Andrea Bocelli: What Opera Means To Me

“Opera is the heritage of all humanity,” says tenor Andrea Bocelli, whose playlist of arias from the greatest Italian operas takes us through the gamut of human emotion, from the glints of passion to the deepest despair. We encounter Mimì and Rodolfo as they meet for the first time at the start of Puccini’s tragic love story La bohème; we feel Canio’s anguish through Leoncavallo’s powerful music. And we eavesdrop on Desdemona as she prays to the Virgin Mary ahead of her death at the hands of Otello, in one of Verdi’s most tenderly beautiful moments. Many of these great arias are sung by Bocelli’s heroes: “There’s Franco Corelli, of whom I had the honour of being a pupil,” he reveals, “and then Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Mario Del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini, but also his friends Plácido Domingo and José Carreras—and the unforgettable Luciano Pavarotti.” But we also hear Bocelli perform arias from three masterpieces of Italian opera: Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and two of Verdi’s greatest creations, La forza del destino and Otello. “They are stories that deal with the eternal struggle between good and evil,” says Bocelli, “in a sort of compendium of human passions.” For anyone thinking that opera is the preserve of the elite, Bocelli has the perfect response: “This is not an elitist art, not a ‘difficult’ experience,” he tells Apple Music, “but the exact opposite: exciting stories, burning social issues… Opera is able to give us sensations so deep that they remain in the heart for life, helping us to better understand ourselves, our strength of feelings and human relationships.” Opera means the world to Andrea Bocelli.