Who will light the Olympic cauldrons?

The singer Mariah Carey is joining some of Italy’s biggest stars to kick off the Winter Olympics on Friday.Andrea BocelliOne of the most successful singers in the world, Bocelli, 67, has specialized in a mix of Italian popular songs and classical music for a general audience. Visually impaired since birth, he has achieved success in the recording studio and in concert rather than on the operatic stage.He has sold tens of millions of albums and has blended his tenor voice on duets with popular singers like Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez and Ariana Grande.That has earned him devoted fans worldwide, even if critics have not always agreed. After one negative review in The New York Times in 2001, a reader submitted a letter in defense of Bocelli, saying, “He has talent, and he has courage; he is handsome, and he is vulnerable; he is emotional, and he has high artistic standards.”His signature song, “Time to Say Goodbye,” has been a worldwide hit.GhaliA 32-year-old Italian rapper, Ghali spits his rhymes in Italian, Milanese slang, French and Arabic.His breakthrough hit, “Ninna Nanna,” set streaming records in 2016. In it, he boasts, “C’ho stile anche sui mezzi” — “I have style even on public transportation.”A Milan native with Tunisian roots, Ghali has also been an advocate for immigrants, rapping “When they say to me, ‘Go home,’ I answer, ‘I’m already here.’ I love you, dear Italy.”Laura PausiniPausini, 51, is a successful singer in Italy, with hit albums from the 1990s to the present. She has also made a name for herself with music in Spanish. In 2006, she won a Grammy for best Latin pop album.She had a No. 1 hit in Italy as recently as last year, “Zeri in Più (Locura),” or “Extra Zeros (Madness).” It was a duet with the rapper Lazza.Sabrina ImpacciatoreImpacciatore, 57, is an Italian actress with a flair for comedy. After many appearances in Italian-language films, she scored the part of Valentina, the hotel manager, on Season 2 of “The White Lotus.” She is currently appearing as the managing editor of The Toledo Truth Teller in the mockumentary TV series “The Paper.”Cecilia BartoliBartoli, 59, a mezzo-soprano, is one of the most famous and accomplished singers in opera. A Rome native who has used her star power to shed light on neglected corners of Italian music, especially through a blockbuster album of Vivaldi arias, she is also something of a national treasure.Bartoli also runs Opéra de Monte-Carlo, as well as the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in Austria, where she programs a new production that she sings in each year.Her voice is known for its plush sound, which she controls with the agility and expressive power of a much younger singer. That is heard particularly in the ornamentation she brings to Baroque music and operas by Mozart. In an interview last year, she said that her longevity had been tended to with the same patience and care she would give to a good ragù sauce.“Your voice, your muscles, everything needs to adjust slowly,” she said. “Otherwise you end up like a watery ragù.”Pierfrancesco FavinoFavino, 56, is an acclaimed Italian actor who has also popped up in a few English-language films.In Italy, he has won three David di Donatello awards, the equivalent of the Oscar. English-speaking audiences may know him as Christopher Columbus in “Night at the Museum,” or from “Angels & Demons,” “World War Z” or “Rush.”A.O. Scott wrote in The Times in 2020 that Favino gave a “shrewd, subtle and volcanic lead performance” in “the Traitor,” a Mafia film for which he won best actor at the Donatellos.Giovanni Andrea ZanonFavino’s appearance, a tribute to harmony in all its forms, will be accompanied by music from the young Italian violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon. It won’t be the first time Zanon, 27, has performed at the Winter Olympics; he represented his country in Beijing at the closing ceremony four years ago.Zanon was a prodigy, picking up the violin at 2 and enrolling in a state conservatory a couple of years later. His broad repertoire includes both classical and crossover music, and as a rising artist, he often appears alongside established stars, making an impression with a commanding presence and singing tone. Those concerts have brought him to the attention of audiences at storied venues like Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the immense Arena di Verona.Lang LangBartoli will be performing with another classical music star: Lang, 43, the divisive yet enormously popular pianist from China. Their appearance will be a reunion of sorts. She has sung alongside him, for example, on French television and at the prestigious Concertgebouw hall in Amsterdam.He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with the eminent teacher Gary Graffman, who recently died at 97. Lang is famous for a flamboyant style that thrills as many people as it infuriates, with extravagant physicality and a tendency to stretch music to suit his expression.A true crossover artist, he might perform a classic concerto or Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations one night and an arena concert with someone like Bocelli the next. Unusually for a pianist, he has appeared on air at the Grammy Awards and had a vastly bigger audience during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.