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How Am I Supposed to Sing Puccini? - Michael Bolton Goes Opera · Jon's WTF Music Moments

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to John's WTF Music Moments, the show where
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: music history gets weird enough that you start asking, wait,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: are we sure this actually happened? And today's question is,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: what happens when the guy whose music your aunt slow
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  Speaker 1: danced to in 1991 suddenly starts singing opera? Because at
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  Speaker 1: some point, Michael Bolton, the patron saint of crazy early
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: 90s hairstyles, dramatic key changes, and late 1980s VH1 Top
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: 20 music video countdowns, decided he might have one more
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: career move left. No, not co-writing a song with Bob Dylan.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: He'd already done that. I'm not kidding. Check out the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: song Steel Bars. Or don't. You're not missing much. So
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  Speaker 1: this career move was apparently, what if I became a
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  Speaker 1: tenor and like, you know, sing opera? How hard can
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  Speaker 1: that be? No, this is not a fever dream. This
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  Speaker 1: is not an LSD trip. But this is really, really weird.
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  Speaker 1: And this strange turn begins in 1995. Remember Luciano Pavarotti?
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  Speaker 1: The late? larger than life and much larger than what
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  Speaker 1: is considered healthy in pretty much every country around the world,
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  Speaker 1: except maybe Samoa, great opera singer. So, Michael Bolton appears
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  Speaker 1: at one of Pavarotti's charity concerts in Modena, Italy, the
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  Speaker 1: famous Pavarotti and Friends event, September 1995. Now, this is
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  Speaker 1: already odd enough, because imagine Being in a crowd expecting
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  Speaker 1: world-class opera, legendary voices, maybe some mid-90s Euro-pop stars, a
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  Speaker 1: bit of refined Italian La Dolce Vita and late summer grandeur,
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  Speaker 1: and then suddenly you're hearing the how-am-I-supposed-to-live-without-you guy. That alone
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  Speaker 1: sounds like a setup for a joke. But on that stage,
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  Speaker 1: Bolton takes his first public stab at operatic singing Joining
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  Speaker 1: Pavarotti and a few others in singing the moving aria
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  Speaker 1: Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot, a Pavarotti's signature piece, and
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  Speaker 1: audiences had the same reaction pretty much everyone else would have. Wait,
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  Speaker 1: he can actually sort of do this. Not, he's the
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  Speaker 1: next Luciano Pavarotti, but definitely, well, this is much less
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous than expected. And honestly, for Michael Bolton, that may
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  Speaker 1: have been the first victory. To his credit, he nailed
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  Speaker 1: the high note at the end of the aria. No
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  Speaker 1: easy task. He belted it out effortlessly. Then somehow, and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: this is where the story gets wonderfully weird. A few
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  Speaker 1: months later, Bolton and Pavarotti, now buddies apparently, show up
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  Speaker 1: together on the late show with David Letterman. And If
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  Speaker 1: that sounds surreal, that's because, well, it absolutely was. Just
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  Speaker 1: imagine seeing the world's most beloved opera legend standing next
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  Speaker 1: to the man who looked like he might have been
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  Speaker 1: hired to perform at a bat mitzvah in Far Rockaway
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  Speaker 1: in 1989. It was one of those moments where viewers
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  Speaker 1: probably thought, did David Letterman lose a bet? Was I dosed? Still,
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  Speaker 1: The audience that night were polite, enthusiastic even. It would
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  Speaker 1: seem as though that Michael Bolton had scratched his operatic
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  Speaker 1: itch and would then go back to sing over-the-top soulful
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  Speaker 1: power ballads. But then, well, Michael Bolton did the most
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Michael Bolton thing possible. Instead of treating opera like a
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  Speaker 1: one-time experiment, a dalliance, if you will, he committed. He
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  Speaker 1: doubled down. Michael Bolton went all in. In 1997, he
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  Speaker 1: releases an album, an entire album, of him singing opera
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  Speaker 1: called My Secret Passion, The Arias. My Secret Passion, The Arias.
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  Speaker 1: That title alone deserves respect. Because there is no more
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: dramatic phrase than my secret passion. That doesn't sound like
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  Speaker 1: an album. That sounds like a romance novel hidden in
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  Speaker 1: a nightstand drawer or an alcohol-induced visit to Grindr late
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  Speaker 1: one lonely Saturday night. But to Michael Bolton, this was
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  Speaker 1: no joke. He was serious about dabbling in opera. So serious,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, that the cover of My Secret Fashion was
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  Speaker 1: How about My Secret Passion? The cover of My Secret
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  Speaker 1: Passion featured a close-up of Bolton with his trademark long
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  Speaker 1: curly hair now cut short, as if he was begging
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  Speaker 1: us to take him seriously as an opera singer and
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  Speaker 1: not a VH1 Light FM icon. Critics, naturally, did not
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  Speaker 1: know what to do with all of this. Now, in
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  Speaker 1: their defense, would any of you know what to do
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  Speaker 1: with this either? Some reviews acknowledged the effort and noted
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  Speaker 1: that Bolton approached the material with sincerity, discipline, genuine respect
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  Speaker 1: for the genre. But many critics landed in a more
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  Speaker 1: cautious place. The tone was often something like, Bolton sings
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  Speaker 1: with conviction, but the project feels more curious than essential.
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  Speaker 1: Others said, well, the voice is stronger than expected, though
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  Speaker 1: the interpretation's rarely transcend novelty, which is critic language for,
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  Speaker 1: this is better than we feared, but we still have
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  Speaker 1: questions and concerns. And honestly, that might be the most
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  Speaker 1: accurate possible review of a Michael Bolton opera album. But
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  Speaker 1: to his credit, the album still managed to peak on
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  Speaker 1: the Billboard 200 at number 112. Not exactly Pavarotti numbers,
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  Speaker 1: or Michael Bolton numbers from nearly a decade prior, but
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  Speaker 1: also not we-quietly-pretend-this-never-happened territory. So the reason this story feels
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  Speaker 1: so bizarre is because most artists spend their careers firmly
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  Speaker 1: settled in their genre, their style, their overall vibe. Michael
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  Speaker 1: Bolton already had one. Sophora crooner, radio ballad specialist. emotionally
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  Speaker 1: available man near a piano. That identity was set a
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  Speaker 1: long time before this album. Nobody asked him to sing Verdi.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody demanded Puccini. Nobody was standing in Tower Records in
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln Center screaming, sing something from Pagliacci, Michael, please. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: he did it anyway. Beneath the punchline, though, there's something
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  Speaker 1: actually kind of admirable here, because most artists would never
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  Speaker 1: risk looking this ridiculous in public. Michael Bolton did. He
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: basically said, you already think I'm corny. Why not make
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  Speaker 1: this more confusing? And weirdly, that takes balls or delusion.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes those are very close relatives in the music and
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  Speaker 1: entertainment world. And here's the weird twist. that makes this
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  Speaker 1: slightly less insane. Not fully sane, just less insane. Bolton
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  Speaker 1: might have been onto something by making a foray into opera.
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  Speaker 1: Because in the mid to late 90s, classical crossover was
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  Speaker 1: quietly becoming a thing. In the years that followed the
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  Speaker 1: release of the Bolton opera album, you had Andrea Bocelli
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  Speaker 1: breaking through. One wonders what Bocelli thinks of the Bolton
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  Speaker 1: opera album. And I wonder what Bocelli would think of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Michael Bolton's 1990s hairdo, even if he couldn't actually see it.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And then you had pop-tenor hybrids starting to show up
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  Speaker 1: more in mainstream spaces. Russell Watson, Josh Groban, Il Volo,
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  Speaker 1: Il Divo. There was this growing idea that maybe opera
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  Speaker 1: didn't have to live exclusively for highbrow types in marble halls.
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  Speaker 1: Bolton wasn't inventing something from nothing. He was kind of
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  Speaker 1: drifting into a lane that was slowly opening. But the
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  Speaker 1: difference is, no matter how hard he tried, no matter
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  Speaker 1: how well he sang, nobody, and I mean nobody, was
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  Speaker 1: going to take Michael Bolton singing opera seriously. And that's
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  Speaker 1: where the comedy lives. Because nobody disputes that he can sing.
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  Speaker 1: That was never the issue. Michael Bolton always had a
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  Speaker 1: good voice. Hell, I once read somewhere that Journey briefly
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: considered him as a replacement for Steve Perry in the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: early 1990s. The issue here was always, why does this
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: feel like a man who got lost on his way
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  Speaker 1: to adult contemporary and ended up at the Royal Opera House?
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  Speaker 1: Even the Pavarotti Association adds to the surrealism, because Pavarotti
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  Speaker 1: treated Bolton with this amused generosity, like a world champion
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: boxer humoring someone who walked into the gym saying, I
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  Speaker 1: think I can lace up and do this too. And Bolton,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: he didn't back down, he didn't laugh it off, he
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  Speaker 1: didn't treat it like a novelty cameo. So serious was
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  Speaker 1: he about this that he actually performed a concert consisting
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  Speaker 1: entirely of arias at an amphitheater in Sicily that was
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  Speaker 1: televised on PBS. Nothing screams, hey, I want to be
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: taken seriously as a crossover artist, quite as much as
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: having your outdoor European concert shown during a PBS pledge
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  Speaker 1: drive in 1998. So this is perhaps why the whole
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: thing lands in that bizarre space between ambition and insanity.
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  Speaker 1: Most people dip a toe into a new genre. Michael
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  Speaker 1: Bolton jumped in headfirst, not worrying the least about that
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  Speaker 1: mane of curly long hair or his credibility. So yes,
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  Speaker 1: Michael Bolton, the man once synonymous with long hair and
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  Speaker 1: aggressively emotional radio ballads, somehow ended up making a full
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  Speaker 1: opera album after singing with Luciano Pavarotti in Italy. And
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  Speaker 1: whether you loved it, hated it, or simply stared at
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  Speaker 1: it in complete disbelief, you probably had the same reaction
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  Speaker 1: most people had, and certainly Andrea Bocelli. I absolutely did
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  Speaker 1: not see that coming. And that is exactly why it
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  Speaker 1: belongs on John's WTF Music Moments. Now, if you really
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  Speaker 1: insist on listening to My Secret Passion... You can find
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  Speaker 1: it easily on Spotify, though I will caution you, it's
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: not for everyone. That said, as a bit of an
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  Speaker 1: opera buff, some of the arias aren't all that bad.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Give a listen to him singing Mapari from Flauto's rarely
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: performed opera Martha. It's actually quite nice. But the majority
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of you will probably want to stick to the Michael
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Bolton Greatest Hits compilation instead, which has stuff like How
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: am I supposed to live without you? I said I
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  Speaker 1: loved you, but I lied. Love is a wonderful thing.
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  Speaker 1: And nothing from Aida or Madame Butterfly. I'm John, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll be back soon enough with another WTF Music Moment.