Andrea Bocelli returning to Las Vegas for Christmas show at MGM Grand

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It’s that time of year for the magical dude in the white suit.

Andrea Bocelli is increasingly ingrained in American culture as a Christmas kind of guy. Channel-surfers have a good chance of landing on his perennial “My Christmas” special with David Foster, provided their PBS station isn’t busy running the new “Live in Central Park” film of his big concert there last September.

The Italian tenor’s Christmas album from two years ago might still play while you’re decorating this year’s tree. Shopping lists might include the revised and updated re-release of his 1999 memoir, “The Music of Silence.”

And for the third consecutive year in Las Vegas, you can watch Bocelli sing his Christmas show live at the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday.

That’s fitting, as the singer was branded with Las Vegas very early in his career, when “Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye)” accompanied the Bellagio fountain show and TV ads, flooding the hotel’s switchboard with inquiries about the owner of that sexy voice.

Bocelli, 53, fielded questions via email, which was expedient given his schedule and the language obstacles of his limited English.

Here’s the exchange (both questions and answers slightly edited), including his thoughts on today’s Los Angeles kickoff for his new Andrea Bocelli Foundation, scheduled to be celebrated in a dinner performance at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Question: In Las Vegas we tend to think of you as being somewhat a part of our city, mostly because of the Bellagio fountain music. But as a man of the world, does Las Vegas stand out in a particular way for you? What do you or your family like to do when you are here?

Answer: Talking about Bellagio, I think about the first time I took my children with me on tour. When we arrived in Las Vegas and we were walking down the Strip, the first thing they noticed were the fountains playing “Time to Say Goodbye.” I will never forget my youngest son asking, “Daddy, do people know you in here too?”

I love the excitement and atmosphere of (the) never-ending celebration this city has.

The climate: hot and dry.

The position: It is amazing how we can land in the airport and be in our room at the MGM within minutes.

The warmth of people that, among hundreds of shows available each night, choose to come and see my performances. I always said and will always say, “(An) American audience is my favorite.” I can feel their love and appreciation when onstage, and always do my best to give them as much as I can.

Q: I’m sure promoters would still love to have you sing here more often. Is a day approaching when it would appeal to you to do, say, a week’s worth of shows here in Las Vegas two or three times a year, versus the one-night concerts in sports arenas?

A: Nothing is impossible in life. It would be a lot less tiring, rather than moving from one city to another every day and from one continent to another every week. But I enjoy the idea of transmitting my voice to everybody, well at least (while) I have it.

Q: Do you have any special Christmas memories from your childhood that come back when you hear or sing certain Christmas songs?

A: There was a time, when I was a child, when my father would work at home in the evening, after having said goodnight to my brother and I and sent us to bed. He would work until late at night, but neither of us knew the reason for his nocturnal labors.

On Christmas Eve, there was a wonderful surprise: My father had made an enormous model railway with small tracks, a little station which was all lit up, lots of lampposts, and then there were hills, meadows, animals and little houses here and there.

A control panel ran the mechanism and a wonderful electric train with two or three carriages would wind its way all over the miniature landscape.

It had taken my father nine months of his free time to make it. Now it no longer exists, but my memory of that small masterpiece remains intact, to the tiniest details, and incredibly it still has the power to fill my poor heart with joy.

Q: Because David Foster (Bocelli’s main producer and collaborator) works so closely with Andre Agassi in the benefit concerts for his foundation, did either of them inspire your new foundation or give you good advice on how to launch it?

A: Over the years, I tried to make myself useful in the best ways I could. But I had the feeling that it was not enough. That is why I decided to commit fully in this venture, giving up the privacy that charitable deeds usually demand.

That is why I created a foundation to put all our strengths together, to make sure that my actions are not a drop in the sea, but unite with all other drops — as Mother Theresa teaches us — to become an ocean.

Q: (Bocelli teams with Tony Bennett for “Strangers in Paradise” on his new “Duets II.”) Operatic singing has never really been about making it look fun and effortless as the American crooners do. Did you two have anything to teach one another?

A: We are talking about a living legend, an individual who has been singing and enchanting for four generations.

With his personal simplicity, he came to my house for the duo of “Strangers in Paradise”; he then accepted my invitation to Central Park. Everything turned out to be wonderful and very easy, as always happens with important artists.

Q: Is there a really bad/embarrassing pop or rock song that you sing at home or sing “in the shower” that you would never let anyone hear you sing in public?

If so, please share. And if not, would that be because singing in the shower is too much like your day job?

A: To be quite honest I hardly ever sing while I’m in the shower, except to vocalize and assess the condition of my voice.

But I have never sung embarrassing things. Unfortunately, once I did sing in an embarrassing way because I was not well or because I had tried to sing in a vocal condition in which it would have been best to keep quiet.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.