LA BELLA VITA Andrea Bocelli shares his passion for his homeland and reflects on the happiest moments of his life. Interview by Laura Schreffler
Andrea Bocelli’s life is the stuff of legend. After a life-threatening injury sustained while playing football left him blind at the age of 12, he turned to music to bring beauty into a world that he could no longer see. As a result, the Italian tenor is easily the top-selling classical music artist in history, with an assemblage of accolades including a Golden Globe, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the honour of becoming a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic to his name. Last Autumn saw the successful launch of Sì, his first recording of all-new material in 14 years; it is a celebration of love, family, faith, hope and reflection. The release of his forty-first album coincided harmoniously with an equally momentous occasion: his sixtieth birthday. Bocelli now looks back on his life, reflecting on how a boy from the small Pisan commune of Lajatico became the global icon he is today. What are your fondest memories of growing up in Tuscany, and how did growing up there shape the man you’ve become today? I repeat it with certainty every time that it comes up: I strongly feel that I am a product of my region and thus the pure countryside setting in which I grew up. As a child, La Sterza was one big game – everything was exploring. I would watch the farmers work and I shared in the scents, the charm, the joys and the tribulations of country life. My happiest childhood memories have to do with spring and summer. The games of football organised in the courtyard of our house, the forays into the fields and rivers, armed with slingshots, are unforgettable. They were happy times.
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What were your childhood loves, and have you carried those loves with you into adulthood? As a child I learned, from my parents first and foremost, the hierarchy of values which I then went on to build my adult life around. Within my family, I learned – through the extraordinary teacher that is provided by direct example – a sense of respect, of discipline and of the search for peace. And the importance of choosing, with every action, the option that does good. As an illy ambassador whose slogan is to “live happily,” what makes you happiest in life? Having a good coffee brightens up my whole day, it’s true. I can also say, without a doubt, that my children make me happy. However, if I had to talk about my life as a whole, I don’t like to aim for happiness, as for me it seems to be an elusive, liquid-like dimension, just like time that exists as it unfolds and not as it is – at least how we perceive it. I prefer to aim for a more reasonable and less precarious target: serenity. And as such, I am almost always serene. On that note, what is the recipe to a happy life, in your opinion? Choosing the option that does good, trying to put into practice those Christian values that our parents taught us and which are our responsibility to pass down to our children. Loving often, cultivating faith, having a clean conscience and knowing that you have done your duty, both in work and in your personal relationships.
