I really saw him take off.”
When I read this I said, wouldn’t it be great to have Ermelinda tell us who The Real Ignazio is and what he was like as a teenager! Ermelinda graciously accepted my invitation to be interviewed. The interview was in Italian. Below is my English translation.
Susan: How many years were you Ignazio’s teacher?
Ermelinda: I had Ignazio in class the first two years of social economic high school.
Susan: How would you describe Ignazio as a student?
Ermelinda: He was a quiet student who attended with good interest.
Susan: Ignazio’s mother said Ignazio was always very serious and responsible! How would you describe him as a teenager?
Ermelinda: I met him when he was only 14 years old. He was at the beginning of adolescence, and he was always joking. He was very attached to his family. He grew up in Bologna because the family moved there for work and at the age of 10 he moved to Marsala when the family decided to return. In Marsala he attended middle school and two years of high school. At school he was playful and sociable, with a very open and modest character. He often told us about his passion for singing which he studied with a teacher. His life as a teenager was not hard, because, as soon as he started his career at the age of 15, his life changed due to the numerous commitments linked to his success and the new path taken with Il Volo.
Susan: Would you say Ignazio was shy?
Ermelinda: Ignazio has never been shy! As I said he was always joking. In class, he was a driving force in terms of sociality and aggregation.
Susan: They call Ignazio the funny one in the group. Was Ignazio funny when he was your student?
Ermelinda: In the classroom it was fun because even though sometimes he was not very prepared in some lessons he intervened trying to repeat even what he did not know but he did it with such sympathy that we smiled at each other … and he also made a lot of self-irony about his being chubby, he lived this state of awareness without any concern or sympathy. His beautiful character dominated everything.
Susan: Ignazio is very kind and compassionate. Was this something you noticed about him as a teenager?
Ermelinda: He was very generous and affable to everyone. In particular, he was very compassionate towards some pupils with disabilities, with whom he often conversed, holding them in high regard and showing empathy. I remember an episode one evening after he won Ti Lascio una Canzone, the whole class with me and another colleague went to the pizzeria. Ignazio was just fifteen and, when it was time to pay the bill, he came to me and said: “Professor, you are my guest.” I understood that in him there was so much kindness in his manner and in his soul, in this case, a kind gesture towards a woman.
Susan: Were you amazed when you first heard Ignazio sing?
Ermelinda: During the hours of musical education, we turned on the PC monitor, we put on the Karaoke and, while not being able to hear the music due to lack of speakers, Ignazio would stand there and sing a cappella and his voice was already so powerful that it expanded to the corridors and from there a little bit in front of our door, where pupils gathered from other classes. They were ecstatic! Given the exceptional nature of the moment they had permission from their teachers to leave the classrooms to listen to him sing. The other thing is that while he sang, I felt shivers and so did many of his companions who expressed the same sensation.
Susan: When Ignazio was your student, he was already studying with Lilliana Adreanò. Ignazio said he had a great passion for soccer and, he loved to play every afternoon but, it had been less so after he started taking singing lessons. He said, “I had less free time and then no free time and I realized that singing was more important than all the rest.” How do you think Ignazio saw his future at that time?
Ermelinda: It is true to study singing he began to leave other hobbies. After Ti Lascio una Canzone, despite having being praised by these great Italian singers, who sang with him, I remember that he told all this with great modesty and simplicity and despite the fact that he had won he never spoke of great expectations nor did he delude himself, at least, until the moment in which Michele Torpedine and Tony Renis hired them after a short time, to form Il Volo. I heard the comments on him by experts such as Claudio Cecchetto and Al Bano who, when he told him that he had recently taken singing lessons, was amazed.
Another detail that I noticed is that while he sang he always kept his eyes closed and he told me that he was doing it because having recently lost his grandfather, who he adored, while he sang it was he who Ignazio thought of and he sang with his heart.
Susan: How did you see Ignazio’s future at that time?
Ermelinda: During that winter he went to Rome every week for the broadcast, he was still attending school. The problem arose when they signed the first contract and then he could no longer attend school because the tours around the world began immediately.
Susan: Ignazio went from your classroom to Ti Lascio una Canzone and immediately became a star. You told me after the Italian program, he just took off. You said you saw him take off! What was it like watching all of this happen before your eyes? Did it seem like it was all happening very fast?
Ermelinda: Of course having seen him “take flight” in a short time and, see him pass by the school desks, and then on a stage was for me, as for all his companions, a great emotion and a source of great pride.
Susan: Did you see a change in Ignazio during this time?
Ermelinda: Ignazio was still at school, after his first success, and with all of us, he always remained himself … with a modesty and genuineness that still distinguishes him today.
Susan: During the performances Ignazio sang with some really great singers. Massimo Ranieri, Albano, Fausto Leali to name a few. These singers were in awe of him. Do you think that Ignazio understood what was happening to him?
Ermelinda: Yes, these singers were more than in awe of what they heard, they were astonished, something that Ignazio confirmed when we asked him. And, to think that he was still a kid, and had not yet completed the development of the vocal cords.
Yes, Ignazio from the point of view of his singing ability had already understood in comparison with these famous singers that he had what it takes to become even greater.
Susan: How did your other students feel about what was going on in Ignazio’s life?
Ermelinda: His classmates were very happy and excited. Every Saturday night none of us left the house. We all waited to see Ignazio on TV … and on Monday when he returned to school, for the class, it was a riot and bursting questions, and also a source of pride to kids as they were, to have him as a companion … the little big star, their friend.
Susan: Did the other students treat him any differently when he returned to class?
Ermelinda: Pupils from other classes certainly looked at him with more interest.
Susan: You had to be very proud of Ignazio. Can you tell us how this made you feel to see your student on TV and watch him take his first step towards stardom?
Ermelinda: During his performances of Ti Lascio una Canzone, being still a kid and not going out much alone, even the people of Marsala followed him with pride. People who knew him in school as that, chubby boy, still in the grass, at that moment obviously aroused a lot of interest especially among the boys.
Susan: I would imagine there was great excitement in Marsala during Ti Lascio una Canzone. Ignazio said people started to recognize him. What did Ignazio’s performance on Ti Lascio una Canzone do for the people of Marsala? What did you notice was going on with the people of Marsala?
Ermelinda: Let’s say that the reaction of the people of Marsala began “as soon as he started” in Il Volo and reached its peak when they won the Sanremo festival.
The Two Tenors
Then
Now
Susan: Did you every stop to think about how this all happened? How did a young man from a very simple family suddenly become a superstar?
Ermelinda: It often occurred to me that what was happening to Ignazio was a fairy tale … of those things that you think can only happen in fairy tales. He is a boy with a great talent hitherto unknown, from a very modest family but very united and with healthy values, he was able to tread the scenes of half the world … from his cottage in the countryside to a duet with Barbra Streisand and much more that we know.
The way in which all this happened is told by the facts that there was a first revelation of his talent and Ti Lasco una Canzone, as we know, could remain there as it happens to many without getting anything else; then as he also said he had the luck of an intuition of the director who suggested to the managers Michele Torpedine and Tony Renis to form the trio.
Susan: We are in a pandemic now and while the music world is trying to restart, Ignazio, at age 25 and already a superstar, has made his debut as a music producer. He has his own production company, Floki! Ignazio said, “Production has always been my dream. It started with an idea to give a chance to those who deserve a break.” I know Ignazio has helped many young aspiring artists get a start. How do you see Ignazio in his role as a producer?
Ermelinda: Yes, Ignazio at 25 is already a star, aware that he too has skipped the stages of adolescence a bit, a period in which there are more joys than duties, but he has always said that all this deprivation has always been filled with his love for music and today he also finds himself working as a producer. From what I know about him, in my opinion this new path was born above all from his constant desire to want to help others.
Susan: How did you feel when Il Volo won Sanremo?
Ermelinda: When Il Volo won in Sanremo, that evening, in addition to the great emotion, I retraced the periods of when Ignazio was still young, always talking with humility about his first successes and I also thought that from the beginning I told myself that he was a phenomenon, so seeing him on that stage, the most important in Italy, was for me just as it was for all Marsala people.
Susan: When Ignazio returned to Marsala after winning Sanremo, the whole city came out to greet him. Can you tell us about that?
Ermelinda: When he returned to Marsala after Sanremo, the Municipality organized a ceremony in his honor to award him the title of “Ambassador of Marsala in the World,” which took place first in the hall of the city council whose images were projected simultaneously on a large screen on the square where we were thousands of people. I remember that his speech was directed to all those talented guys who deserve to be helped to be able to take off and that he with some of them was trying to do it. Afterwards he took to the square and I tell you what everyone did with warmth and recognition emanated from that square: I sang “Grande Amore” with everyone in the square … a unique emotion.
Susan: Finally, what would you like to add about Ignazio that we haven’t already covered?
Ermelinda: I think I have said everything about him of what I know and what I have had the opportunity to perceive. When I talk about Ignazio, with others, I always say that he is very humble, modest and always very affectionate with the people who meet him. I still say: “Ignazio, is a beautiful soul.”
Mr. Personality
Ermelinda I want to thank you on behalf of all the fans for sharing your great memories of Ignazio and I would like to invite you to come back with anything that tells us more about your experiences with our beloved Ignazio!
After this interview I had two additional teachers contact me to say Ignazio was their student! I felt this interview said it all and showed us The Real Ignazio!
One final note, you may have noticed that Ermelinda and I have the same last name. Ermelinda lives in Marsala and I live in New York. About a month before the interview I got a message from Ermelinda asking me about my roots because she and I have the same last name. I told her my grandfather was from Calabria but, I recently got an update on my DNA and found out I have roots in Marsala. Ermelinda wrote back and said we must be related because we are the only De Bartoli’s in Marsala. This is something I plan to investigate more. I would be very happy if this lovely lady and I were related. Who knows, Il Volo may have helped me find some long, lost, relatives. Thank you, guys!
Ermelinda De Bartoli and Susan De Bartoli
Il Volo Takes Flight 2011 Full Concert
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
If you would like to share a story with me, please email susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
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Yes, on the evening, August 28th, in Melpignano in Puglia, the Notte della Taranta took place, which we will see on RAI1 on September 4th. Only 1,000 people were admitted to the event, but something we like has leaked.
First of all I have to correct what has already been said, because the newspapers had written that Il Volo would have played the role of co-host with Al Bano, but the news was false, because Il Volo was expected as a super-guest.
But here they are, in this photo, during last night’s event.
The thing that intrigued me most, is that Il Volo performed in a song that is certainly not part of their repertoire, Piero Ignazio and Gianluca, they sang Calinitta (Kali Nifta is the original title), a typical song of the Taranta and above all it was sung in the ancient language, original of the area: the griko.
Griko is a dialectal language that derives from Greek and was used in the Salento area, in Puglia, the area where the Notte della Taranta is held.
Here is a short video of their performance, which we will see entirely on September 4th.
And some photos of the evening.
Ignazio, Piero, and the master Melozzi.
A short report in the news of TG5.
VOICE = The music of the tambourines, the frenzied dance, and the song, which become tools to drive away, today, as in the most remote past, ghosts and fears.
The Notte della Taranta returns to illuminate the Salento summer. Only 1,000 spectators were allowed into the square of the former Augustinian convent of Melpignano, in the province of Lecce. But the thrill of finding the public, after a closed-door edition (2020), pervades the artists.
AL BANO = Even before the radio arrived, even before the television arrived, this music accompanied us during the span of 360 days, because the other 5 were of rest, from music.
IGNAZIO = Surely seeing the public again, it’s always good, after this period, after all these months, after this very difficult year.
VOICE = conducting the orchestra Enrico Melozzi and Madame, the revelation singer from Sanremo.
Il Volo with Albano
And here is a video, still incomplete, of the exhibition, but longer than the previous one.
Certainly a very different musicality from the usual one of Il Volo, but which has its roots in the peasant culture of the area, and, like any tradition, must be well-liked and maintained, and brought to the attention of the new generations, always !!
Bravo Il Volo who also lent themselves to this message.
A backstage moment with the artists’ signature on the large tambourine.
But there is also more, news has finally been published that reveal something about the video of Il Volo in Frasassi.
Frasassi Caves increasingly protagonists of the international star system. Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro (director of photography and three-time Oscar winner for Reds, Apocalypse Now and The Last Emperor) has chosen Volo as the protagonist of his short film about Ennio Morricone. The performance of the well-known trio, composed of two tenors and a baritone, was shot inside the suggestive caves of Genga.
Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio performed here in an exciting interpretation of “Your Love” (from “Once Upon a Time in the West”). The piece will be screened on 5 September in Venice during the fourth edition of the Filming Italy Best Movie Award, on the occasion of the Venice International Film Festival. “We are honored that Vittorio Storaro has called us to share the indescribable emotion of Maestro Ennio Morricone’s music – says Il Volo. We thank the Filming Italy Best Movie Award for inviting us to the Venice Film Festival to collect an award that is never like today. We want to share with all those who in this difficult period have supported us in our heartfelt desire to pay homage to Maestro Morricone.”
Here are the beautiful words of the director Vittorio Storaro.
“The vaccines and treatments will allow the reopening of art sites all over the world. In the caves of Frasassi the trio of Il Volo symbolically descended into the womb of Mother Earth as did the speleologists who discovered those caves fifty years ago. Through their art, which represents a new root, their song is reproduced, trio after trio. Il Volo fills every place that welcomes them: theaters, arenas, squares and archaeological sites all over the world: the energy of art so regenerates all forms of life.”
So you got it right.
In Venice, on the occasion of the Filming Italy Best Movie Award evening, Il Volo will receive the Special Award, and on that occasion the video made in the Frasassi caves will be screened.
And here is the answer from Ignazio, Gianluca and Piero.
“We are honored that Vittorio Storaro has called us to share the indescribable emotion of Maestro Ennio Morricone’s music – says Il Volo – We thank the Filming Italy Best Movie Award for inviting us to the Venice Film Festival to collect an award that is never like today. we want to share with all those (teams, technicians, musicians, … but also our fans) who in this difficult period have supported us in our heartfelt desire to pay homage to Maestro Morricone.”
A short backstage video of what we will see shot in Frasassi.
Please click on the logo below to view the video.
So we also added a great prize to our boys.
I am really happy with this umpteenth milestone and therefore a new event that we hope will be broadcast and of which we will certainly give you all the possible news.
And therefore, after the latest news, we are sure that in September we will often see Il Volo on TV, at least here in Italy, and this news give us a lot of anticipation.
We had already read the news that on September 9th there will be the Seat Music Awards and there will also be Il Volo, but now two other events have been added, here they are:
On 4 September, on Rai1, there will be La Notte della Taranta.
It is a popular Apulian festival where, during the evening, typical Apulian songs are played and folk dances such as PIZZICA are performed.
This event takes place outdoors in Melpignano, in Puglia, towards the end of August.
Do you remember? In August 2018 Il Volo was at the La Notte della Taranta event, but only as a spectator, but perhaps Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca were probing the event, for their future participation, in fact I propose you the video with the interview that I translated you in 2018.
Listen carefully to their words. Click on the logo below to view the video.
P = We were really curious to see this event, and to test the air, to be able, perhaps, to come next year, who knows.
G = Yes, absolutely beautiful to see this culture, which is not only famous in Italy, but all over the world. When you start dancing, this rhythm gets inside you, it’s good, we’re going to have fun tonight.
The journalist asks Ignazio = Do you already have an idea of how to adapt your voice to the rhythm of the Pizzica?
I = Actually no, but we can always work on it. It’s nice to see how this event is all about folk song and dance and how much tradition it brings everyone into such a big event, so why not join in too? Next year or two years from now, we could join in too. It would be a great pleasure.
Journalist= Is there an evening, especially in past years that you know, or have you seen this event?
P = We have to be honest, NO. But we have always heard about the NOTTE DELLA TARANTA and this year, being free from commitments these days, we have decided to come and spend a couple of days in this magnificent land that has recently been visited and loved by tourists from all over the world. And it is a pleasure for us to be here.
As Ignazio said, on how to adapt our musical genre to this rhythm, we are a bit unprepared, but our thought is that music has no barriers and we never say: “This cannot be done”. But we say, “Let’s try and then see what happens.”
Journalist = But will you come to this event, as a guest, or as a concert teacher?
P + I + G = (laughs) As guests, we don’t think like teachers.
G = We cannot promise our presence, next year, sure, we would love it, but in one year many things happen, this year we came, we can’t wait to have fun, and why not, next year could participate.
P = The power of music is this, to see thousands of people united to dance LA PIZZICA.
Journalist = You are used to a large audience.
P = It is never enough.
Journalist = Do you know a Salento song and can you sing it?
G = Do you see how you put us in trouble? You did it on purpose (everyone laughs, then Gianluca sings a typical Milanese song … .. ha ha ha … final laughter.)
I = Thank you very much everyone, see you next year.
So you understood well, already in 2018 Il Volo had attended the event, wishing that perhaps in 2019 or 2020 they could have participated, but Covid has had a hand in it and so now we are in 2021, but Il Volo will not be present as guests, but as co-hosts of the event, together with Al Bano, the well-known singer, therefore a new and important role and certainly we will also have the opportunity to see them exhibit.
Can’t wait to see them in this role!!
Usually this event gathers over 150 thousand people. Of course, and unfortunately, this year due to Covid, only 1000 people will be admitted.
The event will take place in Melpignano on August 28th but will be broadcast on RAI1 on September 4th.
To follow, on September 9, again on RAI1, there will be the Seat Music Awards, and than, the 19 September there will be a new program on Rai1, entitled “Da Grande” the presenter will be Alessandro Cattelan, among the guests: Il Volo.
Cattelan was interviewed by Sorrisi e Canzoni. Click on photo below to view the article.
I translate for you the parts that interest us most:
“The title of the program, Da Grande, (as an adult) is more appropriate than ever …
We chose it on purpose. And it is a common thread of the program. It is a pure show, in which we will deal with the theme of growth, we will ask ourselves what it means to be great in 2021. Each generation has its age. My father, at 41 years, had already finished his parable: he had a 16-year-old son, a business he had been doing for a very long time.
Now, things have changed. So, in addition to being a show in which you dance, sing, laugh, reflect on the concept of being great, you wonder what the tests you have to face in order to be defined as such.
We will have Il Volo, with which we will have fun singing, we will change our look, we will interpret some music from various decades.”
So I would say a very crackling beginning of September!!
In the meantime, the second mini video of the short questions to Il Volo has also been published.
IL VOLO PART.2
QUESTION = Favorite dish?
GIANLUCA = Pizza. absolutely.
PIERO = My favorite dish? Ossobuco with saffron rice 😁😁😁 (it is a specialty of northern Italy, especially Milan)
A minute and thirty seconds later ….
IGNAZIO = Madalocco ????? 😁 (it’s not clear, however something similar, never heard this dish)
PIERO = What dish is it?
QUESTION = Do you have a lucky charm that you take with you to the stage?
GIANLUCA = The two of them😘 (Piero and Ignazio)
PIERO = Him 😘 (referring to Gianluca)
IGNAZIO = No, you know, nothing, no.
QUESTION = The nicest?
PIERO = Me
IGNAZIO = Gianluca 😘
GIANLUCA= (ironic) Do you see what a nice face? (and points to his face)
QUESTION = The most reserved.
IGNAZIO = Gianluca. Piero. Gianluca.
QUESTION = The most boring.
PIERO = Gianluca
IGNAZIO = Gianluca
GIANLUCA = But why me??
PIERO = You talk about carbohydrates, proteins ….
IGNAZIO = You are the most boring.
GIANLUCA = In what sense?
IGNAZIO = Gym, carbohydrates, proteins …..
PIERO = Yes, carbohydrates, proteins ….
GIANLUCA = But that’s not true!! You two make me pass for one who only thinks about that!! 😑
So, an early autumn full of commitments for Il Volo and we will certainly not tire of seeing them.
One last update, do you remember the porticoes of Bologna, so dear to Il Volo, which had presented the candidacy to be named “Unesco heritage”?
The news has been confirmed, at the end of July the porticoes of Bologna received this recognition !!!
What can I say, all right and in a little less than two weeks there will be the first televised appointment.
I cannot wait!!
Daniela
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.
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