The grand and expressive voice of Andrea Bocelli has often seemed in contrast to his softly spoken manner.
In a new book titled La musica del silenzio or “The music of silence” Bocelli has revealed how he became fully blind as a child in a banal occurrence which assisted in his move towards the world of music.
Always diagnosed with glaucoma that prevented him from seeing colours and lights, his right eye always remained the healthier one.
He says in an interview:I have always been outgoing and vivacious.
As a boy I loved playing football and one day, during a game, a ball hit me in the right eye, the only one with which I could see light and colour.
They tried to cure me through various operations, even using leeches, but nothing could be done.
With his football playing days over and being blind with a constant pain in his eyes, Bocelli reveals how he first came into contact with classical music.
His mother discovered, that at the age of five her son Andrea could be calmed with a simple classical music record played and so one of Italy’s most famous singers came to his career.