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.
Popularity gets up people's noses. But I understand the importance and the function of popular music. There is an artistic purpose. Popular music helps people to develop a curiosity and leads them towards classical music.
I like reading... French, Russian classics - Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert. I also like Hemingway, Virginia Woolf.
Some years ago I gave a concert in the mountains with snow all around, and that was much colder.
In preparing my thesis, I have had the pleasure of collecting testimonies from colleagues such as Placido Domingo but also from singing teachers and musicologists. The entire course of study has confirmed what I already thought, that the value and meaning of opera singing, at the beginning of the third millennium, remain intact.
Very often, I recognize many, many defects, so I try to improve myself every day. I think my voice is very communicative.
Let me say that I've never thought to conduct because the conductor has to think to the music before the orchestra. And the orchestra comes later. For me, it's terrible.
For me, the most enjoyable type of singing is opera. It allows you to move, to wear a costume... to do something with your body. When singing in concert, you have to stand up in front of the audience, next to the conductor, which is less natural.
I don't like crying. I'm a country boy, and we're the product of our upbringing. As a boy, I was told that men don't cry.
I'm a country boy, and we're the product of our upbringing. As a boy, I was told that men don't cry.
People are often quite surprised by the sport and leisure activities practised by the blind. For example, tandem cycling is very popular.
The fact that I am blind is not what defines my life. It should be of no more interest than my blood type. People wonder if there is a relationship between my lack of sight and the way I sing. But there's no connection.
A voice is very intimate. It's something of your own. So there's always this fear, because you feel naked. There's a fear of not reaching up to expectations. As you become more famous, people come and expect to hear something extraordinary, so you don't want to disappoint them. I feel this sense of responsibility.
To sing a duet together means sharing with someone both the pleasure and the responsibility of making music for an audience which is there to feel enjoyment through music.
To be happy when you are travelling, you need to be happy inside before you leave. A positive frame of mind will definitely enhance your travelling experience. If I'm not in a positive frame of mind then the whole thing definitely becomes more of a challenge for me.
A positive frame of mind will definitely enhance your travelling experience. If I'm not in a positive frame of mind then the whole thing definitely becomes more of a challenge for me.
The feeling of an evolution is a constant for every artist who is pursuing the search of refinement and enlargement of his/her own means of expression.
Fatherhood is a very natural thing; it's not something that shakes up my life but rather it enriches it.
It is not Christian to go against someone. I am in favour of life.
It's very important for me to try to relax when I'm travelling, and playing my flute helps me to unwind.
