Bocelli, Andrea

▪ 2000

      By 1999, in a feat not often achieved by classical musicians, Italian opera tenor Andrea Bocelli had attained phenomenal international success both in opera and in pop music. With a voice that was described as “the most beautiful in the world,” Bocelli enthralled album listeners with the 1997 release of Romanza, which sold at least 15 million copies, and the 1999 introduction of Sogno, which, after selling some 3 million copies in less than two months, made Bocelli the first classical artist to have an album top the pop charts. The fact that Bocelli was blind made it difficult for him to star on the operatic stage. He performed mostly in concert. In 1999 he was featured at both the Grammy Awards (he had been nominated for a Grammy as best new artist) and the Academy Awards, where his duet on “The Prayer” (nominated as best song) with pop star Celine Dion was rewarded with a standing ovation. By 1999 “Bocellimania” had spread from Italy and throughout Europe to the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

      Bocelli, born on Sept. 22, 1958, in the farming town of Lajatico, just outside Pisa, was afflicted with congenital glaucoma. His parents sold farm equipment and grew olives and grapes and were not particularly musical. Bocelli began taking piano lessons at the age of six, later played flute and saxophone, and sang along to family recordings of Italian tenors. At the age of 12, having suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of a head injury sustained in a soccer game, Bocelli became totally blind. Undeterred by his lack of sight, he studied law at the University of Pisa while singing at piano bars and nightclubs to finance his education. After obtaining his degree, he practiced law for a year before deciding on a musical career and studying voice with tenor Franco Corelli.

      Bocelli's breakthrough came when in 1992, he was asked by Italian pop star Zucchero Fornaciari to record a demo of “Miserere,” a song intended for renowned vocalist Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti was highly impressed with Bocelli's voice, the two became friends, and the next year Bocelli signed a recording contract; his debut album went platinum in Europe. In 1995 the single “Con te partirò” (“Time to Say Goodbye”) was released. It later became a duet in English with Sarah Brightman, and both versions became smash hits. Bocelli's popularity soared in 1997 after repeated PBS airings of his live show “Romanza in Concert: A Night in Tuscany.”

      Though he claimed opera as his first love, Bocelli mixed arias with popular music on his recordings (a genre referred to by the press as “popera”) in an effort to expand his audience base. Criticized by some reviewers as being too lightweight to be taken seriously by the opera world, Bocelli nevertheless opened in July in The Merry Widow, singing three arias, and made his U.S. operatic debut in November in the title role of Jules Massenet's Werther at the Michigan Opera Theatre. As 1999 drew to a close, Bocelli was preparing for his performance at the “Party of the Century,” a millennium concert to be held on New Year's Eve in New York City.

Anthony L. Green

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