Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli, one of the world’s most famous tenors, will perform from Milan’s empty Duomo cathedral on Easter Sunday in a live-streamed concert intended as a symbol of love, hope, and healing amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Bocelli will be accompanied only by the cathedral organist, Emanuele Vianelli, playing one of the world’s largest pipe organs and performing a repertoire of sacred works including Pietro Mascagni’s Sancta Maria as reported by Reuters.
In his words:
I’m honoured and happy to answer ‘Si’ to the invitation of the City and the Duomo of Milan. I believe in the strength of praying together; I believe in the Christian Easter, a universal symbol of rebirth that everyone, whether they are believers or not, truly needs right now. Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earth’s pulsing heart.
Italy, which remains in lockdown, has suffered the world’s highest death toll from COVID-19, with 16,523 deaths as of Monday and almost 133,000 cases. Milan and the surrounding Lombardy region have been the worst affected by the pandemic.
Andrea Angel Bocelli is an Italian opera singer, songwriter, and record producer. Celine Dion once said that “if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli.”
Since 1982, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 90 million records worldwide.
He was born with poor eyesight and became completely blind at age 12, following a football accident.