Ask Joe Bonamassa about the most memorable moment he’s witnessed at a concert, and he doesn’t take long to answer. He immediately points to a performance by Jeff Beck at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Bridgeview, Illinois.
It wasn’t simply because Beck had chosen to play one of the most stirring operatic compositions of all time. As he performed it with bassist Rhonda Smith, keyboardist Jason Rebello and drummer Narada Michael Walden, nature itself joined the performance — leaving Bonamassa speechless.
“My best Crossroads memory: 2010, Jeff Beck playing Nessun dorma,” he says in a social media post. “I was watching him play it from the stands.
“I snuck out front and as he was playing it, and it was starting to crescendo. This storm cloud had come over, and the clouds were purple. It was the most amazing visual to go along with some of the most amazing guitar playing I’ve ever heard in my entire life — that was Jeff Beck.”
The video clip captures exactly what Bonamassa witnessed: as the aria reaches its famous climax, a wide shot reveals dark clouds gathering above Beck as he delivers his dramatic finale.
Nessun dorma, popularized by opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, tells the story of a prince determined to win the affections of an uninterested princess. Written by Giacomo Puccini for his opera Turandot, it was first performed in 1926. Its closing declaration, “Vincerò” (“I will win”), later became synonymous with the 1990 soccer World Cup.
In 2010, Beck — who died in 2023 aged 78 — explained why he’d chosen the aria.
“I’m looking away from rock and roll into proper, serious melodies, which, for me, has been a good playground to look into,” he said.
“Pavarotti never ceases to amaze me. The bellowing — the big, deep, proper opera singing — is something I love. I was keen to try Nessun dorma, which he sang magnificently. My guitar is not a voice, and it’s not his voice; I played it like a spirited, bluesy thing. I was trying to make the guitar do things it’s not supposed to do.”
