Tag Archives: Luciano Pavarotti

Through the Fields of My Mind

In The Shadow of Il Volo by Susan

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Last week I wrote about the guys being The Epitome of Success. This week, I would like to add to that story by talking about a man who made it all possible, the man who lives In The Shadow of Il Volo.
In 2021, the man in the shadows wrote a book, “Ricomincio Dai Tre” (I Start Again from Three).  If you follow Il Volo, you certainly know who I am talking about, their manager, Michele Torpedine.  At concerts we see a patch of grey hair and we all say, “There’s Michele.”

But who is this man? And where did it all begin for him?
“Ricomincio Dai Tre” is Michele Torpedine’s autobiography. I said this about the guys’ book and, I will say it about Michele’s book, “If you can read Italian, you need to read this book.” It was so good, I read it in one weekend. I will say a lot of the people he talks about, you probably will not know, unless you’re Italian. Having said this, it is a very good read!

Let’s start by first looking at how the guys came to know Michele.
The day the guys came together singing, “O Sole Mio” on Ti Lascio una Canzone, Michele was at the end of his career. For him it was truly over. All he had done for so many now seemed in vain. But with this vision before him, three amazing teenagers, he was able to see a new light. A light that would start the wheels rolling again. A light that would reveal truth. A truth that never before was revealed to him. A truth he searched for his whole life but would only find in his relationship with Il Volo.
What was this truth? For the answer, let’s go back to the beginning that is the beginning for Michele. Let’s listen to what Michele has to say about his humble beginnings….
In my story, you will find pieces of true stories of artists, such as Andrea Bocelli, Il Volo, or rather, among their stories, you will find mine, that of an Apulian child emigrated to Bologna, the boy who from a studio apartment in a small white house (the Apulian houses are often white), went to the oval room of the White House.
I loved music, I still love it, the world of music, less.
I was born on 12th May 1952 in a small town in northern Puglia. I don’t remember anything about this place, because I moved to Bologna when I was 5 months old.

My father was called Salvatore, he was a tailor, he was severe, hard.
My mother’s name was Titina, I lost her when I was 27 years old. I carried her down in my arms, wrapped in a sheet, to the mortuary chamber. She was 51 years old. Hunger, misery and cancer, this was her life, she struggled like a beast, then from one day to the other she fell ill and flew away in less than a year, I still haven’t managed to forgive her for leaving me so early.
In Bologna, we came in search of work and survival, we are poor, but really poor. We were five people in one room.
At the age of 8, I start to work, with a shoemaker, straightening the nails that were extracted from the soles. At 12 I started working as a bartender, then as a waiter and bellhop.
My brother Nino, at the age of 17, assembled his first battery of drums (drum set), I, who was five years younger than him, began to follow him and learn. I began to work in the evening. I would go to the places where you can play. At the age of 14, I became part of a local orchestra.
At 16, my first dream came true, a friend of mine called me on a Sunday afternoon and told me that he was given the task of hiring six bands to open the Jimi Hendrix concert and asked me if I wanted to take part. I accepted immediately; I was excited.
Our band is the last one to play before Hendrix enters. Bad fate because people couldn’t wait any longer, so they threw booze and popcorn at us.
Things began to improve. They call me more and more often.
One evening, all together, we go to see a concert of musicians playing with Ray Charles, the place is packed, that evening he is there too, Ray Charles, at a certain point they tell me they don’t have a drummer and they asked me to play. My legs were shaking, I was paralyzed with fear, but then I calmed down and played.

Michele says that the battery (the drums) is his life, not women, nothing for him is as reliable as a drum set. Michele continues….
Everything goes well, time passes, I was good, but not a genius, I understood that it is better to change.
One day someone proposed that I be a road manager, that is the one who contacts the local promoters, pays the musicians, takes the money, checks that everything goes well.
I plan a series of concerts for artists like Paoli-Vanoni, a great success, things are getting better and better, from one day to the next I became a millionaire, and people began to ask for me.

I started a partnership with Zucchero Fornaciari. He is a good soul singer, nobody in Italy sings like that. Time passed and Zucchero became very successful, one day he came to me with a beautiful and sad song: “Miserere”, and he says, “this song should be sung with a tenor … let’s try to ask Pavarotti?”

Pavarotti was in America. I have to bring him a demo of the song so he can listen to it. I contacted all the tenors I knew but nobody wants to do a demo with Zucchero, with them pop was not contemplated by the classical tenors.
By pure chance, a friend tells me that in Tuscany, in a club, in the evening, there is a blind boy who plays the piano and is very good, he also sings tenor songs, his name is Andrea Bocelli.
It was the first time I met Bocelli. No one believed in him, not even himself.
Bocelli agreed to do the demo but, he was fearful because Pavarotti would hear it. He is very good and likeable. He sings the demo in a special way. I tell him to persist with music and he replies that he has won a receptionist competition and that music will remain his passion.
I flew to Philadelphia to give Pavarotti the demo and he immediately told me that he will never sing a song of light music. I asked him to at least listen to the demo and he agreed. I explained to him that the boy who sings is not a tenor but a simple boy who plays with passion and Pavarotti asks me if I’m kidding him, because for years he hasn’t heard such a beautiful voice.
I went home and call Bocelli and I incredulously propose a contract to him. Bocelli doesn’t believe it’s all true.

At first it was difficult, nobody wanted Andrea. Too risky! There were always so many bad reviews in American newspapers, but people loved him, that’s the only thing he has always counted on.
The live reaction of the people was a show in the show. Andrea was a great interpreter of emotions he knew how to take on the feelings of ordinary people. This was its added value: to be a common mortal with a divine voice.

As to women, Michele says…
Women, I love them, but I’m afraid of them.  I can’t trust the exclusive relationship with a woman.  I am not so naive as not to understand that beautiful women are with me even for what I do, I am wealthy, I ride in beautiful cars and, I have some power. I never married, but I was almost married. How it ended makes me feel bad today. I was 30, she was from Bologna, beautiful and intelligent. We decided to get married.
I will only say, he cheated and, it was over! Too bad!
As with everything, Michele goes back to his mother….
My mother, who I loved very much, left me early, too early, without giving me a way to show all my love for her. My mother could not share with me that little bit of success, of well-being, that I wanted to give her after so many hardships. I had everything from her, and she, she had no way to say with pride “That is my son.” I feel guilty about this.
But there is another woman who has always been important in my life, and it is my sister Liliana, a little friend, a little mother, and always with me even at work, especially in the most important moments.
I must admit that other female figures have been very important in my career. At the beginning, Cristina Gelsi, who followed me in the 16 years with Bocelli. And, now Barbara Vitali, omnipresent in all my activities, almost my alter ego, lives traveling the world to assist Il Volo.
So, let’s talk about the guys and their relationship with Michele.
In an interview with La Vita in Diretta, Michele was asked, “What has changed, Torpedine?”
I have many enemies, which will increase after this book but, I met the right people: Gianluca Ginoble, Ignazio Boschetto and Piero Barone.

Yes, as you can tell from the title of the book, when I met them and put them together as a trio, they were so young… to think that ten years have already passed! With them and with their families, good people, a relationship was born that goes far beyond the professional one.
Together we joke and laugh, then we get serious, enjoying worldwide successes: but the human side, their being real and clean, for me is an added value, which is priceless. And, especially in this environment, is a rare commodity.
So true! This is something we always say about the guys. Something we admire! Their integrity and values are priceless! We admire that they are able to remain grounded being in this environment.

Where there is gratitude, there is Il Volo! Michele continues…
It’s so hard to be told ‘thank you.’ For this reason, the boys, Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio are different: grateful, so much so that I had to tell them to stop making my name and thanking me during interviews or at the end of the concerts, everything seems prepared.
But, of course, we know it’s from the heart! That’s who Il Volo is!
Asked about whether or not Michele would “Fancy a family.” He replied….
I have no children or wife, I married music. Perhaps the ugly will come later when I turn around and find no one. But at the moment I’m fine with that!
We wonder what Michele expected when he signed Il Volo?
Another great story started, a new story at a time when it seemed to me that there was no future for me, for my profession: a breath of oxygen in my environment.
After years of disappointment, loss of trust and gratitude, missing or denied, with Ignazio, Piero and Gianluca, Michele rediscovers the values of gratitude. Michele says….
The boys allowed me to really go back to my job.
So where did Michele begin with the boys? He started in a place where he always wanted to be.
Let’s start with trust because they trust me first of all; the administration of an entire world tour, with important figures to move on which I could take what I want if I were dishonest. But they trusted me and so did their parents, to whom, moreover, I have committed myself to teaching everything, the mechanisms, the things that move, the figures, the relationships. All.

So how does Michele describe this trust?
If I had to define the story of Il Volo with a dominant feeling, I would call it, Un Grande Amore – A Great Love!
Many have arrogated the merit of the success of the three boys, which is certainly the result of great teamwork, but it is above all the result of intelligence, humility and generosity of the three families who have not only never hindered my work as manager, but were supportive in the best way: Ercole and Lenora Ginoble parents of Gianluca, Vito and Caterina Boschetto father and mother of Ignazio, and Gaetano and Eleonora Barone who gave life to Piero.
To sum up his life, Michele says,
Many disappointments, mainly human and partly, even professional.
At some point, I found myself feeling more disappointed than ever with music, with the environment I mean. There was never gratitude around me. I found myself tired, eager for simplicity, for pure things. The horizon seems closed to me. One night I was at home, sitting on the couch, and three boys, fourteen, fifteen, appear on TV. Of course, they are good, and if I tried to really put them together. A trio, here’s what I could do: Il Volo.

I think those three determined boys saved me from depression and from the desire to leave everything. Three teenagers, yes, but already great, in all respects. Already great since I first saw them: Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca.
In concluding Michele says…
I started from a studio apartment in a small white house and passed to the Oval Room of the White House, received by Clinton and Bush. Who knows Ricomincio Dai Tre – I Start Again from Three may become a film!

Maybe it’s time for me to go back to my old career and  write the screenplay!
So, what haven’t I talked about in this story. Oh, yes, how do the guys feel about Michele?
When Michele was involved in a legal matter, the guys went to bat for him. They said….
We know you well. You have been by our side for more than 10 years. You have defended us from everyone, you have fought for us, you have taught us so much and above all you love us. You always made us understand who we should trust and who preferred to use us for their own interests and for their own personal glory. We are proud to have chosen you and to have renewed our trust, for 10 years, day after day. This is truth that no sentence can hinder. For the rest, just have patience: in the end the truth always comes. In life and in courts.
What did we learn from this story? We learned Michele is a very sensitive man who lives in The Shadow of Il Volo!
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!

IL VOLO USA Tour 2014 Philadelphia PA Mann Center 
If you would like to share a story with me, please email:  susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com
Excerpts from “Ricomincio Dai Tre” by Michele Torpedine. 
Credit to owners of all photos

 

 

Article or Video Translations, Our Stories

INTERVIEW WITH IL VOLO IN JAPAN by Keisyuu

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Today I come back to you with a nice interview.
It is not a simple Italian interview, far from it. In August 2022, Il Volo went to Japan for three concerts, this interview was released the day before the last concert, of course it’s all written in Japanese and I don’t know anything about this language, but our Chinese friend Xinjie, that you have already met here in Flight Crew in two posts : (https://ilvoloflightcrw.com/2019/06/03/capri-history-of-a-meeting/), (https://ilvoloflightcrw.com/2019/07/05/roma-my-first-concert-by-xinjie/) and that you see here in the photo together with Il Volo and two other fans in Capri.

Xinjie contacted me telling me that she translated an interview for a friend and then she thought that the same interview could be appreciated by all the readers of Flight Crew and all the fans of Il Volo, so she sent me the beautiful translation.
From now on, Xinjie will be our eastern correspondent, under the name of KEISYUU. ☺
Thank you on behalf of all, all fans will appreciate this read!! ☺😘
Daniela 🤗

INTERVIEW WITH IL VOLO IN JAPAN

Japanese fans are very polite and elegant. The strong love from everyone can be clearly felt even on stage. (Gianluca)
INTERVIEW: YUKO KATO

I interviewed them the morning before the show in Nagoya. This time, there was also a live recording at Kiyomizu Temple, and Il Volo stayed in Japan for a long time. They had plenty of time to enjoy Japan. What was troubling was the heat of summer in Japan, and even at Kiyomizu Temple, the makeup was ruined by the dripping sweat, and had to be fixed for each song. Because of that, the three got tired of the heat. Just before the interview, the location was changed to a hotel, therefore photography was not allowed.

On the other hand, they enjoyed Japanese cuisine. “Those boys would be happy every day if they eat sushi”, I was told so by people involved. But in addition to sushi, it seems that they have discovered new favorites such as okonomiyaki.

Well, much earlier than the interview time, Piero comes first. Next is Gianluca. And Ignazio is on the verge. Ignazio, who was greeted with a cold gaze from both of them, “Isn’t it just the correct time!? I’m not late,” he said, showing off his watch and making a big appeal. The two smiled wryly. Probably he’s always doing it.

— I heard that you recorded a live video at Kiyomizu Temple without audience,  I wanted to see it live.

Piero Barone: It was a great experience. We make music called bel canto, which is an Italian tradition, and thanks to bel canto, we can sing in many beautiful places. This is also true in Italy, and again we can sing in a very beautiful temple in Japan. Kiyomizu Temple is the most important temple in Kyoto and has a great history, so it was really an honor to sing in such a wonderful place. It’s a very small place, so we couldn’t let the audience in, but I hope you enjoy what we’ve done by watching the video. Personally, I feel that Japanese culture and Italian culture are very compatible. Anyway, it has become an unforgettable memory for a lifetime, and I will continue to talk about live performances at Kiyomizu Temple in the future.

— How did you feel about performing at a Buddhist temple? 

PIero: We respect all religions. In fact, before the performance, we asked the monk of the temple to offer a prayer. Honestly, I didn’t understand what was said.. ( bitter smile). But we also have a lot of respect for that.

— But the high temperature and humidity made it difficult for you, didn’t they? You spent nearly 4 hours in the heat, right?

Gianluca: No, it didn’t affect the singing. But it was hard for the hair! That was the only problem (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Gianluca: Two years ago we gave a Christmas concert at St. Peter’s Basilica in front of the Pope, and it was very cold. It was harder back then. Personally, it’s much harder to sing in the cold than it is to sing in the heat.

Ignazio: By the way, the performance at Kiyomizu Temple started recording around 9pm and ended around 1am.

Gianluca: Everything was perfect for us. It is the first time that overseas artists perform at Kiyomizu Temple. It is truly an honor and I will never forget it.

— When is this video going to be distributed?

Piero: It will be in September. (Note: Published on September 18)

— We’ll look forward to it. By the way, I recently released “Grande Amore” featuring Japan’s Little Glee Monster. Whose idea was this?

Piero: It was originally an idea from the label, but we also like Little Glee Monster very much that we wanted to collaborate.

Ignazio: We’ve wanted to collaborate on Grande Amore with Japanese artists for a couple of years. And have already done the same thing with the Brazilian and German artists. When we told the Japanese label about it, they looked for different artists and we chose Little Glee Monster.

— Did you actually meet these girls?

Piero: No, unfortunately we didn’t. We invited them to our show, and they’re also on the tour right now.

— That’s a pity.

Ignazio: It’s the first tour after years, so that’s actually a good thing! Because of the pandemic, we spent our days without doing anything at home.


— The Tokyo and Osaka shows are over, how did the audience react?

Gianluca: It was fantastic, the Japanese fans have always given us so much love from the first day, it is exactly the “Grande Amore”. Japanese audiences are very different from audiences in other countries.

— Oh, really? How?

Gianluca: Japanese fans are very polite and elegant. They have the utmost respect for artists, and the strong love from everyone can be clearly felt even on stage. I feel that Japanese culture and traditions are very unique in all aspects, and it means so much to us that Japanese people show so much love for Italian artists on the other side of the world.

— You have prepared a special set list for Japan, right?

PIero: Oh, yes. We talked to the conductor and the orchestra and changed the set list a little bit. Japanese fans prefer classical and symphonic songs, so we sing songs that we don’t do in other countries. As a result, it became a very long set.

— There are 28 songs in all.

PIero: Yes, that’s a pretty long show. But that’s how we love to sing on stage. We love sharing our music with everyone and we always want to do something special for our fans in Japan.

— Singing 28 songs for 2 hours non-stop is amazing.

Ignazio: Every night.

Gianluca: Just like football players. Some players play non-stop for 90 minutes. Of course, we don’t miss our daily training, too. It’s our job, also our passion. This is our lifestyle.

— Can you tell me the highlights of the show?

Piero: Uhmm…For me it’s the first song. You get on stage and see all sorts of new faces, I like to see everyone’s facial expressions that shine brightly when I start singing the first song. We’ve had great reactions in Tokyo and Osaka, and I hope we get the same reactions here in Nagoya.

— I’ve read a few live reviews by fans, and some have said they were so emotional that they brought tears to their eyes.

Piero: I’m glad for that.

Ignazio: At the beginning of the show, I always say, “Tonight is going to be a night full of emotions. I want you to have a lot of fun, to be emotional, to cry, to laugh. “ That’s the right way. You can be emotional, you can have fun, and that’s the beauty of our music. We love what we do and we do it with passion. Of course it’s a business, but before that there’s a lot of passion and love for music.

Gianluca: We’re doing this music for the elderly who’ve been hearing bel canto and the Three Tenors, and for the younger generation who don’t know that. We want to follow those whom we respect and convey this genre to the future.

— Japanese young people don’t listen to classical music very much, so that’s the problem.

Gianluca: It’s the same in any country, it’s normal. This genre is not so commercial. Pop has always been commercial, while classical is not. Even in this way, the existence of The Three Tenors has prevailed in the world.

Piero: (Luciano) Pavarotti at the top of the list.

Ignazio: The younger generation grew up listening to commercial music from the time they were born, so it’s hard to let them listen to classical music. The music used in TikTok, Instagram, etc. is also easy to listen to. Like rap or electronics. So, there are a lot of young people who don’t know this kind of music, and they have to discover it by themselves. Of course, I’m not saying that you should only listen to this kind of music, but I think it’s best to listen to a variety of music, but I also want them to listen to this kind of music we do, and through that, I hope them can get a sense of comfort and feel a lot of emotion. I’m not saying it’s wrong to listen to commercial music.

Gianluca: Yeah, we listen to a lot of music ourselves. From Elton John to Elvis Presley, The Weekend, Michael Jackson…

Ignazio: Ariana Grande, Drake…

Gianluca: Yes, that’s right. We listen to everything. Music is a part of our life.

We’re currently working on a very big new project while touring (Piero)

— Do you (Piero) also listen to music other than opera? I can’t imagine…

PIero: Certainly. After all, I have the strongest passion for opera, but as a singer, I have to broaden my horizons while listening to other genres of music!

Gianluca: Can you imagine listening to only one genre in your life? You can also say that about food. It’s like that I go to Japan and look for Italian restaurants. If you only eat the same food, only listen to the same music, you can’t grow and can’t expand your horizons. You have to try a lot of things anyway. Regardless of the genre, you should enjoy good quality music and good food.

Ignazio: Because you may be the one who limits yourself the most. I have to get rid of it first.

— Ignazio, you’re interested in producing, aren’t you?

Ignazio: Yes, I am interested, and I hope to do it someday. I’m not ready to do it alone yet. We work with a lot of producers and we learn a lot from them.

— Gianluca, you’ve taken acting lessons, but are you interested in acting?

Gianluca: Even if you are a singer, if you study acting and stage, you can become a better performer on stage.

Piero: That’s for sure.

Gianluca: For me, I started studying acting to become a better artist and to have more confidence on stage. But if I continue to practice like this, I may be blessed with the opportunity to work as an actor someday.

— And you bought a piano 3 years ago to write songs, right?

Gianluca: Yes. I have a lot of goals and things I want to do. I’m still not very good at playing the piano…

Ignazio: You’ve gotten a lot better!

Gianluca: Ah yeah, compared to before. I will resume my lesson when I get home. I hope someday I can write a song myself.

— Piero, when I first met you, you seemed very shy, but now you seem to be full of confidence.

Piero: It depends on the day (laughs). Waking up good or bad, changes the mood of the day.

Gianluca: When he looks shy, he’s just sleepy.

Piero: (laughs).

— Every time I do an interview, you announce a new project, so do you have any upcoming projects?

Piero: The last thing we did was the Morricone’s album (Il Volo Sings Morricone in ‘21), but then we went on tour and now we are on tour and working on a really big new project. But it’s too early to tell the details.

— Can you tell a little?

Piero: I can’t tell you anything. It’s a project for next year.

— Is it a new album?

Ignazio: Well~~(laughs)?

PIero: It’s going to be a big project. But we are working on it now, and it’s still a very early staircase, so unfortunately we can’t say anything.

— This tour is like Greatest Hits, not a tour of Morricone…

PIero: It also includes Morricone’s songs.

Gianluca: There are 5 Morricone songs.

Ignazio: Yes yes. We can’t do all 28 songs of Morricone. We do that plus other songs.

— When will you return to Japan next time?

Ignazio: We’ll be back next year!

Gianluca: Before that, I’d like to come back for a personal vacation.

Piero: But this time, we have plenty of time to travel around Kyoto and Tokyo. We also went to the Shinsekai of Osaka. By the way, we are going back to Italy tomorrow night, but we will go to Nagoya Castle before that. We love to explore different places.

Gianluca: also to eat a lot of traditional foods. Such as okonomiyaki.

Ignazio: Daisuki, Nippon! (I love you, Japan!)

Recorded August 12 in Nagoya.

Through the Fields of My Mind

Down Memory Lane to PBS by Susan

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Eleven years ago, PBS introduced America to three teenage Italian boys. Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca grew up on PBS. From their first concert on October 27, 2011, at the Detroit Opera House, they won the admiration of the American people and the support of PBS. These three teenagers stole the hearts of the American people, and they continue to do so today. They have done several concerts with PBS over the past eleven years. Their concert in 2019 in Matera was to celebrate their ten years together as Il Volo and their last was the Tribute to Ennio Morricone.

There’s no question that PBS played a major role in the career of Il Volo.
As they were approaching their teens, each boy was approaching his musical education in a different way.

Gianluca, unlike Piero and Ignazio, never had a singing lesson or piano lesson. Gianluca joined the Piccolo Choir of Roses. At one of their events, he was discovered.

As you know, the three teenage boys came together on the Ariston Stage in Ti Lascio Una Canzone for the performance of O Sole Mio and stepped off the stage and embarked on the road to stardom.
They signed a contract with Universal and recorded their first album.
Il Volo introduced America to a new style of music. Operatic pop and classical music! A very different kind of music for teenagers. Their aim was to show young people how good this music is. They won over the children, parents and grandparents. They were an immediate sensation. America fell in love with them.

Ignazio started his singing education with Lilliana Andreanò moving on to other teachers as he progressed. He took three years of piano lessons. His relationship with Lilliana Andreanò continued. She advised him every step of the way right up to his audition at Ti Lascio Una Canzone which she convinced him to do.

Over the last two years I have shared Il Volo’s life story with you. It’s time to go back and see how they landed on this road to PBS. Be prepared to listen to some amazing interviews! Watch the guys go from cute to handsome, from intelligent to even more intelligent!  Three totally amazing men!

We all know Piero was discovered singing in the garden of his grandfather’s house. After his discovery, Piero embarked on a classical music education.  He began piano lessons at the age of 8. At 10 years old he joined the Little Singers of the Philharmonic Association – Santa Cecilia of Agrigento. And then he began the competitions around Sicily.

On the Eleventh Anniversary of Il Volo’s concerts on PBS, and as they begin the North American Tour, let’s look back at how this journey started with PBS. Let’s take a walk Down Memory Lane to PBS with our guys!
We begin by listening to an interview with LAaRT.
                                       Click Below

In 2010 when they arrived in America, they took it by storm. After their performance on American Idol, they sky rocketed to the top of the Billboard charts.

What happened next? PBS! So, we arrive at PBS. But let me turn the story over to the guys. They will tell you about what happened on this journey from Ti Lascio Una Canzone to PBS and beyond!
“Spotlight” Producer Paul Larson just minutes before going on stage at Place des Arts in Montreal, Quebec spoke with the guys about their career after their performance on PBS. So, I invite you to watch this amazing video and listen to what the guys had to say about their beginnings and their future!

Spotlight Click on the Photo Below

Recording with Placido Domingo!
I always love the videos of the guys recording. This one has to be among one of the greatest. It was when their dream came true, and they recorded with Placido Domingo.

Now for their first US concert from Italy on June 10, 2015.
When we think of Pompeii we think of Italy. Take a picture of Pompeii and show it to anyone and they will know it is Pompeii, Italy. That is why this concert was so important. Not only was it their first US concert in Italy but it was a true representation of Italy! From this area of Campania, in the region of Naples we find the most romantic music in all of the world ~ Bel canto! The songs the guys sing in concert come from this region. They have brought their Bel canto around the world and now they have brought Italy to the world through this PBS Special.
Il Volo – Live From Pompeii

A few years down the road, the guys catch up with Placido Domingo again. This time for their Magica Notte Special. We start with the rehearsal for Magica Notte for the PBS Special in Florence, Italy.

Moving on we come to a magical event!
But first, let’s listen to what the guys had to say in an interview with Rebecca Granet from The Trend on 1010 Wins about the Magica Notte Concert.

There were many interviews about this phenomenal concert including this METROFOCUS interview with Rafael Pi Roman. Rafael called Il Volo an Italian Contemporary Classical Sensation.
Metrofocus Interview Click on the Photo Below

The night of magic at Piazza Santa Croce!
We move on to that magical night in Piazza Santa Croce. When there was magic in the air! The night of the Tribute to the Three Tenors, Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras! A truly magical event.

 If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is!
One of the highlights of the concert was the guy’s duet with Placido Domingo. It was totally awesome! What I love about this video is Domingo is just as excited as the guys are! And during the video Domingo looks over at each guy with absolute awe and admiration! An awesome event!

In the middle of the video, we find Ignazio speaking to the Maestro.
Ignazio: Maestro Domingo, before performing the next piece I have to say one thing. You know we as children found ourselves dreaming, watching the videos of the three tenors, the video of maestro Pavarotti, maestro Domingo and maestro Carreras, and you know, as little ones it was unthinkable that today we had to be here, on this stage in Florence with maestro Domingo, for us it is a great honor to share this stage with you (Domingo) because for us it was something unimaginable, thank you very much!
Domingo: I would like to say two things, before we go to the end of the concert. Really, I must say that my grandchildren made me discover these three great artists, because they were already enthusiastic more than 4/5 years ago, when you started and they are here and they are very happy, now that we have sung together (they greet Domingo’s grandchildren with their hands in the stands). I would also like to say that really, I thank you so much for doing this (concert) remembering our concert, and we are also thinking of Luciano (Pavarotti) who we miss so much, Josè (Carreras) could not come because he had a concert, but I hope that on another occasion we will all find ourselves. Thank you.
Matera ~ The Ten Year Anniversary of Il Volo!

At the time of the Matera concert which marked the 10th Anniversary of Il Volo, our sweet Daniela Perani took the time to translated everything the guys had to say in the video. Because of this, I decided to include the entire concert here followed by the translation into English.

PIERO: Everything started as a game, three strangers put together, now after 10 years we are really like three brothers, we weren’t really aware of what we were experiencing, but the game, now it’s over, and it’s become our job, our daily life, our future. We hope to celebrate another 10, 20, 30 years of career together.

GIANLUCA: We met when we were children, and we grew up together, we created, really a unique alchemy, because we share the stage, we travel constantly together.
IGNAZIO: We will never have full awareness of what we are facing, because we always see beauty, we also see things with naivety.
IGNAZIO: Our goal is to bring the Italian tradition, through music, to different stages and different cultures.
“Arriving in America” is always a bit of everyone’s dream, and getting to that audience was very exciting, because you realize how much you can be attached to a culture, a tradition, a flag. It is very varied, as an audience, of all ages, from the two-year-old girl to her mother.
PIERO: There is that Christmas song that says “From 9 to 92”.
GIANLUCA: And also, the prestige that gives you this kind of music, because we do nothing but follow the steps of our greatest idols, like Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, the bel canto that is truly appreciated all over the world.

IGNAZIO: Surely, we must say thanks to the American public that is the first who discovered us. Because after Italy, after that famous show, we immediately went to America, and with “O SOLE MIO,” they immediately sent us great affection and it was certainly nice to be able to share the emotions with all the American audience.

PIERO: Italy, in our career, has always given us great emotions, perhaps the greatest emotions, because from 2010 to 2015, we sang only abroad, we did many concerts in America, South Ameica, Japan, but in Italy, we didn’t sing.
IGNAZIO: We must tell the truth, we suffered a little from this, we pretended nothing, but we suffered.
PIERO: Very.
IGNAZIO: Arriving in Italy and being practically unknown.
GIANLUCA: But you know, perhaps the “Made in Italy” musical genre has been increasingly revered abroad, especially in the US, a musical genre appreciated perhaps even more abroad.
PIERO: But in 2015 we had …..
IGNAZIO: The revenge …..
PIERO: The courage to participate in the Sanremo festival.
GIANLUCA: … and to bring back the “bel canto”, also in Italy, after 20 years.
PIERO: With our song “GRANDE AMORE”, when Carlo Conti said Il Volo, the winners of Sanremo, it seemed like dreaming. But then, the Italian audience has always remained faithful, from the beginning.

IGNAZIO: I’m sure that if we commit ourselves for a moment let’s remember the emotion of the first time we sang at the Verona Arena. And knowing, being aware of being in that scene with your concert, is something that makes you think a little, and be excited, because a few years before it was unthinkable.
PIERO: In our career we have had the opportunity to do many concerts in the Arena, we hope to make thousands of them, yet. But I can say that I struggled to fall asleep immediately after the Verona concert.
GIANLUCA: It is precisely this, the point, also a piece of advice that we want to give to all the guys who dream of living for music, and they want to do what we are doing, that there will be many people who will probably not believe in you, but you must persevere, because you can truly reach the farthest dream. We believed in it and we still believe in it and we are studying, really hoping to continue to stay together for many years to come.

IGNAZIO: In USA for Haiti, we had the opportunity to have an experience, which we will never forget, we were three strangers, small, just arrived in America, and we found ourselves singing in the choir of WE ARE THE WORLD.
PIERO: We were among hundreds of artists, without knowing how to speak half a word of English.
GIANLUCA: Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, Maroon Five ……
IGNAZIO: There was also Barbra Streisand, who knows, maybe it was the bell, which then gave her the idea to call us to do the tour with her!

GIANLUCA: Two years later, because in 2012 we went on tour with her, in America and Canada, and this too was an experience that made us grow, professionally but also personally.
IGNAZIO: I remember that the first time we met her was for my birthday, my 18 years (for us Italians is the age of maturity)
PIERO: Your 18 years.
GIANLUCA: You celebrated 18 years, on stage with Barbra Streisand, not bad!
PIERO: She perfectly studied our names and pronounced them perfectly, without the American accent, Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, because the Americans, to speak our names …. what an effort!
GIANLUCA: One of the greatest emotions we experienced in our career was being able to share the stage with a great artist, Maestro Placido Domingo, in a concert tribute to the three tenors.

PIERO: The relationship with the master Domingo, was born thanks to his two grandchildren. He tells in an interview, that he returned to his son’s home in New York, and saw the grandchildren who were watching and listening on television on YouTube, our version of “O SOLE MIO”, and everything was born that way.
IGNAZIO: Surely, we must also say thanks to our manager, Michele Torpedine, who then, in the end, was his idea. He wanted to do it for years, and surely, we used a little the wake of the Sanremo festival and the success we had in Italy.
GIANLUCA: What then is a repertoire, almost untouchable, we didn’t even want to commit the sin of presumption, also because we are young, there is still so much to study, this is important to say it, also because we didn’t want to imitate or emulate the three tenors, but only to remember this great project, which really brought the “bel canto” the opera, out of the theaters, around the world, and it was an incredible success, which excited millions of people all over the world.
Being able to be joined by the great master Placido Domingo, after 30 years of that great concert, was a great honor.
IGNAZIO: And then we realized that 70-80% of the repertoire, was what we were already singing.
PIERO: It wasn’t so difficult to choose the songs.
IGNAZIO: This year, to start the 10-year celebration, we started with a very special, very exciting event, we found ourselves on a gigantic altar, which was then a stage, turned into an altar, in Panama, for World Youth Day. We had the honor of singing for Pope Francis, being able to share the stage, with our music, with faith, above all, to see 700 to 800 thousand people praying in silence, to have Pope Francis in front of you, to pray together with all those young people.
PIERO: We are believers, and find ourselves, the only ones, there, in front of Pope Francis, who while he prays, listens to your voice, I believe it is an emotion that we will tell, to our children, grandchildren, we will tell it for life.
GIANLUCA: Being able to start the celebrations, of these 10 years, with a selfie with Pope Francis, it is not every day, and above all, to sing the “Ave Maria”, for him and for more than half a million young people, who found themselves there for WYD, and representing all the young people in this important event, was unique. We couldn’t have started the year in a better way.
PIERO: In life it also takes a little luck. On our last trip to Japan, something unexpected happened to us, in Japan the discipline of ice skating is very followed, and in the last Olympics, the Japanese skater, won the gold medal, skating on one of our tracks, doing the choreography on “Notte Stellata”.
GIANLUCA: There are so many Japanese people who come to study in Italy, especially opera. It is incredible, as some people have told us that they have learned to speak Italian, even listening to our songs. And it’s also nice to see so many young people who are approaching, all over the world, even this musical genre, which is our goal, we are young, and we want to bring it to the new generations.
IGNAZIO: Often an artist does not have many opportunities to talk about himself, he is always engaged in interviews to say “we sang, we did …..”
PIERO: And it’s inconvenient.
IGNAZIO: It is uncomfortable. I think that an artist, to have a space, to talk about himself, to make people understand what he feels inside, and who he really is, is a rare and unique occasion.
IGNAZIO: We are three guys who weigh a lot the words, and in these years, we have always given a particular weight to the word THANK YOU, because being grateful to someone, to something, is always beautiful, it makes you feel better, and we would certainly like to say thank you to several people in this interview. But the biggest THANK YOU, and I think I speak on behalf of all three, goes to our families but above all to our manager Michele Torpedine, who, despite the many difficulties we have encountered in these 10 years, has always been there to give strength to us, and constant determination …
PIERO: His constant presence…….
IGNAZIO: …… that he sent us in these 10 years.
PIERO: The best thing about these 10 years is to see our fans, grow with us. We met 15-year-olds, who now have 25 like us, and our biggest THANKS goes to you fans, who supported us and endured us for 10 years. We hope to live this long adventure and we love you so much.
GIANLUCA: We have had 10 wonderful years. Unthinkable things have happened to us. We were 14/15 years old and always sharing the same passion that unites us, which is music and love for singing.
IGNAZIO: This is what we want to do in life, and it will be our goal for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, until I have to accompany Piero by the arm.
GIANLUCA: 10 years of friendship of music and above all of fidelity and respect.
PIERO: There will be lots of surprises, we promise you we won’t let you down and we’d like to tell you THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.
And, last but certainly not least, we come to Il Volo’s Tribute to Ennio Morricone!

When I wrote about this concert, I called the article Phenomenal because there was no other way to describe it!
I began by saying, get used to it, I’m going to use the word phenomenal a lot in this article.
Let me say, I can write at least five pages just on the opening of the concert. If I wrote what I felt, saw, experienced in this concert, I would have to write a book!
Yes, that was how I felt, and I think most people felt about this concert. To begin, this was their first Live concert for TV on Raiuno.
In this concert, there was so much movement. Things were happening all around the stage. How did I present this? In my article, I invite you to Take a look at the stage! You the audience are the spectators! You’re being drawn to the stage. You watch the guys’ approach and, you are in awe of their presence. You feel the intensity of the music, you and the guys are pulled into the movie. The music is all around you!  Their voices are a force in your head. You look up in amazement! You are a part of the scenery! You are a part of the orchestra! You are a part of the movie! You are a part of ~ Il Volo!  You have arrived and you are ready to follow the guys no matter where this journey leads you! It’s only the beginning! Fasten your seat belts. 

We get to go back to the beginning with the guys singing E più ti penso which they sang at the beginning of their career with the Maestro himself, Morricone.

Among their guests was the amazing Nina Zilli.

The presentation which was a Raiuno special was in conjunction with PBS.
The hardest part about writing this story was selecting the videos. For me every song is a symphony; it’s “un attimo senza fine!” ~ “An endless moment!” An express that I love to use when describing not just the songs but also the guys, as some will attest to “Il mio attimo senza fine.” Each song goes straight to my heart and stays there until the next song begins! The songs and their voices are piercing. I can feel the adrenaline rise in me from the first note!
Performers spend their whole career trying to get to the top. Our guys, amazingly started at the top. It’s mind boggling. The amazing thing about these guys is they figured out where to go from up!
Going Down Memory Lane to PBS has been an awesome journey! And I know Il Volo is a big draw on PBS. Their specials are rated among the best for PBS. That’s why they have them back time after time! Not only do we love them but also PBS loves them! They put the Special in the word special! We hope to have a new PBS Special Event soon!   
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
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com
Credit to owners of all photos and video.    

 

Article or Video Translations, General news

DOMENICA IN 2021 – PART 2 by Daniela

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Here I am with the second part of this beautiful interview.
I assure you that you will not be bored.
Enjoy the reading!!

MARA = Come back here. (long applause)
You are guys, but you have a great responsibility, because you have immense talent …
GIAN = With this song we also had the opportunity to show the beauties of our country with the Frasassi Caves.
MARA = Yes, there was the video.
GIAN = I also want to say this thing, because for us it was a great honor, to be able to work with maestro Vittorio Storaro, who is a “cinematographer” and not a “director of photography”, which is a small detail.
MARA = What’s the difference, for those who don’t know?
GIAN = There is a big difference. In America they say cinematographer …
MARA = …. three Oscars, he made all the films of Bertolucci (another Italian director who won the Oscar for The Last  Emperor), Vittorio Storaro …
GIAN = … exactly three Oscars …. because every time it is a life lesson, not only artistic, but his wisdom has given us wonderful moments …
MARA = Sorry if I interrupt you, Gianluca, but I have a backstage video and I would like to send it and then you all can comment on it.
Let’s watch it together.
(the video of the Frasassi Caves backstage starts)
In the video: Gianluca’s voice = The melodies of the great master Ennio Morricone are the protagonists in this wonderful setting that are the Frasassi Caves.
Ignazio’s voice = Sharing this fantastic place also with maestro Vittorio Storaro was a great emotion.
(applause)
MARA = It is so beautiful that it seems unreal, it seems magical.
PIERO = Have you ever been there?
MARA = No, never been.
PIERO = Look, time stops there.
MARA = But where is this place, exactly?
GIAN = Near Genga, in the Marche region.
MARA = Ah, in the Marche.
GIAN = Yes, this place is one hour from my house, I’m near Roseto degli Abruzzi.
MARA = So did you know this place?
GIAN = Yes, I had already been there, because schools often organize trips with pupils to make excursions.
MARA = It’s a magical place, I want to go there.
PIERO = We had the privilege of having the caves just for us and Vittorio Storaro, to shoot the video.
MARA = Illuminated by Vittorio Storaro.
GIAN = Think about the power of Bel Canto, associated with a wonderful place, it is the perfect soundtrack, but then it allows us to join idols, like Vittorio Storaro, or as before, you saw us joking with Woody Allen, it is the prestige of Bel Canto. As you know it all started with Pavarotti, then with Bocelli, so we, humbly, always try to follow in their footsteps, to bring this kind of music higher and higher.
IGNAZIO = I’ll tell you an anecdote. In the caves, we were collaborating with the master Storaro, and he was still trying to get an extra emotion out of us. So when there were our solos, he would say to Piero: “Piero concentrate you, try not to think about anything, as if there were no one, the caves, the emotion …”
GIAN = He (Storaro) was also a director on that occasion, just for us.
IGNAZIO = …. “let the emotion out” …. ok, Piero, does his (solo), Gian does his, it’s up to me and I ask: “Give me some more advice, master …”
MARA = You are giving HIM to the master. (in Italy it is a sign of respect)
IGNAZIO = Absolutely … and he tells me: “Ignazio, forget where you are, it’s just you, the camera and nothing else around.” I followed his advice.
PIERO = He added “…and think of a person dear to you ….”
MARA = Think of a person dear to you?
IGNAZIO = Yes. The playback of the song was over and I cried and I cried for 15 minutes …
PIERO = He burst into tears.
MARA = Who were you thinking of?
IGNAZIO = Your Love is a song that means a lot to us, also because we performed in Sanremo three days after my father’s death, so it means a lot to us.
MARA = The memory!
IGNAZIO = By now, I associate that song with that moment and therefore I was in tears for 15 minutes.
GIAN = The whole album is dedicated to Vito ….
PIERO = … to Ignazio’s father.
On this occasion Ignazio proved to be a great man, because three days before our performance in Sanremo, we received this terrible news by phone, and we all expected a NO, from Ignazio, we thought we would stay at home. Instead he, as a great professional, arrived in Sanremo, sang, did his duty. He has my highest esteem. ❤ (appaluse)
MARA = Who knows how you were inside, love.
IGNAZIO = I think that the greatest happiness of a parent is to see their children happy.
GIAN = There was a backstage part that I would like to tell and that moved us all.
During the rehearsals Fiorello (co-host of Sanremo), approached Ignazio and hugged him for three minutes, they hugged tightly, I’m telling you, because unfortunately he also experienced the same situation ….. and by the way we say goodbye to the great Fiorello, hello Fiore !!
MARA = (turning to Ignazio) Were you far away, when your dad passed?
IGNAZIO = I was in Bologna, we were, there. Before, we talked about the pandemic, and the lockdown, there are positive sides, I was lucky enough to spend a year and a half with my whole family, and that’s what we hope all the young people, all the boys of our age, have done – have the opportunity to spend time with their families, and to understand how important their support is.
MARA = I think so.
PIERO = But in these years…. we have been together for 13 years …
IGNAZIO = We are together, that is, we work together ….
MARA = But there would be nothing wrong, Ignazio ... (being together can be meant sentimentally)
PIERO = No, no, we are together
IGNAZIO =  Of bad, nothing, but Piero, it’s not that I like him so much. 😁
MARA = Are the two of them engaged? (Piero and Gianluca). About you (Ignazio) we learned that you have a girlfriend in Brazil …
GIAN = The two of them who ??
MARA = Not the two of you together, although there would be nothing wrong with that.
GIAN = No but imagine, there would be nothing wrong …
MARA = Do you, your fiancée, have it?
GIAN = Yes, yes, I do.
MARA = You have her!  And you Piero?
PIERO = No,  I …
GIAN = Piero no.
MARA = Is he single?
GIAN = Piero is single, the only single, that’s right.
MARA = He is in love with Bellucci, he is waiting for Bellucci.
IGNAZIO = Morricone was one of the most beautiful projects we have ever thought …
MARA = Do you want to change the subject?
IGNAZIO = Is it understood ?? 😁
MARA = You are smart, eh !!! But when you can, with aunt !!! (she means that the aunt, that is Mara, discovers the smart ones)
IGNAZIO = (He gets up and sings to Mara, hugging her) “I’ll take you and I’ll take you away.” (applause)
MARA = Come on, another film I loved is Sacco and Vanzetti, directed by the great Giuliano Montaldo, starring Riccardo Cucciolla and GianMaria Volontè.
PIERO = For this piece, we studied a lot, because we didn’t know so many things ….
MARA = Wonderful movie.
PIERO = The story is truly poignant, because unfortunately there is injustice.
MARA = Exactly. Great movie.
GIAN = We are here, eh !!
PIERO = I was telling her about Sacco and Vanzetti …
IGNAZIO = We felt a little lonely.
MARA = Here he is (Piero), I brought him to you.
PIERO = This song is called: HERE’S TO YOU. (applause, here’s to you begins)
(applause and standing ovation at the end)
MARA = Well, you wonderful ones! I just want to say that this is an important film, an important theme, it is the story of two Italians, two emigrants who were unjustly condemned, and we at this moment want to greet all our compatriots who cannot be here.
I + P = Absolutely.
GIAN = And it is also nice to remember that soon we will be on tour, from March in the United States, we start in RCMH on March 4th, and then we will reach many people who have been waiting for us for two years since the last tour that unfortunately we had to stop due to the Covid.
MARA = So you will reach our compatriots, and not only !! But then I will also say all the dates.
Let’s move on because there is another beautiful song.
PIERO = There are many (dates)
MARA = Yes, a lot.
PIERO = More than 100 concerts in six months.
MARA = But when are you leaving?
PIERO = March 4th …
MARA = And are you coming back?
PIERO = In December
MARA = Next year (2022)
PIERO = Yes, and we will sing in Italy, we will do concerts in the summer and concerts in the winter.
MARA = How long are you away?
PIERO = From March to December no stop, only 7-8 days in July
MARA = Are you going back to Italy?
PIERO = Yes, at home.
MARA = Love !!
GIAN = At least, a little sun, a tan, otherwise we will be pale, tired, with travel …..
MARA = Let’s go on, now they make you listen to another beautiful song, music ….
PIERO = What is it?
MARA = SE TELEFONANDO
IGNAZIO = Another of my favorites.
MARA = I like it a lot too.
PIERO = Do you know how it was born?
MARA = Maurizio Costanzo (he wrote the words)
PIERO = Yes, but Ennio Morricone was at the post office paying a fine, a bill, I don’t know what it was, he heard the sound of the ambulance, the siren of the ambulance “ta-ta …. se telefonando” and from there makes you understand the genius of the master Morricone.
MARA = What a beautiful song.
PIERO = Magnificent.
MARA = Why him, great musician, great author, but then this is a song that everyone can sing, in truth.
IGNAZIO = Absolutely. But then the genius of the master Morricone was that he was inspired by silence, for him silence in his works was fundamental …
PIERO = Determinant
IGNAZIO = I like to compose, and sometimes, removing is more difficult than adding.
MARA = It’s true.
IGNAZIO = The essential is something difficult to achieve. It can only be reached by those who are geniuses, like the maestro Morricone.
MARA = How wise have you become, aunt’s love. (she hugs Ignazio)
IGNAZIO = Mamma mia, I’m getting emotional!
MARA = Come on, come on, come on, SE TELEFONANDO, Il Volo!! (starts Se Telefonando)
(applause and standing ovation at the end)
MARA = IL Volo, on Domenica IN, which makes us spend the wonderful Boxing Day !!
Good, good guys, good, good guys (she applauds the guys).
Now I’m sending something with you, from here, from this position.
Last year was December 25, 2020, exactly one year ago, and where were you? In St. Peter’s Square ..
P + G + I = Yes, St. Peter’s Square.
MARA = With ???
PIERO = Nobody, there was nobody. Ours is a dream job, we are dreamers and we saw that surreal situation, lockdown, at home at ten, and we wanted to wish the whole country a Merry Christmas from there. We got organized, with the director of RAI1.
MARA = Stefano Coletta.
IGNAZIO = Let us wish him well for Santo Stefano.
G + P + I + M = Greetings director !!
PIERO = And so from there, we made these four songs, to wish a Merry Christmas, with St. Peter’s Square completely empty.
MARA = Let’s see it then. (start the video of Merry Christmas from San Pietro 2020)
In the video:
Gian = On this very special day, in which, even if we are close, we are forced to stay away, we wanted to find a way to wish you a Merry Christmas.
Ignazio = With music, in this extraordinary square.
PIERO = The hope is that Christmas, with its magic, can bring a smile to your homes, and warm your hearts.
MARA = How beautiful !! It’s beautiful, I think you have performed everywhere, but I think this was an emotion …… (addressed to Piero) at one in the morning did you tell me?
IGNAZIO = In fact there was still a curfew, so thanks to the Municipality of Rome, and the Vatican who gave us permission to be able to register it. So as not to create a crowd, we did it after curfew, we finished at 1am.
I want take this opportunity to reiterate that the mind that thinks these things is Michele Torpedine, who has all these fantastic ideas.
MARA = That we say hello to Michele (she blows a kiss), where is Michele? It should be around here!
PIERO = Do you think that Luciano Pavarotti called him (Torpedine) Great Boss, and he too (Ignazio), jokingly also called him Great Boss.
I’ve never done, it but I told him: “The day you make us sing in front of Pope Francis, I’ll call you Big Boss”, and now I have to!
GIAN = Behind every singer, there are people who allow them to be able to fully express their art, surely he is the person …..
PIERO = Can you turn the camera? He is there, behind … (Michele is nearby)
MARA = No look, let’s do one thing: “Come here, Michele, we’re talking about you”
(applause)
PIERO = Great Michele.
MARA = (drags Torpedine on stage). Sorry, they were talking about you.
MT = You know that these things embarrass me, I’m not used to it.
MARA = Come on. Listen, we are almost at the end of this beautiful segment, I don’t know how to thank you.
How do you handle these boys, Torpedine?
MT = How do you manage three dynamites like this, they go it alone, just say yes or no to things.
MARA = Now you all go, go around the world for months …
MT = Around the world, we hope that everything goes well with Covid.
MARA = We hope, we hope so.
IGNAZIO = We thought we would leave you with a Christmas song, since they told us that Christmas songs are sung until the Epiphany.
MARA = Come on, the witch is here. (herself)
PIERO = White Christmas.
MARA = White Christmas, Il Volo, and I take Michele away.
(White Christmas song begins)
Thanks guys, (applause), thanks, thanks. Happy New Year!
IGNAZIO = We want to thank you.
MARA = Thanks to you.
IGNAZIO = We wanted to congratulate you for the new year.
PIERO = We never had the opportunity to spend all this time together, you are really human !!
GIAN = Thanks for believing in us.
MARA = You gave me a great gift, guys.
IGNAZIO = And you gave us a great gift, because talking about each other, is not always easy.
GIAN = Best wishes to you too who are following us, hoping that it will be a 2022 of normality.
IGNAZIO = We wish you to collect all the most beautiful, unthinkable and imaginary fruits, because “nothing is impossible”.
MARA = And it’s true !!
GIAN = He is also international, him.
PIERO = Only optimism !!
MARA = Come on guys, but see you, you go around the world …
PIERO = See you in concert in Italy …
MARA = At the Arena ??
PIERO = In June at the Verona Arena and Taormina …
MARA = And so, see you in March. They go and then they come back: Il Volo !!!
I have no words after this beautiful interview, it was long, but not boring at all.
I believe that when our young men open their hearts, we only know of good feelings.
This is also what we like about them, their way of being, unites us and brings us closer and closer to their human side, they are not only excellent artists, there is much more.
What do you think?
Daniela

Credit to owners of all photos and video.

Through the Fields of My Mind

The Reality of Stardom

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Today, we need to understand what it was like for the guys to come together, become Il Volo and start to understand the reality of stardom! But before we begin, let’s take a look at how the guys came to be called Il Volo.
In the beginning the idea of being one in three was something that the guys needed to learn about. They had to learn how to sing together. It was no longer this is your song, learn it and sing it. No, now it was, this is your part, your take, your phrase, learn it and sing it. They began to understand how music and recording actually worked. They were starting to learn about being three in the form of one. Sharing! And, if that wasn’t enough, they had to learn something even harder, how to get along with one another.
I’ve told you, in some of my stories, about the problems, the disagreements. These may seem unusual but in reality, they were not. You show me three teenage boys who can be thrown together and just immediately like one another and totally agree with one another. No, that won’t happen.
Left to right: Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero photo shoot image
Ignazio said: “We were only three kids accompanied by our parents. We still did not know each other well. At the beginning I immediately started to connect with Piero. Perhaps because he is Sicilian like me and maybe because we always found the opportunity to make jokes and have fun.”
Gianluca said; “I was very shy and a little insecure but also a little immature and too instinctive
In quarrels, for example, maybe it happened that I also answered in an annoying way because I was the one, I felt at that time, and I could not wait until then. Piero, for example, took some good kicks from me. I threw a pizza, at Ignazio, in front of the Universal Canadian official in a restaurant in Montreal. The shrimp flew off the pizza and hit the official of Universal, I mean really.”
These were some of the obstacles. Some would easily be resolved and, some would take a long time and a lot of trust to overcome.
In 2009 – 2010 during the recording of their first album, the guys still did not have a “real” name. After Ti Lascio una Canzone, they were given the name Tre Tenorini, because they resembled Luciano Pavarotti (Ignazio, for the waistline). Jose Carreras (Gianluca, for the elegance, says Torpedine) and Plácido Domingo (Piero, for the tenor voice).
Tre Tenorini, no, that was never going to work. First off, they aren’t three tenors. As you know they are a baritone, a lyrical tenor and a spinto tenor. So, a new name would have to be found. Easy, no not at all. Let’s listen to what guys had to say about choosing a name.
Piero begins: “Sometimes finding a name is much more complicated than it may seem. We did not even believe that we would continue to sing, imagine if we thought we needed a name. Do you know that at one point they wanted to call us La Scala?”
Ignazio continues: “At that time when we were looking for a name and we couldn’t find one, we were recording We Are the World 25 for Haiti. It was the beginning of February 2010, and we called ourselves The Tryo, which we then used as guests at the second evening of the Sanremo Festival. A week later, we sang in front of Queen Rania of Jordan, and that is when we translated it to, Il Trio.
Gianluca said: “The problem of the name? It was one of those impossible marketing missions: it had to be short and easy to pronounce in practically all the world. For example, there is a group called Il Divo, and they also sing a genre similar to ours, and Il Divo was just the kind of name we wanted: short, easy to pronounce and also very international, because it has a clear meaning to everyone.

Young IL VOLO

And that’s why the name La Scala came out. Elettra Morini, the wife of Tony Renis, had proposed it. Elettra, who was a dancer there, told her husband: ‘Why do you not call them La Scala? Surely everyone in the world knows La Scala.’
Ignazio interrupts: “And then, there was the question that they called us the Lyric, La Scala, La Scala. We chewed on it a little but, it did not convince us.”
Piero tells us that everyone was involved in this project….
“But who was looking for the name? All of us: the three of us, Michele, our parents, whoever belonged to our family or, our working group said a name, two or three, and it was written on a list. That list had become worse than a telephone list: we got to more than five hundred proposals.
This thing of the name was becoming a joke. We were going to record the album, make a meeting, or engage in anything else and, we ended up talking about this name, but we never got the right idea. In the end, one day out of the blue, a gentleman working from Michele, Stefano, says: ‘Il Volo.’”
Ignazio says, “IL VOLO? What about IL VOLO? IL VOLO? It began to turn in the air (ha ha) and so the birth of Il Volo.”
And just when it seemed the decision was made to choose Il Volo, another problem arose.
Piero explains….
“But then we discovered that there had already been a group by this name in 1974, composed of Mario Lavezzi, Vince Tempera, Alberto Radius, Bob Callero, Gabriele Lorenzi and Gianni Dall’Aglio. It was a collaboration that lasted a year and a half and had gathered all of the best musicians. But now we liked the name, so we decided to keep it. Also, because it immediately seemed to us a good omen to fly, to take flight, get up in the air.
But we risked a little.
A young photo of IL VOLO
Think if this project did not start, if we were not really able to ‘take off,’ do you imagine how they would have made fun of us? ‘The Flight takes off? No, Il Volo has crashed!’ At that point, we had the CD, the name also and we left for the States.”
After a week in the States visiting Miami and Los Angeles, they returned to Italy. By May 2010, things began to change.
Piero recalls: “We too began to understand that something was only changing when our first record came out.”
Ignazio remembers: “It was already in May 2010 and the Il Volo album was about to come out all over the world. Maybe I was too small and naive, but I did not feel the anxiety of the job, like today.”
The first major television show in which the guys appeared in America was American Idol, the world’s most famous music talent show.
The guys certainly took America by storm and slowly also many other countries in the world.
Ignazio begins to explain the reality of it…
“In a few months I found myself having traveled the world, from Europe to the Americas, from Asia to Oceania. From 2010 to 2013 we traveled like crazy, without ever stopping. In three years, I have not been home for five months.

Left to right: Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio asleep in the back seat of their tour car

In 2013 at the end of the American tour the guys found themselves at the door of Latin America and their South American Tour.
First stop Guadalajara, Mexico. And what better way to begin than on October 4, 2013, Ignazio’s 19th birthday!
Here Come the Fans
Gianluca recalls how the South American Tour began…
“In five years, we have done a lot of concerts, we have been in a lot of places and, I absolutely agree with Piero when he says that it is difficult to remember everything, that things have followed so quickly that they seem confused, sometimes I almost forget. However, if I stop and think about it there are flashes that come to mind, for example the 2013 tour in South America.
IL VOLO kneeling on state with the audience behind them
One of the first things I remember is Ignazio’s birthday in Messio, on the evening of the first concert of the tour.
We arrived at the hotel that was a bit in the middle of nowhere, in Guadalajara. Here we met for the first time our drummer, Salvatore Corazza. There was a huge garden and we started playing soccer.
The most special thing about Ignazio’s birthday was that we celebrated with fans. And speaking of fans, there I lost my password for Instagram and, I started to go crazy because it is very important to keep in touch with the Volovers.
Piero recalls….
“At the beginning, in South America, we realized we were really famous only when we arrived and, the fans were in front of the hotel waiting for us. But it happened slowly, slowly. Slowly, relatively slowly, month after month. Because two months before we were in Argentina and there were twenty fans, the next one there were a hundred, the one after there were three hundred, and then a thousand, two thousand. Now the situation is unbelievable if you have not experienced it, you will not believe it because we are with bodyguards twenty-four hours a day. It’s another world.
I remember in Peru, in Lima, we land, we get off the plane and there were already bodyguards at the baggage claim. Usually, they are waiting for us after the baggage claim, two of them come to the entrance and two of them come to the exit to escort us.
Here seven, eight bodyguards arrive directly at the baggage claim. I did not understand. Why, for us? I thought of the fans, but it was the first time we went to Peru, it was really impossible that it was. Now imagine a glazed sliding door, at the airport and you cannot see the other side. Imagine that you have just picked up your baggage, you approach the door, the bodyguard puts you next to the door and the door opens and … you find yourself in front of a wall, a wall of girls, all one above the other screaming, a single scream, something that stuns.
We were in our cars and, they followed us with taxis. The taxi drivers overcame us like crazy, with the girls hanging out of the windows that sounded trumpets, waving flags. We spent three months of our year this way.”
IL VOLO with fans in 2011
Gianluca says….
“And, instead, do you remember Cuernavaca? It was 2013, I remember that we went in the room of Jerry di Pirro, who was our tour manager, to listen to Sade’s music. I remember the white curtains and a terrible heat, in the evening, the pool …”
Piero interrupts….
“… the insects! In that hotel I remember that I entered the room, we were in the middle of the forest and the white ceiling was completely covered with insects. My father and I spent half the evening crushing mosquitoes and other little animals with slippers. 
Then I remember my father talking to the Mexicans while he cooked me pasta. Because before singing, three hours before, I always eat a hundred grams of tomato and basil spaghetti. I love that moment.
He comes in the dressing room, brings me the spaghetti made by him (we bring the packages from home). And that year he started explaining to the Mexicans how spaghetti tomato and basil was cooked.
It was a tour de force, from one day to the other air travel throughout South America, but dad was always with me. One morning I woke up in Guatemala, I look at my dad and say: ‘Dad, what should we do today?’
‘We have to leave for another city.’
‘When is the concert? Tomorrow?’
‘No, tonight! And go! Let’s start.’
That is the real passion: come without force but go forward. Only passion kept me standing.”

IL VOLO handshake before the concert

Gianluca says….
“Now I do not know, maybe we would not do it this way anymore.”
Piero continues….
“However, Gianlu’ this year in July we have gone thirty hours on flights for appearances on TV in the United States. I went back to Detroit with that heat and the album to finish and the tour to do.”
Ignazio recalls opening his mouth and, nothing comes out…
“I tried to sing and, my voice does not come out, there is nothing to do, it does not come out.
I only know that when I finished that tour in South America I was nicknamed ‘Ignazio the tank’ by myself: I had done twenty concerts with bronchitis.
The worst was in Caracas, Venezuela, six thousand five hundred people, at seven in the evening: soundcheck.
Let’s start with the first song. I try to sing and, my voice does not come out, there is nothing to do, it does not come out. And here comes the most total panic, we stopped the soundcheck, the production calls a doctor and, I was punctured with Bentelan.
In short, for a month and half I sang only thanks to the cortisone and breathing technique that our teacher Sergio Bertocchi taught us.”
Piero interrupts….
“Our because he is also my teacher.
But maybe only say master. Sergio Bertocchi is the person who helped me most in singing, the one that solves my doubts and my problems. If I enter a lesson with a doubt, I go out and I am another Piero, happy and relaxed.
And he never leaves me alone: even outside of Italy, we do lessons on Skype, we solve doubts and problems on the phone.
When I thought that in the Grande Amore tour, I would have liked to sing an air of an opera, Bertocchi told me: ‘You can do it very well, but you have to study a lot.’ And so, I did. For me, the study is fundamental, commitment and study.

Left to right: Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero on stage smiling

Between May and June 2015, every time we were in Bologna to record ‘L’amore Si Mouve,’ I went to my teacher from 8 to 10 am (then at 10:30 am I went into the recording studio) and studied with him ‘E Lucevan le Stelle,’ the aria of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca that I sang during the tour.
It was tiring, but there’s nothing like seriously engaging in something to feel at peace with oneself. Or at least for me.
And you do not know how important it is to have an experienced a person like Sergio Bertocchi to guide you.”
Ignazio interrupts….
“I know for sure, that without his breathing exercises I do not know how I would have sung. Without a voice I was completely out of it.”
Piero jokes with Ignazio….
“Eh, Igna’, but the voice, you had in that interview!

Ignazio, Gianluca and Piero sitting on stage singing

It was March 2013 we were in Argentina at the famous Los 5 edicion broadcast of QMusica TV. In practice the program works like this. The guest says something about himself and, between a piece and the other part of his story, presents a video of a song he likes, for a total of five videos.
What was the problem? In the meantime, we spoke Spanish and sometimes we were wrong, so we stopped the recording and got it back. So, Ignazio was already a bit tired out, let’s say.
But the worst thing is that in Argentina they do not have the Volo V, they have the B, they say ‘Il Bolo.’
And one, and two, and three, always ‘Il Bolo.’ At that point, Ignazio begins to correct the guy who was in the studio and repeating to us the things to say, and once, and twice, and three: ‘Il Volo, it is said Il Volo, V!’
Until the guy in the studio runs off of new ‘Il Bolo’ and Ignazio starts with a string of bad words in precise Sicilian that are still today immortalized in the off-wave.”
Ignazio interrupts:
“Eh, however, guys, we are serious people, now. And, I have made a commitment to write.
Where were we? Oh yes. The end of the Latin American tour.
Christmas 2013 was approaching and, the record company wanted to come out with a record of Christmas songs. So Universal decided to complete the EP that came out two years ago with just five Christmas songs.
So, after the Latin American tour we started promoting the Christmas album.

Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio in front of Radio City Music Hall

My house began to fail me. Being four months away, changing cities, hotels and planes almost every day is not easy. From the age of sixteen, finding yourself catapulted into a world that was completely different from the one I was used to, was not a simple thing to manage. At first no, actually the first two years I thought ‘What a beautiful life!’ Then I realized that all that glitters is not gold.
To get satisfaction and achieve the goals you have set for yourself, you have to give up many things and, work hard. Stay focused on your work. It’s not easy.
Many people ask: ‘But these guys never get tired?’ Well, yes, we get tired too, sometimes. Personally, there was a time when I thought only of friends. I wanted to go out, I never answered the phone, the emails, the messages, I was out of this world.
It was thanks to my family, to the boys and to Michele that I realized that I was neglecting what was always important for me: the music.”
Gianluca agreeing with Ignazio continues….
“True, Ignazio is right. It was not easy then and, neither is it now.
In those years, in 2012 and 2013, no one knew us in Italy, we were just the three children who had come from Ti Lascio Una Canzone.
But in America, in South America, in Europe we were very well known. And not only there! After the release of our first CD, we went on tour even in places that none of us could have imagined we would go to: Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and New Zealand. In Singapore we also had a gold record with that first CD.
In 2012 we arrived in Norway, one of the few European countries that we had not yet touched. We participated in the concert dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize – that year went to the European Union – in Oslo. A fantastic evening that allowed us to meet Gerard Butler and Sarah Jessica Parker, who were the presenters, and an artist like Kylie Minogue.

And then, in 2014 we were in Moscow twice, once guests in a concert by Toto Cugno and once with a concert of our own, and at the beginning of 2015 we were in Beijing, guests of a TV program for the Chinese New Year.
So, before Sanremo, we lived two lives, two completely different lives. Abroad we were stars and, we came to Italy to rest. I took refuge in Montepagano, Piero in Naro, Ignazio in Marsala. It was nice to come back to a ‘normal’ life.
IL VOLO then and now
We felt that something was missing, that it was bad to be so successful outside of our country and not be able to have it in Italy.”
So, they learned very early on to understand what it meant to live two lives. And to experience The Reality of Stardom. 
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
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com
*Excerpts from Il Volo, Un’avventura straordinaria, La nostra storia.
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.