Andrea Bocelli occupies a space that is intensely specific. Blind since age 12, Bocelli is a celebrity Italian tenor with record sales approaching 50 million and recent appearances on “American Idol” and the Winter Olympics in Turin.
At the same time, Bocelli’s role in contemporary pop culture is nebulous.
Bocelli is an opera singer who is also a pop star, equally at home on La Scala’s stage in Milan as the “Idol” studios in Los Angeles. He can sing the lead in “La Boheme” or “Il Travatore” with grace and aplomb, and he can pack American arenas with sweeping romantic ballads that tug at the heartstrings with each soaring crescendo.
“My passion has always been partial to opera,” Bocelli said via interpreter last week, “so that’s the thing I enjoy the most.”
But without the crossover work, Bocelli would be performing Saturday at a small Denver concert hall instead of the Pepsi Center. The singer’s peers aren’t Ramon Vargas or Denyce Graves so much as they are Sarah Brightman, Charlotte Church, Sissel and others of the so-called “popera” ilk.
While their fans number in the millions, they walk a difficult critical line. Some say these artists lack the vocal training and control of mainstream opera singers. (Bocelli has been criticized for his microphone techniques.) On the upside, they’re bringing larger audiences to the world of opera, which remains an unapproachable fine art to many.
Bocelli is more than aware of this split, and he almost plays to people’s expectations. His concerts are separated into varying segments, making them more easily digestible for fans who don’t know the difference between Puccini and Verdi. Although he spoke through a translator in this interview, a knowing sense of his wide straddle between pop and opera came through in his thoughts.
“(My shows) are organized,” Bocelli said. “There is one part that is fully opera music, and the second part will still include classical music, but it will be more popular. And then we’ll conclude with the part of my repertoire that is the more popular.”
When Bocelli says “popular,” he’s likely referencing the work masterfully engineered by mega-producer David Foster. Famous for his work with Celine Dion, Foster first found success with Bocelli with the single “Con te Partiro.”
The song is equal parts pop melody and opera swagger, and nearly 12 years after its release, it remains the defining song of Bocelli’s repertoire – and it was followed by an even more successful version of the song called “Time To Say Goodbye,” sung as a bilingual, Italian-English duet with Brightman.
Foster’s contribution
Foster struck gold again with “The Prayer,” a Bocelli-Dion duet that propelled the singer’s fifth disc, “Sogno,” to multiplatinum status. (It sold more than 10 million copies.) These collaborations are the foundation of Bocelli’s empire, but he’s made an obvious effort in recent years to reconnect with his operatic roots.
Asked about his favorite opera, he declined to answer. “I don’t have just one – I really love many of them,” he said. But talking about his favorite part he’s performed, Bocelli talks without trepidation.
“I will soon sing Andrea Chenier, a character role that has always intrigued me,” he said. “I’m just hoping that they give me the time to prepare for it.”
Bocelli, 48, was born with poor eyesight in the Tuscan countryside near Volterra. He started piano lessons at 6, and he took up singing, saxophone and flute before becoming fully blind at age 12. Undeterred, he would graduate from law school at the University of Pisa.
Yet he still felt drawn to music, and so after studying with Franco Corelli and singing at piano bars, Bocelli got his break when he won an audition with Italian pop star Zucchero Fornaciari. That key opened the door, and in the ensuing months Bocelli recorded a song co-written by Bono with Pavarotti, toured with Fornaciari and performed alongside Bryan Adams, Andreas Vollenweider and Nancy Gustafson.
Plenty of hyperbole
In 1995 he toured Europe with Night of Proms, a show that saw him shoulder-to-shoulder with John Miles, Bryan Ferry and Al Jarreau. Speaking after the tour, Jarreau said, “I have had the honor to sing with the most beautiful voice in the world.” Later Celine Dion would offer the equally hyperbolic, “If God had a singing voice, it would sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli.”
Bocelli’s voice is beautiful, although now it’s more of a marketing tagline than a celebrated talent. His sentiment seems honest. Talking about his successes in America, Bocelli said, “I think this is a country where I’ve received a lot of affection and a lot of esteem, and this is something that I want to reciprocate as much as I can.”
But the seemingly endless stream of DVD releases coming from his camp solidifies his position alongside such peers as Brightman and even Yanni.
Consider this passage from the singer’s biography: “Andrea Bocelli possesses a very special gift; a voice that communicates directly with the heart. … He sings with the universal language of the heart and soul, transcending the disparate languages of the spoken word.”
Imagine that nonsensical overstatement in a playbill at The Metropolitan Opera. And so goes the unending quandary of Andrea Bocelli, a paradoxical performer of our age.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
Andrea Bocelli
POP/OPERA|Pepsi Center; 8 p.m. Saturday |$51-$396|ticketmaster.com, 303-8308497
