Italian performer ERNESTO TOMASINI has entertained audiences for over 30 years as an actor, singer and playwright. He has unleashed his 4 octave vocal range in historical theatres around the world in such places as the Royal Albert Hall, the National Theatre and the Southbank. Two years ago he was included in the “Italian Excellences” and is the winner of prestigious theatre awards throughout Europe.
He has extensively recorded with Liles on ‘THE VORTEX VAULT’ series of releases.
1.) WHICH RECORD HAS HAD THE MOST PROFOUND INFLUENCE ON YOU?
‘My Fair Lady’ Original London cast stereo album, 1958. I used to trill along to it when my parents left me at home alone and I could unleash, undisturbed, that G5 at the end of “I Could Have Danced All Night” (I still do to warm up the voice). It taught me how to sing and how to speak English. That’s why I sound so posh! It’s an absolute masterpiece on every level: music, lyrics, arrangements, harmonies, vocals, acting, all of it is nothing less than legendary!
2.) HOW MANY HOURS DO YOU SPEND A WEEK RECORDING/PLAYING/CREATING?
It varies, of course, it can be anything between 2 and 8 hours a day. Although, when I go out and about, I am always repeating in my head the new lyrics and lines I need to learn so, if that counts, it’s definitely more.
3.) WHICH OF YOUR OWN CREATIONS IS YOUR FAVOURITE?
The next!
4.) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST REGRET?
Je ne regrette rien…in order to regret one has to look back and I hardly ever do.
5.) WHAT DO YOU DO TO RELAX?
I’m a compulsive but frustrated collector. I often have the urge to start a new collection but then I lack the attention span and time to continue so I am surrounded by incomplete series of various clutter that lies there forgotten. I have just started a new collection of commemorative thimbles, let’s see how it goes.
6.) OTHER THAN FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHAT IS YOUR MOST CHERISHED POSSESSION?
Myself!
7.) TELL ME THREE OF YOUR HEROES/HEROINES?
Jack B Yeats, Anthony Newley, Zenza Raggi.
8.) WHERE IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE IN THE WORLD?
Animal enclosures in zoos. Everywhere I go in the world, I must visit the local zoological garden and study the architecture of the enclosures. These are mostly grotesque portions of fake wild landscapes, with squalid jail-like chambers at the back. Asylums made in Disneyland. I often daydream about living in this or that enclosure: The futuristic elephant quarters in the Copenhagen zoo, the sober Victorian reptile house by Sir Edward Guy Dawber at London zoo, the gorilla rainforest in Dublin zoo…
9.) IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE YOUR ART WHAT OCCUPATION DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE DOING?
I would be doing what I used to do before becoming a performer: I’d be working as animator for a big studio or as cartoonist for some newspaper. Should this not count because it still is art (albeit of another nature) then I really have no idea. Probably I would have died at birth.
10.) IF THERE IS ONE THING THAT YOU WOULD WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT YOU HAVE NEVER CONVEYED IN AN INTERVIEW BEFORE WHAT WOULD THAT BE?
I need money, a lot of money, please contact me privately!