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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the vulnerability and pressure artists feel in meeting audience expectations.
Andrea Bocelli expresses the intimate nature of one's voice and the accompanying fears that arise from public performance. As an artist gains fame, the expectation for excellence increases, leading to a sense of responsibility and anxiety about not disappointing the audience. This insight highlights the emotional challenges artists face in balancing personal authenticity with external expectations.
In practice
During a speech about the challenges artists face, I could use Bocelli's quote to illustrate the balance of creativity and viewer expectations.
When I get on stage, my first goal is not to show my expertise, but on the contrary, to give a bit of happiness, of joy, of cheerfulness. I am firmly convinced that in order to sing well, you must love your neighbor and be passionate about life.
Opera singing is in every way of inestimable value; a real heritage for all mankind that has been reached over centuries of studies, attempts, flights of the spirit.
To sing opera, one needs two things: the voice and the passion - and above all, the passion.
It's always beautiful to sing with other great voices. I like voices in general. It's a big privilege to have great singers next to me.
A young pregnant wife has been hospitalized for a simple attack of appendicitis. The doctors had to apply ice to her stomach and when the treatments ended the doctors suggested that she abort the child, they told her it was the 'best solution' because the baby would be born with some disability but the young brave wife decided not to abort, and the child was born. That woman was my Mother and I was the child.
Even in the most beautiful music there are some silences, which are there so we can witness the importance of silence.
Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world.
When you're a performer, of course you want an audience, but it's very, very different from courting fame.
I spent a whole summer working on what proved to be 'A Game of Thrones'.
Shadow is a colour as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the relation of two tones.
Unlike sport, music is not about winning or keeping fit or promoting your town or school; it's about celebrating, to a level approaching ecstasy, the deepest human longings.
I always think first about the nature of the story. When I had the idea for 'The Namesake,' I felt that it had to be a novel - it couldn't work as a story.
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