UK/ITALY: MICHAEL BOLTON UNVEILS HIS LATEST CHART-TOPPING ALBUM OF ARIAS "MY SECRET PASSION"

Record ID: 387558

  • Title: UK/ITALY: MICHAEL BOLTON UNVEILS HIS LATEST CHART-TOPPING ALBUM OF ARIAS "MY SECRET PASSION"
  • Date: 22nd April 1998
  • Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 22, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) BOLTON SAYING, "THE FIRST TIME I DID IT (SANG OPERA) WAS WITH PAVAROTTI IN MODENA, ITALY. THERE WERE 15,000 IN THE AUDIENCE, LADY DI ON THE RIGHT, U2 FANS ON THE LEFT AND A FENCE IN THE MIDDLE. YOU SAW THESE ROCK AUDIENCES, ON THE OTHER SIDE WERE THE DIGNITARIES. WE WERE BEING FILMED AND EIGHT
  • Embargoed: 7th May 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM AND MODENA, ITALY
  • City:
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAE7C747W9LXCRVW7ZOVKJVZY56
  • Story Text: Farewell Michael Bolton the pop star.Welcome Michael Bolton the opera singer.

    Once famous for his golden locks and sentimental ballads, the U.S.singer has cut his curls and gone classical.

    The 45-year-old chiselled-jaw artist has proved the sceptics wrong with a critically acclaimed selection of tenor arias from Italian and French opera -- his first full-length classical album to date.

    Bolton experienced an epiphany nearly three years ago on stage with opera great Luciano Pavarotti.The two shared the stage for the charity concert War Child in Modena, Italy, where Bolton sang "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's opera "Turandot".

    He was hooked.Schooled in Ray Charles and Otis Reding, Bolton suddenly discovered the likes of Verdi, Donizetti and Leoncavallo.

    "They are alternate romantics," he explained."Composers like Puccini, they're not about lightweight sentimentality.

    They are people who have killed for love, died for love." Besides Pavarotti, Bolton has sung opera with Placido Domingo and on "The Tonight Show", "David Letterman" and the American Music Awards.He has performed arias at San Remo Festival and been invited to sing in Sicily.

    Bolton has begun to include Nessun Dorma in his concerts and his private passion has become public property.

    "My Secret Passion", released in the United Kingdom in early March, climbed to the top of the U.K's classical charts and spent six weeks at the top of Billboards U.S.classical chart where it is currently third.

    The 11 arias on the album are sung in the original French and Italian.

    This summer Bolton takes to the road with special guest country-western star Wynonna Judd for a series of concerts beginning in Mississippi on May 16 and ending in Washington D.C.in July.

    Over the course of his varied career, Bolton has sold more than 40 million records world wide and won countless awards -- including two Grammys and six American Music Awards -- for his singing and song writing.

    Although he sang in his first band at the tender age of 13, he had to wait until his thirties before achieving stardom and the wealth that accompanied it.

    In late 1997, Bolton released his first children's book, "The Secret Of The Lost Kingdom".

    On a darker note, the singer has been hit by allegations that his charitable foundation did not distribute most of the money donated to it, a charge he vigorously denies.

    The New York Post's gossip column printed three stories last week alleging that Bolton's charity disbursed only 15 per cent of donations it received and that he collected a salary of 150,000 U.S.dollars a year from it.
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