BocelliOnline

[Melodie]

Top-selling tenor draws line at "popera"

Mon 8 November, 2004 10:41
By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - As the world's top-selling tenor, Andrea Bocelli knows more than most about popularising classical music.

But the blind Italian, who has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, draws the line at "popera", the musical phenomenon set to sweep the charts this week.

Speaking in a weekend interview shortly before performing at London's Wembley Arena, Bocelli lashed out at the creators of the "crossover" brand that blends classical with popular music.

Often labelled a "popera" singer himself, the mega-star insists on keeping the two genres apart.

"My view of crossover is that it depends on two factors," he said, speaking through a translator.

"The first one (is) a scarcity of new ideas, which leads people to look towards the classical repertoire and lean on that for inspiration.

"The other (is) the incapacity of making it as a top level artist in the classical field and therefore trying to rake together something 'kind of classical.'"

His comments come days before the band Il Divo looks set to knock more established pop acts off the top of the UK album charts with the release of operatic versions of songs including "Unbreak My Heart", and "My Way".

Bocelli likens such music as trying to speak Italian and English at the same time.

NO CLASSICAL SNOB

Bocelli insists he is no classical music snob.

His pop album "Romanza" has sold more than 15 million copies since its release in 1997, three times as many as his classical hit "Sacred Arias". He has just released another popular music CD "Andrea".

"The huge majority of people listen to popular music, and if you want to reach out to large audiences you do, after all, have to speak their language," he said.

In fact, despite being labelled the "fourth tenor" after Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, Bocelli believes his success as a pop singer has turned many in the classical music world against him.

"It has to be said that the opera world doesn't really do that much to make attempts to recover some sort of popularity, because there is a sort of arrogance about it," he said.

"There are some basic marketing rules which the classical music world rather turns its nose up at."

But that will not stop the 46-year-old searching for more operatic success. He plans to record Georges Bizet's "Carmen" and a compilation of great tenor arias.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID;=617130§ion;=news