Andrea Bocelli returns to the Chase Center early next month, showcasing new holiday music and one of the most powerful voices on the planet.
Andrea Bocelli and Virginia
Bay Area residents will receive an early holiday gift this year, when Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Bocelli returns to the Chase Center. It’s a family affair. With a newly pressed Christmas album, A Family Christmas, recorded with his 24-year-old son, Matteo, and 10-year-old daughter, Virginia, the top tenor will share the stage with his children for part of the evening. “It’s a great joy to be able to anticipate and extend the magic of Christmas by a few weeks, celebrating on world stages,” says Bocelli. “I’m particularly happy to inaugurate this tour precisely in San Francisco.” In our exclusive interview, Bocelli and Virginia discuss working together, holiday traditions and the joy of recording a Christmas album in the middle of summer.
Your first Christmas album, My Christmas, was a smash hit and seems to be synonymous with the season. What was the impetus for recording a new holiday album?
AB: Beyond the genres that I represent with my singing, Christmas music has a distinctive, secret ingredient—and that is the intensity of good the song is able to transmit. It’s not necessarily joyful or carefree, but nevertheless music that whispers the strength of kindness, trust, hope and love in our ears.
The album was an extraordinary opportunity for me to work with my children. In addition, Christmas music has been a repertory I have always loved, enabling me to send out a strong spiritual and religious message. In A Family Christmas we sing a kaleidoscope of songs drawn from international music. After going through a great many songs, we chose not necessarily the most famous but the most intense—those that could speak to the heart and instill the Christmas spirit that we wanted to communicate. It’s a selection that, in some ways, is unusual, breaking away from the repertory of the My Christmas album. Its track list is more modern and warmer, meant to be intimate and inspire a sentiment of universal solidarity, realized by a family for all families.
What was it like recording with your children?
AB: It was very exciting. For A Family Christmas, we literally opened the doors to our home. It was precisely in our home recording studio that we recorded the album’s vocals. It’s not the first time that I shared the microphone with Matteo, nor with Virginia, but making an album together was a more engaging, demanding, tender and potent experience.
And you recorded in the summer. How was that experience?
AB: We started in the summer—we would sing, rehearse, and then go over our songs again, working together with our producers. Then Matteo would at times take a break and go play soccer in the yard with his friends, or Virginia would go for a splash in the pool, or [my wife] Veronica would call us to the table when dinner was ready. It’s my hope that the sounds of these songs can echo that atmosphere of those days passed so serenely, charged with beautiful energy. The memory of this project I’m sure will remain dear to us for the rest of our lives.
Virginia, how does it feel to sing with your father? Is it scary because he’s known all over the world?
VB: It feels natural and normal to sing with my dad, because it’s something I’ve done since I was a baby—but it’s definitely a little scary, following an act like my father, but I’m going to try my best.
Now that you’ve recorded an album with your father, what is your earliest memory of hearing him sing, and how did it impact you?
VB: I don’t know if I have an exact memory of hearing my father sing for the first time, but I just remember from a very young age hearing him sing all day around the house. This influenced me to also sing all day around the house, but I wasn’t singing typical children’s songs. Instead, I was singing opera songs!
You’re doing a limited tour to support this new work. What are your feelings about getting back on the road to perform?
AB: The embrace of the audience—and that exchange of positive energy that occurs—repays me for every effort, even after almost 30 years of militant concert performances.
What songs stand out for you on the album?
AB: I don’t have any particular preferences; the album’s playlist is, in itself, an expression of our preferences. There are new songs, such as ‘The Greatest Gift’ and ‘Il Giorno Più Speciale’ [‘The Most Special Day’], which I believe have great potential. There are Christmas songs coming from all over the world like ‘Feliz Navidad.’ There are trios and duets, as well as solos, such as ‘When Christmas Comes to Town,’ sung by Virginia, and ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas,’ interpreted by Matteo.
What are you most looking forward to when it comes to this tour with your dad?
VB: I’m super excited, because that’s something that I’ve never done before. I’m also excited to travel all over the world sharing these new songs with everyone.
What can your San Francisco fans expect when attending this special concert?
AB: There will be, as always, some guests to make the event even more special. The entire second half of the show will be dedicated to the new album. With the San Francisco audience, it will be a pleasure to feel the holiday spirit and its warmth together, offering each other greetings in music, for the imminent Christmas festivities and the pleasure of sharing Christmas songs that traditionally warm the heart.
Do you have any special San Francisco memories?
AB: I had the honor of singing in your city just three years ago. I have wonderful memories of my stay in San Francisco. I perfectly remember the warmth of the audience and extraordinary hospitality that was reserved for me. I also have very dear friends and those of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation (andreabocellifoundation.org) who live in San Francisco. I personally feel that this new album, tour and inaugural concert are enriched with deep symbolic meaning—it means coming together, starting anew in the name of music, beauty and the values of the Christmas holiday. We need to be together, to share emotions, to live art, to find our smiles again and trust in the future. This is the strong message I would like to convey from the stage. Dec. 3, Chase Center, 1Warriors Way, 888.479.4667, chasecenter.com
Photography by: COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI
