Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
One of the world's most celebrated tenors, discovered singing in nightclubs and rising from a poor immigrant family.
On the island
Eight records
C'est elle... Ma belle, si jolie
For me I have a a very big admiration for this singer. Very, very talented. He can do every everything with his voice. And for me it's a great, great maister.
Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli
I chose uh Jongo Reynard because he was for me the greatest uh guitarist. He was a gypsy, you know, a manoosh. And uh he started to play guitar. He was very, very talented and he had uh an accident.
He was a phenomenon because he was able to sing from the morning till the the night, each day. I think it's amazing, no? For him, singing was something natural, like birth.
Kuda, kuda vï udalilis (Lensky's Aria)
He's a a Russian tenor, Ivan Kovlovsky, with a sweet voice, very soft and beautiful, and uh I loved also his acting.
Dagli elmi ai fieri cimieriFavourite
He was a good friend of mine and uh I remember this beautiful voice. For me, this uh voice is very moving. All the time when I I hear his voice, I have uh such a great emotion.
O tzar, ya premiloval (Prince Gremin's Aria)
He was um such a kind man. I sang many, many times with him and uh I had a big admiration for the great artist, but also for the humility of this man.
Te souvient-il du lumineux voyage (Méditation)
Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson
I have a great great admiration for her. With Tom I sang a lot. I think our voices are match very well together.
Nobody knows him. He was a little bit like uh Nicola Geda. The same uh possibilities in the voice with the top note, uh with uh incredibly uh clear and uh soft
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:21How did you spend the day of your operatic debut [with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera]?
I had a normal life during the day and each night singing on Cabaret. And it was the same when I started to sing opera. And during the day I was with my family in Plymouth, I I remember, and I I went to the sea and uh yeah, I had a very good time, you know, with them. And uh after uh six o'clock I said, Okay, now I I'm going to the theater to sing Traviata, Alfredo.
Presenter asks
8:27What did your parents want for you, and is it true your mother wanted you to be an accountant?
My education was very strange because uh I was uh adult at ten years old. ... My mother was a una sarta couture, you know. She made a seamstress and a couture and my father was uh built uh houses. ... Yes, yes, because she was afraid about this uh profession, you know. And for my mother it was very important to go with the suit and the costume, to have a very, very nice aspect.
Presenter asks
13:34How did you actually start singing opera in public?
I sang in nightclubs, but in nightclubs my voice was very powerful, maybe too much, you know. And I remember my musicians telling me, You know, Roberto, you have some problems with your voice, it's too loud. You must do something. Go to see this teacher, Rafael Ruiz. ... And this teacher was crazy after listening to me because he told me, But you are a tenor. ... stop to smoke, stop the cabaret, stop everything. You have to study opera. I said, Okay, I will try.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
17:11How did you find out that your second wife was desperately ill?
We went to the doctor, we made some exams, and it was so rude, the doctor, because he said in front of us, You will die in three months. And uh my voice broke in that moment. And uh we start to to cry, you know, and uh we return home. It was like everything around you are s[urreal] ... Not true, nothing. Like a surreal uh situation.
Presenter asks
25:29How did you and Angela [Gheorghiu] meet?
Angela was my angel. You know, when we met for the first time it was in'ninety two in Covent Garden, here in London. ... We had the first uh rehearsal on stage, and I took the hand of Angela and I I received, I don't know, such a big voltage of electricity. It was amazing. ... And we start to to be in love and to be uh but without speaking, you know, only with on stage and uh looking each other and to stay it was uh very delightful to stay with her and to stay beside her and to to sing with her, to mix our thimbre, uh, our vibration together.
“I was all the time too shy and not sure of me because all the time my mother told me, you know, this world is not for us. We are simple people. It's not for us. It's too difficult. It's impossible for us.”
“For me, to go on stage, it's an act of love. I must be in love with the audience, with my colleagues, with the music, with the company, with the theatres. This is a pleasure for me. If I have to go there to fight, to prove something is not my my temperament.”
“Thanks God I have my voice with me. My voice for me is my my best friend. Sometimes my voice is like a person.”