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Top 10 for Dec

Vittorio Grigolo: The full-throttle opera star / BBC

"If you go backstage at an opera, the sound engineers, with the headphones on their head, it looks like a pit box."  - Vittorio Grigòlo

He is perhaps best known as an opera singer, having headlined at La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and, until 5 February, in the New York City Metropolitan Opera's production of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. But the Italy native is also a platinum-selling recording artist; a Grammy nominee; a featured presence on reality-television franchises The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars; and, most relevant for this column, a former racing driver.   

Grigòlo took time out from his frenetic schedule to discuss wrecked karts, broken ribs, smoking Ferraris and his desire to play Formula 1 immortal Ayrton Senna on stage. READ THE FULL BBC INTERVIEW