Il Volo: “Our concert for those who didn’t make it”

Months of closed doors, silence. The Verona Arena turns the lights back on and lets the music play, starting from Il Volo – Tribute to Ennio Morricone, an event concert, in honor of the great Maestro. Broadcast live on Saturday 5th June on Rai Uno, it marks the great restart of the summer season of one of the most important places for Italian music.

It is a special evening. The three boys appear excited, after days of rehearsals, which ended at two in the morning the night before.

A show prepared in detail, where for the first time the three tenors also play the role of television hosts but choose not to read the hunchback, in order to be more free to be themselves. The difference can be seen, after a somewhat rigid start in the spoken parts, when they finally break up joking with each other. It is their beauty. Serious and composed as they sing, they appear much more fun (and entertained) if they let themselves go to their dynamics of colleagues (and especially friends) who have been working together for the past 12 years. On the other hand, no hesitation in the sung parts, from the first note of Your Love, the song that opens the concert, among the images of the film Once Upon a Time in the West. They show once again, in this first concert after a year and a half of stoppage which for them is also the first live television broadcast, that they are professionals able to fill the sky of Verona with three powerful voices that fit together perfectly and excite an audience that stands up many times, in continuous standing ovations, demonstrating great participation and emotion to the three protagonists.

“These have been difficult days for us. We’ve been thinking about doing a live broadcast for a long time, but we’ve always wanted to wait, we didn’t think we were ready. Today we want to send a message to young people. Never give up on your dreams. Because we didn’t do it, ”says Ignatius, just as one of their dreams comes true.

At the center of the show are therefore their voices andRegional Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta of 60 elements directed by the master Marcello Rota who reinterpret the great hits of Maestro Morricone and, alongside them Laura Chiatti, presented as the muse of the trio, Raphael Gualazzi with Nina Zilland per Think about a night at dinner, Marco Giallini who accompanies them in the conduction «You were our backbone, for our first live television broadcast», they will tell him at the end. On stage he also goes up Riccardo Cocciante that next year will celebrate 50 years of career and that sings with them The world and alone When a love ends. It also comes Salvatore Cascio among the images of New paradise cinema. But the special guest is the Master Andrea Morricone, Ennio’s son who also wrote a new song for them, The colors of love.

It is their only concert of 2021 in Italy and is also broadcast in the United States by the PBS network. “The best thing is to see so many people working on this event“, they say. And with them there are also the dancers, as if to underline that the art that must start again also passes through dance.

Many words dedicated to the Master, to whom the three have always been linked. Anecdotes from the past, they had shared the stage in Piazza del Popolo in 2011 and dedicated a tribute in numerous concerts all over the world, Ignazio remembers when he had spoken to him, at the age of sixteen, among his first important experiences: “Ah, me lo you give the attack? », arousing smiles behind the masks of the audience. Ffp2 mandatory to enter the amphitheater, for 5000 people, a limited capacity, as per the rules of these new concerts that start again. What you don’t see on TV are the ladies in the front rows waving to greet them or the people outside the Arena listening. The greetings of the three, when they are not framed and the words during the advertising blacks. There are also many foreigners who have come from abroad to attend the show. «We have experienced shortcomings and distances. There are those who have had great losses and those who have great satisfaction. We dedicate this concert to the people who have not made it. Our thoughts go up there to them»Says Ignazio. And among them there is also his father Vito, who suddenly passed away in March. “This concert is dedicated to Vito who we miss so much and is watching us from up there,” says Piero at the end, in a moment that becomes very emotional but which again leaves room for the professionalism of three friends who support each other. And so, while Ignazio sings perhaps at his best, the hands of Gianluca, visibly moved, look for his, to support him, in the most difficult, but also the most exciting, moment of the whole show.

They show their nuances, especially when they go on stage alone. Gianluca sings Your Song by Elton John showing his more pop side, dedicating the song to his mother, sitting in the front row. Piero, with Andrea Griminelli on flute, It can’t be new and Ignatius Listen accompanied by an eight and a half year old boy, Julian Iorio, on saxophone.

The tribute to the master therefore also passes through great pieces such as To fly, My Way, O my sun. E not missing Great love, the song with which they won in 2015 at the Sanremo Festival. At the end they thank them, they dedicate an encore to the cameras off to the standing audience, they hope they enjoyed the show «We were very anxious. But we gave everything ».

There is now a rest period in their future. One more day in Verona and then all at home, waiting to be able to leave for a tour in 2022 that they hope will keep them busy for at least two years. Before then, however, a new disc for Sony Music, which will be this tribute to the master and which will arrive after the summer. “After a year and a half you gave us oxygen,” they tell the audience. And the public too, it is evident, has breathed this evening.