When I was very young, I started trying to sing like the great tenor Mario Lanza; my family used to play his records. We all learn best by imitating others.
I started as a lyrical singer. But it was through the pop universe that I reached international fame.
I never think about gifts. It’s enough to have my family present.
When I hear that young people have come to the theater for the first time to listen to opera, I’m very happy. Because it’s the same thing that happened to me as a child. When I first heard the tenor voice, I immediately fell in love with this kind of music.
Stage fright is my worst problem.
I also always carry my flute. It’s very important for me to try to relax when I’m travelling, and playing my flute helps me to unwind.
Like stars across the sky, we were born to shine.
I did a pop album, ‘Sogno,’ in 1999. I think it’s important to record another pop album because many people love pop music. By this kind of repertoire, some people can later discover classical music.
Losing my sight had nothing to do with my focus on music. My passion for music was already there, so it would be a mistake to give too much significance to my blindness.
I loved riding bikes and horses. I was eight when I started having lessons, and when my father bought me my own horse I couldn’t wait to go off on my own.
When a little more than a teenager, I was a piano-bar pianist in the land where I was born and raised, Tuscany.
Opera singing is in every way of inestimable value; a real heritage for all mankind that has been reached over centuries of studies, attempts, flights of the spirit.
Some of us are born with a weakness for music. As a baby, music would stop whatever thought I was having. If I was worried, it would stop me worrying; if I was crying, it would stop me crying. Music was a healing thing for me.
I have big, big stage fright.
The themes I sing about tend to be centered on love, but in the most total, general way 360 degrees of love.
When I sing for myself, I sing in a more free, athletic way. When I face an audience, there is always some fear that makes me put the brakes on a bit.
When I get on stage, my first goal is not to show my expertise, but on the contrary, to give a bit of happiness, of joy, of cheerfulness. I am firmly convinced that in order to sing well, you must love your neighbor and be passionate about life.
Probably the first time I left Italy was to travel by train to Lourdes. I went with my mother and my grandmother – who was a very religious person – so it was a pilgrimage of sorts. I remember it as a very intense, but beautiful experience.
If you don’t have the possibility of listening to music, you can’t know if you love it.
The most stupid thing that a man can do in life is be bored.
The joy of a return is worth the price one pays at the moment of departure.