To an unseen audience, Bocelli raised his voice in prayer

Catholic Herald, 15 May 2020

The image of the man who has lost his sight singing “I was blind but now I see” was as powerful a Christian performance as could be imagined.

It was time for the singers. And in devastated Italy, post-Pavarotti, that could only mean Andrea Bocelli. Hence the grace-filled moment that took place this Easter, at a sacred music concert in the empty Duomo.

Since the mid-1980s, when Bob Geldof gave us Band Aid to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine, any calamity of sufficient gravity calls forth a musical response. And not just calamities: the 1990 World Cup in Italy was set to the soundtrack of Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma, with its rousing climax of vincerò, vincerò, vincerò! Far more people remember Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo at the Baths of Caracalla than who won the football tournament.

Less than a year later, the same phenomenon would mark Super Bowl 1991, where Whitney Houston’s rendition of the American national anthem was more spectacular than the game itself. Ten years later, her recording was re-released after 9/11 and went to number one.

In 2006, the Turin Winter Olympics reached its high point at the opening ceremonies, in which the maestro sang Nessun Dorma as the grand finale. It was his last performance. Pavarotti would die the following year.

And so in the current pandemic there would have to be a concert. In Italy that requires not a pop star, but a great tenor. That meant Bocelli, and it was a blessing for Bocelli is not only a cultural figure but a sincere believer.

“For an artist, the event is the reason for the sacrifices of a lifetime,” Bocelli said last month. “For a believer and a Catholic as I am, it was further confirmation of the benevolent smile with which the Heavenly Father looks to his children. It was an immeasurable honour and privilege to lend my voice to the prayers of millions of people.”

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