Andrea Bocelli

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Andrea Bocelli

Background information
Birth name	Andrea Bocelli
Born	September 22, 1958 (age 48)
Origin	Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy
Genre(s)	Classical Crossover, Operatic pop
Years active	1996-present
Label(s)	Sugar, MT Opera&Blue's
Website	Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli (born 22 September 1958) is an Italian singer, writer, and music producer. He is both an operatic tenor and a classical crossover singer. To date, he has recorded four complete operas — La Bohème, Il Trovatore, Werther and Tosca — in addition to various classical and pop albums. Bocelli has congenital glaucoma and is blind.

1 Early career
2 International presence
3 Criticism
4 Discography
- 4.1 Albums
- 4.2 CD/DVD package
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early career

In 1992, the Italian rock star Zucchero first auditioned Andrea while scouting for tenors to duet with him in the song "Miserere"; after hearing this recording, tenor Luciano Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Bocelli instead of himself. The song was later recorded with Pavarotti, but Bocelli accompanied Zucchero on his European concert tour.

In 1994, Andrea performed the winning entry "Il Mare Calmo Della Sera" at the Sanremo Festival, which led to his first gold record. That year, he also debuted as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, sang at Pavarotti's benefit concert in Modena, and performed for Pope John Paul II at Christmas.

In 1995, Bocelli's song "Con te partirò" placed fourth at the Sanremo Festival. It was included in his 1995 album Bocelli.

[edit] International presence

In 1996, he sang with the English soprano Sarah Brightman a duet version of "Con te partirò", entitled "Time to Say Goodbye", which broke sales records and stayed in the German top ten for nearly six months. In subsequent years Bocelli performed in Paris, Bologna, Torre del Lago and Vatican City. He released further albums until entering the American market in 1998 with a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and a White House reception. Both that year and in 1999, Andrea embarked on tours to North and South America and duets with Céline Dion, and performed the first Internet live opera broadcast in its entirety from the Detroit Opera House, with Denyce Graves.

In 2002, Andrea repeated his America tour, winning two World Music Awards. Since then, he has continued his career with concert appearances throughout the world, including singing during the NBA's 2006 All-Star Weekend in Houston. He sang "Because We Believe" from his 2006 album Amore, during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In 2006, Bocelli worked with the six finalists of American Idol to help them sing the week's themed songs, "classic love songs".

[edit] Criticism

Though Bocelli frequently sings in operas, some music critics and opera fans consider him a pop singer who has neither the training nor the voice quality of a true opera singer.^[1] True opera singers do not use microphones as Bocelli does in his many appearances. Supporters of Bocelli often counter that his stage presence and the heartfelt emotion he puts into his singing make up for any lack of technical proficiency. Furthermore, opera great Luciano Pavarotti conceded to Bocelli's talent, remarking "Let Andrea sing Miserere...for there is no one finer." Ironically enough, Bocelli's critics often point to Pavarotti as the operatic tenor ideal.