Friday 26 / July / 2024
Muscat: Gioconda Vessichelli, the Italian Opera singer and actress, who recently performed at a private show here and at a pre-wedding bash of Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, richest person of Asia and 9th richest in the world, is the winner of seven international opera awards and pioneer of BollywoOPERA style music, patented in New Delhi.
During her visit to Oman, she visited famous landmarks of Oman and praised the beauty of the country. “Oman is an exciting and welcoming year-round destination of rich history and diverse landscapes. It's a land of towering desert dunes, palm-lined beaches and lush verdant mountains, where ancient character meets modern comfort,” she said during her visit.
For inventing fusion between Opera and Hindi music, she received the Indian Woman Award, first time given to non-Indian women for building up a cultural bridge between Western music and Indian music. Before her, only Mother Teresa had received this award.
Besides being a 360 degrees artist, she is not only a composer, lyricist, director, a musician playing five instruments, speaking seven languages, singing in twelve languages but also an impressive and expressive actress.
After many visits to India, she felt to give back something precious i.e. her voice and this resulted in the invention of BollywoOpera.
Her unique style received great admiration and big labels of India like T-Series, Sony, Zee Music released her songs. Her prominent Bollywood songs include "Der se aana jaldi jaana" hit 10 million views on YouTube, “Touch [Opera] in movie Prague, “Ziddi Dil” in movie Mary Kom.
Gioconda describes her inspiring childhood “I started playing piano when I was 4 years old, and my mother used to say you were born singing and not crying. I always had a positive attitude towards life, and I used to sing in front of television whenever my favorite cartoon’s song was aired. Nobody from my family was into music so it was difficult for them to accept it as a profession. I faced several difficulties to make them understand that music was not only a hobby to be done along with my scientific studies, but it was really meant to be my life’s profession. So, I used to escape from my house to do (and win) international music competitions, and I used to go with snow to the nearest cold church to practice piano. It was very cold, but music used to make my heart warm.”
She also mentioned, “I used to do scientific and music studies both with maximum marks and I never gave up even when obstacles increased in my family as my mother died when I was 16”. She has two degrees in opera singing and musicology from Italian conservatory "Santa Cecilia".
She is involved in several philanthropic projects and for that she got the noble chivalric title of "Dame" from Royal House, Italy. In 2016 her international video "We are one" in which she sings and acts together with Anoop Jalota for world peace was launched by India's Prime Minister.
She worked with several grammy award winners like Ennio Morricone, Benjamin Britten, Sukhwinder Singh, V Selvaganesh. Her teacher Luciano Pavarotti was a seven times winner of the grammy.
