>> charlie: welcome to our program totonight the inside ste the midterm lookions with the authors of game change, mark halperin and john heilemann. >> pare part of what they saw in him and got harry reid and others in the book to bring barack obama, which was their worry about hillary clinton. what happens in four short years that coalition which he built to get the whitehouse and pass a lot of legislation has been shattered and now he's got to build some new coalition. >> the place is going to be the place where he can start to reclaim some credit for being a sent -- centrist.

he's got this reduction commission that's going to come back inn december. pie all indications are whatever that group comes back with he'll put a stamp on and say this is what i want to do. even some very tough stuff. >> charlie: we conclude with the new tenor perstorming vittorio grigolo. >> we're talking about experience, about stories, stories that makes you feel, you know, makes you feel in love, make you feel pain inside, make you feel all these things all these emotions. in order to believe these emotions, to communicate those emotions in public, i always say better, the most important thing is not the technique you do every day, lalala the tone but to realize. >> charlie: politics and opera coming up.

additional funding provided by these funders: captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose.

>> charlie: we begin tonight with politics and the aftermath of the midterm elections, republicans swept to the majority in the house while democrats narrowly managed to hold on to senate. now president obama will have to work with a divided congress and new republican leadership. earlier today the president said he invited congressional leaders from both parties to the whitehouse on november 18 to discuss issueshey could cooperate on for the remainder of this year. >> in sum, would he got a lot of work to do. people are still catching their breath from the election. the dust is still settling, but the one thing i'm absolutely certain of is that the american people don't want us just standing still. they don't want us engaged in grid lock, they want us to do the people's business. partly because they understand that the world is not standing safe. >> charlie: john boehner the expected speaker of the house will have his own challenges. we will need to balance an agenda that satisfies the tea party caucus without alienating the dependence that rose the

republicans to victory. mark halperin and "new york" magazine's john heilemann i'm happy to have them this thursday looking at the election results and what lies ahead. well come. >> nice to be here. >> thanks for having us back again. >> charlie: this is "the new york times" which this pictures says a thousand words. >> maybe even more. >> charlie: maybe even more. could this be the beginning of the 2012 books. >> it's incredible to think about 2010 versus 2006 which is a big part ofame change when we start to frame barack obama. four years ago barack obama road high, he was in demand around the country. the coalition that got him elected president was boeing formed. the coalition in people not just in purple states but in red parts of red states and purple states. >> charlie: like north carolina and in a.

>> part of what the democratic saw in him and got harry reid to bring barack obama in the race was this is a guy who could expand the map for democrats, geographically and demographically not contracted which was their worry about hillary clinton. what happens in four short years is that coalition which he built to get to the whitehouse and massed a lot of legislation has been shattered and now he has o built a new coalition. this is an incredible moment for him thinking about not two years ago but four years ago when he was the star of the democratic party in the mid terms. >> charlie: here's the question, can he do it and does he look at this with fresh eyes or does he go to the same eyes what's looked at him in the past. >> one of the things you see in game change in the book when we wrote about 2008 was this tendency that he has, which is on the admirable side he has this real stay the course tendency, right, so in the fall 2007 when he was behind by 30 points with hillary clinton and his campaign was not very well,

people said you have to change course. he said no we have a plan we're going to stick to that plan and it worked in iowa and he was off to the races. in fall 2008 mccain and palin come out of the republican convention they're ahead four or five points the democratic party is in panic change course attack palin do this, do that. dismisses them as bedwetters. i don't know says no i'm going to stick to may plan and he executes on it and he wins. now fast forward, administration, healthcare, scott brown gets elected to the massachusetts elected. you have to abandon healthcare this is all wrong. obama says no, one again i'm going to double down. we're not going to abandon healthcare or scale back. again he is rewarded, he passes the bill. at least rewarded in the sense of the legislative accomplishment. this is a guy who does not doubt his prior course very easily. he's not someone who is looking for flaws in the way that he set things up. he had a lot of confidence in how he ran for president and how

he's been president the last two years. i don't see him having like a dark night of the soul right now in thinking boy i really screwed this whole thing up over the last two years. i think he still has a huge amount amazingly, has a huge amount of confidence in the fact he did things that were right and necessary over the last two years. obviously he's seen the results. this is not a guy who i going to easily make some massive mid course correction. >> charlie: then the question is should he have seen it. >> i think he thinks what he did and the major piece of legislation he passed, the stimulus, auto industry, healthcare, wall street regulation. he thinks those things were essential in terms of a crises, essential in terms of putting the country in long term better footing fiscally and i think he's willing to lose over it. he doesn't think he's going to because he thinks republicans will nominate someone he can beat. everybody says, is looking at this election in the context of his political health and chance of re-election. i don't think he sees it that way. he thinks i believe that they

need to adjust to the new reality but not throwing out what he cares b not changing the way he operates at all. >> charlie: there are no new voices in the inner council. >> there are now. the things he doesn't do easily, i read about this in time time this week he doesn't brand new people, change course, admit mistakes or do what clinton did in 94 which is again the model everybody is pointing to which is to say i need to now fight for what i believe in but compromise or compromise is the right political course. these are not things we've seen him do. >> charlie: if someone would say where are you in the political trump i'm in the center or center left of middle. >> this remains one of the biggest problems he has which i talked about before. the coalition, he did what clinton did and what george bush did when they got elected and when they were governorring successfully. they see you as a kindred spirit

and you care about the core values of your party. one of the great defeats of the democrats and of obamaism was the swing from independence in 2008 away from the democrats. i think he's now in much different and dangerous place. his base doesn't trust him, they think he's too centrist. >> charlie: because in the healthcare -- >> i think he would put himself much closer to the center than people on theright would. and i'm sympathetic to that, i agree that's where his instincts are. his mistakes are he governed too lib wul with the democrats, pelosi and reid. >> charlie: do you think he let other people define him. >> oh sure, yes. >> charlie: healthcare on down. >> it was astonishing is the degree to which he's had some successes that he's done a terrible job even putting those

across. most people in the country do not realize that barack obama cut their taxes. motes pele have not had their taxes raised over the lease two years. most people do not know the administration has been remarkably successful in the area of illegal immigration. i'm forcement is better now than it was under george bush for the last eight years. it's a huge scels story. no one knows that. they've done a tear been job not selling their successes generally but selling the kind of successes that moderate independent swing voters would have looked at and say that's actually a success. >> charlie: there was a consensus for the boilout. >> there was a consensus for the boilout and it wasn't his bailout. >> charlie: exactly. >> it was something he has pointed out on occasion but not at all successfully that this policy which he agreed with was one he inherited not just from george w. bush but people like john boehner. this was a bipartisan and very much the republicans are very much invested in tarp back when it happened. now it's the obama bailout.

they haven't made a job good making it clear that that policy that hurt him is a policy that has con newity that goes back into the other party and it's the previous adnisttion. >> charlie: he should be wary of changing his policies of changing his direction because truth be known he is essentially a centrist and as john just said it's a question of the public catching up to him. >> he has to be more assertive than he has been. he said at a photo opportunity with his cabinet, he has to be part of what gets down now. he can't be part of it he must lead it. he's identified very wel the challenges the country must deal with. deficit reduction, afghanistan, education, jobs first and foremost and immigration. i think he's picked all the right energy. he's picked all the right

things. he must, this is a mathematical reality he accepts, he must find ways to cooperate with republicans without abandoning his principles. >> charlie: these republicans and democrats cooperate over the next two years they can reduce the unemployment to something he can run on? >> if it does. i think it's possible he must get republicans to feel like his policies will benefit business. and business must feel that way. it's great -- >> charlie: not wall street but business. >> real businesses, brick and mortar, people building things, must feel safe that washington is lowering the deficit, stimulate demand through tax policy rather than through spending and that he has a vision for how to build the economy back and he's fighting for it every day. in his prs confidence and photo op jobs jobs jobs. he's now saying that's where the focus is going to be. three things, it's jobs,

producing the influence of special interests, he's big on that again, and working together. and if he focuses on those things, i think republicans are going to have to at least consider working with them. >> the place that's going to be the place where he can get, where he can start to reclaim some credit for being a centrist or not being a big will you be rule is reduction. he's got this reduction commission coming back in december. whatever that group comes back with he's going to put his stamp on and say this is what i want to do. even probably some tough stuff. it may be the republicans have a mutual interest in getting together with him on that. now that is a place where very similar to the clinton analogy back in 1994. bill clinton was able to, but through deficit reduction, working with after a horrible government shut down and a terrible year of fighting with republicans in 1995, by the time 1996 came around, here republicans were able to get

tother on deficit reduction. that made clinton along with his deck calculation that big government is over and made clinton look like a moderate centrist again. the problem that obama has and this goes to your question earlier charlie, bill clinton had one thing barack obama doesn't have. by the time this happened to him in november 1994, the economy was taking off. the recession was long behind him, and the massive 90's boom was well in effect. the big locomotive of the american congress chugging along. that's not the case today. no one thinks unemployment is much different a year from now than it is today. where it will be by the summer, early fall of 2012, i don't know. but it's not going to be where it was for bill clinton and that is going to be a challenge for obama. he's going to make the argument that the trend lines are in the right direction but he doesn't have a boom on his hand. >> charlie: he grew up in a political environment which he

lost and b he constantly had to appeal to a diverse rea of people running inonseativ or moderate state that south. >> big environment. >> charlie: that's a huge difference. >> he was painting himself for the country on his terms. he is now defined for a lot of people. you talk about him having to build a new coalition. there's large segments of the country, institutions and individuals, who are lost to him now. they'll never. >> charlie: independents are included in that. >> there are people who voted for him last time i can tell you no matter who the alternative is, as a version of what happened where some republicans will have congressional races without a lot going for him. >> charlie: they will vote for him in 2008, though people

who never voted for a democrat generally. >> they were sick of the war in iraq, they were sick of george bush and his policies and they wanted a new direction that they thought was centrist, st partisan and optimistic. and he's got to find a way to bring that back. >> charlie: also made him feel young and culpable. >> he talked in his photo op at the cabinet on thursday about getting waste out of government, lowering deficits, getting washington working again. he's now talking the language. we need to look through the prism is he doing what clinton did to capture the appeal to independence. talking about getting rid of government waste is something that he needs to do if he's going to remake his image and build a coalition that's more centrist tn a big healthcare bill. >> charlie: i never heard if you're running for public office you wouldn't always address the themes that seem to be so dominant in this campaign. i don't care, you're running in massachusetts or san francisco, address these themes.

>> and in his press conference on wednesday he said i'm going to look for good ideas, i don't care if they have an r on them or a d. that was a line directly out of the obama campaign. he said that all the time incredibly appealing to a lot of people in the country. people think i don't care if it has a d on it or not. >> charlie: the idea is they're not red states or blue states they're american states. >> very very pragmatic. that pragmaticism going back to that last question, there are people in this country who has a huge thursday for that kind of pragmaticism. obama did not, that did not happen in the first two years. you can say that obama compromised in certain ways republicans in the course of the first two years, he included a lot of talk cuts in the stimulus bill for instance but by and large the improvision that he and the democrats and congress gave was, we're notinterested. anything has an r fixed to it we don't want malpractice reform in the healthcare bill. it is our way or the highway and

that's not appealing to americans. >> that seems like the polarized thing they voted against when they voted for obama. >> charlie: you guys are the boswell's of the campaign. tell us what the smart people are saying to you they may not be saying to the newspaper reporters covering this campaign in terms of the odds of this president being able to get it back on track. >> i think people, i thought the press conference was good in the sense that he cauterized what could have been a much bigger problem. he came out with the right tones and right acceptance of the results but people still believe that he doesn't get it enough to make the kind of changes that he needs to make. >> charlie: he doesn't get what just one more time. >> here is what people are saying. he doesn't get that the democratic brand coming into this election is in really bad shape. and that in fighting with republicans in congress next year and for democrats including him running in 2012, the democratic brand needs to stand for somethinbesides what it

now stands for in the public's mind. he doesn't get that, the importance of that or the reality of that is what a lot of democrats say. >> charlie: what does this election say about us. >> what i say is interesting you've had now over the course of the last 20 years when this polarization we've seen in our politics the defining feature of our politics basically. we've seen a series of elections where people thought, i think using the old model in their heads, potentially realigning elections. 1994 was supposed to be the beginning of the lasting republican realignment didn't happen. the 2004 election karl rove dreamed this was the beginning of a republican reign. none of them were true and the reason is the voters who are now swinging elections, these people and we think of independent voters as being centrist voters. moderate voters. i think of them being more unaligned voters. what they are in the old days you competed for those people and if you won them over there

was a chance they would become affiliated with your party and that's how realignments work. they would attach themselves to the democratic party for a general recess. now this is a very very, these are free radicals. these people are very alienated from a lot of big institutions, government for sure but also media, also big business, also wall street and they are frustrated, they're angry. >> charlie: because they don't think the country is working the way it ought to be. >> correct. there's a sense of decline and they attach themselves in a provisional way to a given party for one election, two election cycles and when they're not satisfied by the outcome they're perfectly ready to switch teams again and that has created this wildly unstable system that we've had for 20 years and i don't see any end in that. this election to me says we could see this whip saw effect going on for the foreseeable future in our politics. >> charlie: the country needs certain kinds of things. we need an investment infrastructure, we need to think

about the quality of our education. >> energy. >> charlie: and the energy. the press has already said cap and trade is dead. we need these kinds of things. that is a left/right decision. with a need to deal with these kinds ofssues. but is there a possibility to deal with those issues in the politics that we have? >> it's all personal as far as i'm concerned because on substances i think the president and mitch mcconnell and john boehner could write an energy bill with a lot of compromise in 45 minutes. they could do deficit reduction that way, education. it's going to be a matter how far can the president convince republicans to trust and respect him and vice versa. and he's going to have to lead on that and i think he's going to have to show from their point of view, more compromise and more humility than they're expected. >> again watching mitch mcconnell this morning, he gave the speech. sticking to his guns on the notion that his main goal is

to -- it may be that, i don't doubt that mark is right the president needs to do all the thing he just said but it may be no matter how humble he was, no matter how much he tries, we'll see, the republican attitude is they feel as though that they took this recalcitrant stance over the last two years and were rewarded for it amply. on tuesday they may be beyond bringing it into the circle of trust. there attitude maybe this worked for the last two years we're going to be blooded mindedly even in areas where we agree with him we'll be opposed to him. >> charlie: why does the country turn against that attitude. >> that may help re-elect obama in 2012. >> charlie: barack obama the best thing he has working for is the likelihood or unlikely the republicans will choose somebody who has the ability to attract independentance and a new kind of direction. >> people talk the time about how obama has the clinton 94

road to recovery k the republicans have their model from 94/95 as well where gingrich did sum things that were smart and helped the parties and allowed bill clinton to come back. what we've seen from the republicans is they get it, they're handling their image, their ability to offset the president and not be lured into traps. >> charlie: one of the scenes for the next book, is it possible the competing scene might be some meeting that took place after obama is elected among republicans in which they said we have to take a position of not going along with this president. we have to perhaps our particulate an alternative vision but certainly stand in opposition to his vision and characterize his vision as something that is not in the mainstream of american thought. >> there was some of that but i think most it was pretty add hawk. back when they weremaking tho

decions, except they were making them in a systematic way they were demolarrized and did it out of necessity because that's what they felt they had. going forward the big challenge is there are different power centers. boehner is a huge power center being majority in the house. mcconnell will be a power center. the outside interest groups, all the presidential candidates, they're going to have to figure out how to speak with a voice big enough to combat the president. the president still has the biggest megaphone and they're going to be a more fractured and diffused party, new governors, etcetera. >> charlie: he's also still liked, is he not, this president. >> the president is so broadly liked. his approval ratings are historic but it's worth saying again they're not that bad compared to bill clinton or ronald reagan in their period of their term. just from what mark said the republicans have done, they have obviously a very carefully design play book now. but they have this new influx of

these new members many of whom are very populist, some of whom are awe -- affiliated with the tea party. they need to get series like reducing the size of government, repealing obama care, the debt ceiling is coming up and a lot of new members saying we're not going to vote to extent that debt ceilings. there's a huge amount of pressure on john boehner and mitch mcconnell to keep their coalitions together, and their success or failure at doing that is going to have big effects on the 2012 race where all of these republicans who are thinking about running in 12 are going to be trying to gauge where they need to be relative tohe center of gravity, how much is a good thing to look like a establish republican to win the nomination, how much does it look, do you mean to be aligned with the most paws list tea party forces. that's some of stuff president obama political team in addition to looking and saying hour guys can beat these potential

runners. they look at those internal fissures. whoever gets this nomination even if he's a formidable figure will get pulled so far to the right that it will make i easier for obama to define person as out of the mainstream. >> charlie: who was elected or who is coming to the forein republican party that has the possibilities of being the republican clinton or obama. >> there's nobody who i put in their category now. john case who is the gonehio. i think the problems with ohio there their budget i don't think he will this time. anyone with political skills who is the governor of ohio. people talk about mark rubio.

it's hard from the senate to launch that kind of thing but i'd say two governors, governor elects, castic in ohio and the governor of michigan. >> charlie: all these things we've been talking about so far, what's going to be the first test that we can say aha,t may be going this direction. >> the extension of the bush tax which some thought it was possible, might not be dealt with in the lame do you recollect session the president made clear in the news conference this must be dealt with in the coming weeks. there's lots of ways it could go. i think the president on this is going to have to set a model for how he actually cooperates with republicans. i think he's going to have to basically do 40/60 deals where republicans get more he can tri to pretend they're 50/50 but he has a lot to get done and again that's the model going forward. can he and mitch mccall and john boehner sit in a om with trust and respect and say we don't agree, we need a compromise. the person who has not in the front and center and the person

who i think could help the president a lot in getting out of this current problem is joe binden. he's got great political intent. >> charlie: he was on the campaign trail everywhere. >> he was. >> charlie: he was the ambassador. >> he was, but as this whitehouse figures out how can he we get things down now with a congress dominated by republicans. i think joe biden is going to be pretty important. >> just imagine, the former governor asked what he would do if he were chief of staff. as an american citizen that's the kind of job i could never say no to. just imagine, i'm not pumping for the guy but imagine what would happen if that, if that were to happen. again no disrespect to pete ronald, working class voters, a go with political experience and real toughness and the kind of stature where he could turn to

barack obama and i say respect you but there's something wrong. >> charlie: you don't think david axe el rod says that. >> it's not so much they're afraid they all see the world in a very similar way and there's not much they disagree on. >> charlie: we know from woodward's book from afghan pakistan policy, there was an exhaustive and i thought admirable effort to find options to consider it, to ask the right questions, to make sure everybody in the room, make sure they weren't missing anything. i don't know if that was politics, obviously it wasn't. >> and they decided with the stimulus going forward to do this with republican, without the republicans involvement. now they don't have that option, so it's a different world for him and he's going to have to decide what kind of policy options he'll consider. to me it's much more personal than it is processes or politics. >> charlie: it's much more me

process of your native. kathleen parker wrote a piece sort of pooing the idea of narrative. that's the way we think about things, that's why we love movies and everything else, great stories and books, it is because we like stories. >> yes, and characters. >> charlie: and characters. >> and this election, the results of the election the silver lining is turn the page start anew and people have to see him differently as a leader and fighter and not a massive academic. >> we talk about this thing, mark and i are talking about, that one of obama's biggest problems is that he really is still do a lot of people this kind of indistinct figure, you know. he really unlike clinton, unlike reagan who had the clear theories of the case what the right role of government was, how their policies married up to the moment, obama really never did that he ran not as a clinton or a bush he ran on change of newness but he never had the

clintonian narrative of the economy and reagan's view of government. none of that was clear so you still had at this moment in the electorate many people including the president ardent supporter are in disagreement who he is. to me if there's anything that has to happen between now and election day 2012 is that there has to be some of this confusion has to be taken away. people need to understand what obamaism is so he they can vote affirmatively. >> charlie: nobody can do that but barack obama. >> nobody can do it but him. >> charlie: thank you very much gentlemen. back in a moment. stay with us. >> charlie: vittorio grigolo is heren't a italian tenor making way through opera houses throughout word. he's known f his vibrant voice and charismatic performance. he has a rep twaw that includes a awe prawz by mozart. here is performing la tratiatta

>> charlie: on october 16th he made his debeu and has a new cd outfittingly called the italian ten or. i'm pleased to have him at this table for the first time. thank you very much for coming, it's a pleasure to have you here. >> it's a great pleasure, i'm arneed to be here. >> charlie: talk to me about rudolfo friday night at the met. the role, how you see it.

>> it's an entire history because you put your feet and start stepping on that huge stage that is the metropolitan opera house. it's such a great pleasure and arne, and knowing that big legends not only big, you know, can be on stature, came before you and had such a great success. makes you feel a little bit. >> charlie: this refers to who some of those ledge ends were to give a sense of the importance. >> great legends like off -- pavarotti. >> charlie: he made his debut. >> that was a lucky road for me too. the road is full of different colors. like you know, i would say, it should be a cllenge but it

should be like he should be the painter. i feel like a real painter because rudolfo has so many moments to show the difference. the difference in the growing up through a simple, you know, funny very comfortable situation with his friends to a dramatic situation. >> charlie: there's a chance to stretch all the muscles you have as a performer, as a singer. >> it is true. you start to actually with the way you see, it's kind of,n>ãx u really put the engine of the car, you know. you don't need a lot of warming up because the music and the singing is written in order to warm up the voice already during the process of the opera. >> charlie: this is friday night at the met. tell me about the stain.

>> the most beautiful. you see how everything works. people are sitting in a chair waiting for a curtain to open and to feel the magic that is behind the curtain. who didn't have this feelings when we are kids. i was a kid when i was looking at the show, and the magic, the second before the curtain opened and everything is there, everything looks and seems to work perfectly. but what is behind the curtain and people said oh come on, give it to me. all the exciting and the movement, the energy. aneverything is quiet on top. it looks like a sea, you know. like a sea that could be crispy. the concert is. very movement on top but always quiet on the bottom. it's like the bottom is the

front, the public sea and the back stage is the movement, the part, the perfection part that will make everything work and will make the show be true. >> charlie: this is thursday. tomorrow night you're on stage. >> yes. >> charlie: this is called a quiet day. >> this is a silence day. you don't put rules. i mean a voice is something that works in very small muscles and we need to take care of the small muscles and everything that are in the chair. i have the responsibility to deliver not only emotions, feelings, i always think that the most important things is to let people feel thathere is something real is going on stage. something that they can be connected with. in order to give this, you need to rest, you need to be an

athlete, you don't want to be tired. the voice, of course, i would say the responsibility, i would like to be like a tennis player. i would like to miss sometime the shot. and people would say oh but if i miss a not people would say boo. so really people are very demanding. >> charlie: when is the last time you missed a note. >> never. i should touch wood. i hope not to miss it. >> charlie: the idea of the voice, the performance, how much of that is in a sense something that you were born with and how much of that is something that was trained. >> it's a matter of a lot of pain that are altogether and they works together. i think that sometimes i say there are hundreds vittorio. >> charlie: hundreds of

vittorios next door like you say. >> yes, next door. i discover my talent when i was young. >> charlie: how did you discover your talent. >> i was just born, my mom said she was repeating the sounds she was giving to me and i was doing them, ahh, ee. oh my god he's going to be a singer. having your person behind your back and makes you confidence of something that you think is going to be special. you know, maybe you know that this magic can come through words so that's your heart is giving this magic through the speech, you know. i find this magic through the singing. i saw that people are listening to me more when i'm singing than when, so the important thing was first to find someone like my parents that believe and make myself confident. >> charlie: both of tm

ood behind you and believed in you. >> can you believe it, my mom, like you walk in the museum. in italy in a small apartment you can't even walk because it's full of santini; the saints and the bambino. even the little shoes, she put in a frame. so the love. >> charlie: she's been a collector all your life from day one. >> she was the first fan tha realized that this magic -- >> charlie: can you imagine how many photographs there would have been if she had a digital camera. >> oh my god. but do you know what, the fact that you open another beautiful things. i have a lot of memories in my albums. my mom collected a lot with my parents because maybe with the digital, you do a lot but then

sometimes always in a rush, we don't have time to go back and look at the digital pictures. but the album, you're in front of the fire. we need to print out also these digitals. at that time you always go to see them, you don't go on the laptop, you have to print them out if you want to see them so you have something in your hands. so that was the difference between nowadays and back days. so i thank maybe enough having the digital so i have many some material today. >> charlie: exactly. what's the difference in your voice today and your voice, say, when you were 28 five years ag. >> five years ago, i think it's a lot of, the voice is always changing. like wine. >> charlie: it's getting richer and wiser. >> yes. it can be richer or can lose something. so can lose the sparkle, can lose brilliance, its shine. so you need to polish it.

and to polish it you need to work well in order not to lose the vibration. voice is like a wine, the wine you take care of it and you tur the bottle, you know, you go down, you check it is in the right way. it's important to take care of what you have if you want to keep it. i want to answer your question, of course, the voice change. in five years a lot of steps, a lot of opera that i did that made myself grow as a man, grow as a singer. because when you start in opera, you study not only technique, we're talking about experience, stories that makes you feel in love, makes you feel the pain inside, makes you feel all these

things. all these emotions. and for in order to believe these emotions, to communicate those emotions in public, i always say that better, the most important thing is not the technique you do every day, lalalala a tone but a real size. >> charlie: a an operstar that you have the potential to be is a full full life. but at the same time there's also this world out there of other medium. film. television. a whole range of other things that you could do. does it attract you? >> i always say that this life, it's very amazing and interesting life. but it's also very fast, quick life. we want to live three, four lives in one life. in the 60's, this was one love. there was one family. there was one kid, you know. there was something very strong

towards one behavior and we pursued them, that behavior for all our life. today we change job, oh this is not, i want to bring new family. the quick life and the changes in life makes ourself not focus in one thing. of course i love and i always open 60 degrees, and in the heart, in the world of art, for me it's important to be open to other projects. important to be in connection with movies, with music. i mean opera, it is already rich. the most important things when i'm on stage, i think first is i don't want to be like that stuck. and sing is not only about a beautiful voice, it's a about

the acting. that's why it's called melo drama. so of course the conjunction of all these words that you said media, tv, it's all interesting. it brings you always an inspiration. it brings you some fresh air and of course an opera singer as you can see from the calendar, you have to repeat maybe one opera ten times. >> charlie: exactly. it offers that the possibility even though it's the same role for all kinds of interesting interpretations of voice and of performance. >> yes. and you know the fact that the role could be, that's the difference between a normal, you know, a person that's just read the score and an artist that reads the score. the artist will always find something new to deliver.

>> -- >> charlie: that speaks to you in a different way. >> every performance is different. it's not aomputer, it'sot someone that you know maybe the weather, maybe the love you switch it off. >> charlie: because your life is perience, your experiences are different, your intellect is different, your brain is different. >> yes. actually i was scared about you before coming here. they said you know charlie rose always makes the question about politics, about he involve you in life. and i said in other words we're talking all about music. charlie wants to know something about my world. so it's something different, you know. the approach that someone wan to know somethin era not a great deal, is not maybe a attraction. why? because there's nobody that wants to know about it. yesterday i was at the met and i saw a couple of little kids and i come to them and i said listen kid, how about the met, do you

like it. it's okay. why okay, boring. yeah but do they tell you the story before coming in here. no, we're just touring it. but the voice. yes, but you understand what they're saying. no. so fir all you need to know what the singers are singing. i mean the kids that cannot, italian too, you know where i'm very, i put myself into diction. i'm one maybe of the singers that you can hear and understand all the words i say when i sing. because it's important. i was a kid, i said to may mom, what they are singing those guys. and you pay a lot of money. so you really need to believe if i was italian i should at least understand. so of course i sang the story in english and they said oh the italian, he has an italian accent, tony, he was american the guy. >> charlie: exactly. >> hey, i should have the

american accent. of course but the pronunciation was right. maybe i was not at that time so good in english that my accent was a little bit italianish. >> charlie: where do you gou@ to train the accent? i mean do you look at great performances or does that come from even outside people who may know not that much about voice but know evething out how to give expression to voice. >> you know, it's everything in the world. i'm a man -- >> charlie: it's like acting, talking about text. >> yes. even in the technique of singing it is chewing the words. it's really like you know, it's all in the text. if i have to say, if i have to say i love you andou knowthe most difcult, i want to say something beautiful to you that you may understand the word

how difficult is the world. i want to say i love you in an actor, okay. i'm here, i saw and of course they have to say maybe i love you or something else or i hate you. you know charlie, i hate you. or they have a pose or charlie, you know, i love you. but this pose i can take maybe o seconds, three secds, four seconds to visit, to have the moment to say you know charlie, i don't think i'm for that show, you know. the moment. i have the control and i'm an actor and i'm in control of my time. when youe on stage on opera, you're not in control of your time. you are under a conductor. so remember that the most difficult important things for a real good singer and opera star is to deliver that love, that

passion. ♪ the emotion are in the beat. so that's the difficult thing. so strive to express, strive to keep people in the beat. so we are talking another step that is the difficulties, you know. because if you go after the beat then it's oh, what's going on. then you chase something and you forget about everything, love, paion. you're trying the technique that came up. >> charlie: are you at every moment waiting for the next moment because you're waiting for the music which is going to send you there. do you know what i mean? in other words as your voice is saying this, i don't he brain is saying whatever's next because -- >> it comes automatic. at a certain point you want and actually the greatest director and the greatest are the ones

that don't even let you think about that. >> charlie: to get to where it's not a thought process. >> you don't even, it's just there. you feel it in the air, you know. >> charlie: you are one with it. >> yes, you are one. you don't have to chase, it all comes. you want to breathe a little bit more. you want to give no longer, you know. as we said, we're human beings, i can be fired. one night one note can be longer, one note can be shorter. of course we're always talking of high quality and high, talk about metropolitan so we're talking about the, i always say the grand slam. i was in london and for me it was a grand slam, you know. i was in met and it was another grand slam. >> charlie: before i go, let me talk about this cd. it's called the italian tenor. it's obvious, but tell me about the title of this particular cd.

>> the italian tenor, it was my dream when i was a little kid and it realized today. i always say that i'm, charlie, i'm a dreal seller. why? i don't sell something that you can touch but i sell something that you can feel. >> charlie: something you can. >> you can feel with your body. so music. so the dream seller is doing this album, the italian tenor that is now out. it's an album that's complete the history. the arch that you said before is this arch. it's what vittorio was before. so for example in me opera i sang in restaurant where the pizzas were going back and forth. at the beginning of my career there are pieces from -- like i

said before. one opera will be enlarged by another opera. >> charlie: what is it about the tenor, of all the ones you have known, who do you identify with? who is moreeroic for you? >> if i have to be sincere with you, i have little things from all the tenors. since i'm here i always like the special gift from a lot of them and try to put them all together and make a little big pot. i love for example the falsetto from here in america, the caruso, the jeannie dell falsetto, light and sweet voice.

the lucianno, the sunshine voice, the passion, inner soul here of domingo and the technique of krauss. how can you forget these people. we have generation, there is a long story, i don't want to make this a roundtable. let's think that we are all together. i put all together in this album. there is vittorio but all of them are with me singing in this. this is particular. i was a little kid and i was dreaming about making a classical album. i, as you know, i recorded the first something else. i went out with a albumi call

it. but at the moment i could express myself, it was not arrived. but today it is here. >> charlie: did you have something with simon cowel. >> it was a moment. i was actually engaged with a fiance, no. we made this, tried to work together. but of course my love, my passion decided to skip this opportunity that is such a great opportunity it was in terms mae of money or fame, quickly fame. >> charlie: certainly worldwide fame. >> but keeping maybe the respect and work on a small theatre on the wood and the writing on the wood maybe because to create that foundation, strong foundation that makes me be here today, you know. >> charlie: this cd is called the italian tenor. vittorio grigolo, thank you. a pleasure. >> thank you charlie. >> charlie: thank you for

joining us. see you next time.