 Good morning, everyone. We are very happy to be here together this morning with this extraordinary opportunity to speak to Maestro Boccelli, an extraordinary artist. Yesterday we had the great privilege to listen to his music and today we have the privilege to share with him some ideas. Maestro Boccelli, grazie. Maestro Boccelli, thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to speak to you. I think that what's interesting is that we are meeting here today to talk about opportunities, particularly for those who have to overcome difficulties and barriers in life. But I didn't want to talk about barriers. I wanted to speak about an extraordinary story, which is your story and which will help us to understand what it means to address life in a different way and to be able to turn problems into opportunities. I think that you have actually faced nothing but challenges, but I think that they were challenges for you since you were a kid because challenges were for you that you really wanted to overcome. Is that true? Yes, I have a bad character, so to speak. First of all, let me say that I am a bit surprised every time I see a large audience that comes to listen to me, but I'm even more surprised when there are people that come to listen to what I say. Well, you know, at home, for instance, very often, you know, because I am a father and so I preach and my children say, shut up. I'm not sure if I can believe it, really. I think it's perhaps the destiny of all parents. So let's talk about challenges. Challenges are a way of life. I don't consider them challenges. I don't think they are challenges. Life is a gift, an extraordinary gift, of which you must not miss one moment. And compared to the wish of doing something, it's important to always say, yes, I can, as Obama would say. There is a winzy horse that is beautiful, and I'd like to ride it. Has that ever happened to you? Have you gone riding? Well, when I was a boy, very often. Now I'm a bit more prudent. But I like life. I like life 360 degrees. I like to experience life. And so challenges for me don't look like challenges. But when you come from a small place in Italy, well, today, for example, where a lot of, we're surrounded by a lot of people from all over the world, but you come from a little place, I think that you come from the heart of Tuscany in that wonderful regions, and there are a lot of people who probably have been there and got to learn it. But how could you come from a small place which has 1,800 souls? I don't know exactly the number you had. And then to come from there and to become a reference point at the international level for everybody in music, for anybody in the arts, but also as a person who inspires so many people. What got you from where you started, from where you are today? I never thought and I don't think that it's important to be born in Manhattan or in the center of Rome to do something interesting in life. And you must remember that the father of contemporary philosophy, Immanuel Kant, was born in Königsberg, a very small German town. He didn't, it wasn't even curious to travel the world. He was so tied to his habits that people would set their clock when he walked by because he would always be in the same place at the same time. And this is very insightful. It teaches us that within us there is a universe, a world that could be exported, could be a gift. And it's not important, as I said, to be born in a large city or in a very stimulating place. I believe it's important to find within ourselves the wish to live, the desire to do things, to make, create things. This is important. To be happy you must create and give a meaning to life. But don't you think that along the path of life what is also important is to have opportunities to do things because what every one of us would love to do that also means how many people are going to be involved also. But there are other factors which influence in all our lives, which make a particular approach possible or not. Well, missing opportunities, which is the reality for many people around the world, consists in the presence of unsurmountable obstacles. So the task of each one of us and of foundations and of governments is that of creating opportunities, the same opportunities for everybody and basically be able, allow people to overcome obstacles. And that's precisely what you're trying to do, I suppose, with your foundation, with the work that you're doing in the foundation all over the world. Yes, the foundation was created for this task that of creating opportunities for people who don't have them, recreate opportunities for those who don't have them and help as much as it's possible. Of course, the foundation is a very complex organization. There is the goodwill of many people at work and within the foundation, sometimes I feel as a character in a Dostoevsky novel. Maybe many of you read Demons by Dostoevsky. The main character is Nikolayev Volodovich, is a character that doesn't have any special qualities. He is only a man who attracts people's attention and so he is chosen and everybody wants him with them to do things. So that's a little bit the way I am. I'm not able to do anything in particular. God gave me the wish, the gift of attracting the attention, maybe. Now, you say you're not capable of doing anything. That is an understatement that we listen to, but we find difficult to believe in it. Well, you know, to be in tune is not so extraordinary. I imagine almost everybody is. Well, I am a journalist and I could say, well, Maestro Bocelli has just said that he's tone deaf. Would you believe that? Well, we could talk about this because, you know, to carry a tune, you may be able to carry a tune up to 100 or 90, 95. To reach 100, it's a little bit difficult, so sometimes you go out of tune. So the fact that I have a voice is not a merit in itself. I often say, I tell journalists often time when I get interviewed, that I believe that in human beings there is no merit, not just for me, for you as well. There is only the de-merit, because the fact of having qualities to be good in this or that, it's a gift that you have received from the heavens. You have to recognize that. For many people there is the de-merit of not having put in all the commitment to turn this gift into something extraordinary. I was born able to carry a tune and with this strange gift that surprises me every time, I see that people like to hear me sing. Of course, I'm happy for that and I took advantage of it to create an instrument that can become important for the life of many people who are suffering. This instrument is a foundation that carries my name and within which a certain number of people work and these people are very abled and they have a big heart and soul. Now, I think that I'd like to talk about one aspect which you're talking about that is to overcome difficulties and to overcome limits, for example, and getting opportunities in a place like Haiti. Let's start with that aspect with your foundation. I think you might remember when you decided to set up a foundation, when you decided to work in Haiti, did you share that moment when you took that decision? Well, you know, there have been two decisive moments. The first one was the meeting with Father Rick. Father Rick is a hero of our times. He's a priest who went to Haiti many years ago and when he saw the situation in this island, he thought he had to go back to the US, get a degree from medical school and go back there to live as a priest and a doctor working in disastrous conditions for 12 hours a day. I was very impressed by a person like that and I decided to help him and then there was another defining moment, the earthquake in Haiti. I was awakened with this terrible news that Onika had already organized AIDS that would get there with trucks and so on and from that moment on, our wish to help these people became stronger and stronger. Well, that is probably the international part of the foundation's work. That is, you try and help those whose freedom is limited in some way who can't create a life for themselves because of poverty, also because there may be a disaster or a very difficult life. But then there is another aspect in the foundation which you're working and you're working with MIT on this in order to develop a technology to help those who have other limits that they have to face. Yes, I chose to attempt something in a field in which I had some knowledge. So I thought of many people, friends of mine too, that are blind and live in large cities and they every day have the challenge of leaving home and going shopping, going to work, going through the city with all the dangers and the difficulties that appear obvious. I thought that we could create a tool, a device that would help them move around. So a device that would help them move around, avoid obstacles and find more easily what they were looking for. And then there is going to be another session which is going to be devoted precisely to dealing with those aspects. Namely we're going to be talking about the developments in technology in this area. I think that today they will tell us about the steps that medicine and technology is making for giving the site back to those who don't have it. And we all wish that. So on one side I try to hurry the scientists because I'd like they find this device but at the same time I hope it's not necessary. I think that's probably the nicest thing to wish for but I'm sure that you'll be discussing these aspects later on. But tell me, with this limitation you have dealt with that in the same way as you've met the other challenges in your life and I suppose it's part of your character which has counted for a lot in that. Well you see, it's difficult that somebody can always have a full glass. We all have limitations. There's something we'd like to have and we don't have. So we have to decide if you want to see the glass half full or half empty. I don't know if this is a limitation for my intelligence but I keep on seeing my glass always half full or almost full. Well how difficult was it for you? For your parents to have to deal with a young boy with a very strong character like you. You've always been someone with strong character. You seem not to have any limitations. I don't know if these are just anecdotes that are going around about you but apparently you made life pretty difficult for them. Well my father and my mother had a very different nature. My father was very anxious and worried easily the way I am and thank God my children are more prudent than I was as a child. So my father really suffered. Even when you called the driver of the school bus well perhaps you can tell them that anecdote. Once my father received in his office the driver of the school bus and he went there and he told him that I was on a Vespa. My friend and I had were running faster than he was with the bus and my father thinking that it was my friend's imprudence he promised to scold my friend and the driver had to say that I was driving. And so I remember that evening I went towards my father I greeted him and he pretended not to know me. So I wondered what had happened I didn't even think of that Vespa thing. So of course I took a lot of swear words for a while. Well of course we would all support your father because I probably wouldn't have been very happy to listen to that. But the same kind of tenacity and the sense of overcoming one's limits you had also with regard to your art because there are lots of people who have really made sometimes life difficult for you and said well probably basically you should not not really exceed to this type of music being a performer for Italy and that you would never be able to go up to the level you have reached and there you are, here you are today same attitude that follows you. You see there is no career that doesn't have difficulties to overcome and I'm sure everybody knows this. In my work this is what happens at the beginning when you show a certain talent everybody pushes you and says sing sing sing and so you have to sing in school because then you're able to waste a little time during the class time you know you have to sing in church on Sunday you have to sing at every birthday party of your friends if this activity then proceeds and you become a successful singer from that moment on you start having issues because as Oscar Wilde used to say people forgives you everything except success so of course there are difficulties but they are part of the game if it were easy you know many people would do the same well, but I think we need to look ahead and not worry too much about what could be a hindrance look at the open road you have ahead of you and run we've still got a few minutes we can spend together to find yourself as somebody who and we didn't really accept the definition I think you really are somebody who inspires and there are a lot of people who really follow your actions and are inspired by them but could you tell us who were the key people who were the reference points for you and perhaps it would be nice to hear from you who were the people who inspired you so we can round off the discussion I was lucky enough to have next to me a person that I described my mentor a second father for me this man was a self-taught man he learned by himself and he became the director of the bank in La Iatico in my town he had seven languages he had an immense culture he retired quite early and from that moment on he was my friend he loved culture books he was very happy to study with me and thanks to him I know that little that I know to him on the artistic level my idol has always been Franco Corelli when I met his voice it was like love at first sight I fell in love with him as an artist as a singer and from that moment on I thought in some area of my brain I started thinking of emulating him and becoming a singer yeah, those are the key people in our lives the people who really help us to plot our lives we've come to an end you're here, you left us with a very strong message yesterday with your art, your singing what is the message you want to leave to all the people here people who've come from all over the world who've listened to you and who will continue along their paths who really believe in the importance of meeting with history and who will be motivated by this encounter well, I'd be too proud if I thought I would give a message to the people that are here and I'm sure everybody who's here are people that are quite accomplished in their work I just want to thank you all for being so patient as to listen to me and I hope I will meet you soon in other places where instead of speaking, we sing that is a really nice message to leave us with thank you thank you to you, Maestro Bocelli it was a pleasure the end of our first part of the session now those who signed just for the first part are kindly requested to leave us because we have to give the space for those who signed for the second part thanks everybody, have a great day thank you