4 October 2020

Ignazio Boschetto – tenor

Talented singer is known for being the funny guy in Il Volo

Ignazio Boschetto
Ignazio Boschetto sang operatic
arias even as a child
Ignazio Boschetto, a singer in the award-winning pop and opera trio Il Volo, was born on this day in 1994 in Bologna in the region of Emilia-Romagna.

His Sicilian parents, Vito Boschetto and Caterina Licari, took him back to live in Sicily and he grew up in Marsala in the province of Trapani in the most western part of Sicily.

He has said in interviews that from being about three years old he used to sing operatic arias alone in his room, such as La donna e mobile from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, much to the surprise of his parents.

Ignazio could be classed as a lyric tenor, considering the timbre of his voice, which is warm and soft, but strong enough to sing over an orchestra. A complete artist, Ignazio also plays the piano, guitar and drums.

When he was 12 he started to take part in festivals and competitions and in December 2007 he reached the finals of the Premio Nave Punica, winning third place among competitors of all ages.

The following year he won the 11th Festival della Canzone di Custonaci singing Il mare calmo della sera. In December, when he had turned 13, he won the third edition of the Premio Nave Punica, thrilling the audience at the Teatro Impero in Marsala with his performance.

Ignazio Boschetto and Piero Barone of Il Volo
Boschetto shares a joke onstage with his fellow
Il Volo singer Piero Barone
The following year he took part in the RAI talent show Ti lascio una canzone. He was selected, along with Piero Barone and Gianluca Ginoble, the other members of Il Volo, to compete in the second edition of the competition.

In the fourth episode of the show, he sang O sole mio along with Gianluca and Piero and it was then that the concept of Il Volo was born.

The director of the show, Roberto Cenci, had the idea of putting them together to create a trio similar to the Three Tenors – the legendary Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti.

The group was initially named I Tre Tenorini - the Three Little Tenors - but this was later changed to The Tryo. In 2010 their name was changed again to Il Volo, which in English means The Flight.

Il Volo - Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto
Il Volo - Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone and
Ignazio Boschetto - have been together since 2009
Il Volo won the Sanremo music festival in 2015 and represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest that year with Grande Amore, coming third, although they had won the televote and the press award for the best song.

In 2016, with Placido Domingo, they released Notte Magica - A tribute to the Three Tenors.

By then, Ignazio had established the reputation of being the funny guy of the group, his natural gift for humour winning him many fans.

In 2019, Il Volo released their compilation album, Il Volo: The best of 10 years, to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

Il Volo have won numerous awards including Billboard Latin awards and Wind Music Awards and the trio have completed tours all over the world.

The Porta Garibaldi was renamed in honour of the Italian unification leader
The Porta Garibaldi was renamed in honour
of the Italian unification leader
Travel tip:

As a tourist destination, Marsala is somewhat overshadowed by nearby Trapani and the Greek city of Selinunte, which has the remains of five temples.  Yet the town has plenty of history of its own and its archaeological museum is considered worth a visit. It is also well known for its fortified wine and as the port where Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in 1860 with his Expedition of the Thousand, an integral part of the sequence of events that culminated in the unification of Italy.

A sweeping view of the bay on which sits the picturesque port of Trapani
A sweeping view of the bay on which sits
the picturesque port of Trapani
Travel tip:

Situated on the western coast of Sicily, Trapani is a fishing and ferry port notable for a curving harbour, where Peter of Aragon landed in 1282 to begin the Spanish occupation of Sicily. Well placed strategically to trade with Africa as well as the Italian mainland, Trapani was once the hub of a commercial network that stretched from Carthage in what is now Tunisia to Venice. Nowadays, the port is used by ferries serving Tunisia and the smaller islands, as well as other Italian ports.  The older part of the town, on a promontory with the sea on either side, has some crumbling palaces and others that have been well restored, as well as a number of military fortifications and notable churches.

Also on this day:

1633: The birth of groundbreaking physician Bernardino Ramazzini

1657: The birth of painter Francesco Solimena

1720: The birth of printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The Feast of St Francis of Assisi


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