MILAN (AFP).- Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will sing on Easter Sunday in a presentation from Milan Cathedral to be streamed online, the city's mayor said on Tuesday.

"At 7 oclock, in an empty Duomo, he will present a few pages of sacred music," Mayor Giuseppe Sala said in his daily Facebook message, saying the famous singer would "offer his voice to the whole world".

The region of Lombardy, of which Milan is the capital, has been the hardest hit in Italy's coronavirus crisis, with more than 9,000 deaths.

Bocelli's broadcast from the gothic Duomo will be accessible on YouTube, wrote Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

"This won't be a concert," said Bocelli, in an interview published in the paper. "It will rather be an opportunity to pray together."

"We will concentrate all our energy to give courage and confidence to this marvellous city," Bocelli said. "A prayer then, for Milan and for the world, in front of an absolutely painful, tragic and unsettling event."

Churches in Italy remain closed and even the prayer to be given by Pope Francis on Easter Sunday will be live streamed.


© Agence France-Presse