BocelliOnline

[Melodie]

By COLIN EATOCK
Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Page R1
Special to The Globe and Mail

Few artists divide opinion the way Andrea Bocelli does. To his adoring fans who flock to hear him in sports arenas (he appears at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Thursday), he's the greatest operatic tenor in the world -- an upholder of Italy's glorious musical traditions and the rightful heir to Luciano Pavarotti. To others, who stay away from such concerts, he's not an opera singer at all, but rather a counterfeit, lacking stamina, vocal technique, or even substantial talent.

But no one can deny that he's successful: Bocelli has sold about 45 million recordings worldwide, and maintains a permanent address on Billboard magazine's top-classical-artists chart. Like all big stars, he's become an industry, slickly packaged and watched over by agents, recording executives and concert promoters. His image is carefully managed: Any journalist who would interview him is advised by his handlers not to ask about his blindness or his personal life. In other words, there will be no questions about the loss of his eyesight to glaucoma at the age of 12, or about his divorce in 2001 from his wife, Enrica.

Yet when reached by phone at his seaside home in Tuscany, the 46-year-old singer seems open and relaxed. "I'm lazy when I'm at home -- I sit on the sofa for a long time," he remarks candidly. "But when I'm outside, I like to try every kind of sport. My passion is to ride horses, and to read, and to play chess. And I like the sea. When I'm free, I go on boats and two years ago, I began to windsurf. I love life and I like to do many things, but there's not always the time."

He's also forthright about his fear of audiences. "I have always big stage fright -- many singers have this. When I sing, I suffer. There is nothing to do."

But he finds a question about his massive popularity a little harder to answer. "It's difficult to say, because nobody can know the reason for his success. Probably the first reason is that I'm very honest in my goal. I'm Italian and I try to sing Italian repertoire. Italian tenors have been loved around the world. It's a tradition."

Indeed it is. Early in the 20th century, Enrico Caruso captured the world's heart through the new medium of recording. He was succeeded by such artists as Beniamino Gigli and the Italian-American Mario Lanza, who appeared in films and sang before thousands at the Hollywood Bowl. In the 1980s, the Three Tenors became pop-opera icons - and now Bocelli has largely occupied the cultural space left vacant by their semi-retirement. Yet while Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras achieved fame in opera productions around the world, well before they began to fill stadiums, Bocelli's path to stardom has been quite different.

After a short stint as a lawyer, Bocelli began his musical career as a lounge singer, singing Italian pop songs. But his goal was to sing opera, and in 1993 Pavarotti heard an operatic demo tape by the young singer and was impressed. The next year, he appeared in a Pavarotti and Friends television show, and his name became known throughout Italy. Two recordings followed, Il Mare Calmo della Sera in 1994 and Bocelli in 1995. And in 1997, his album Romanza, which includes a duet with Sarah Brightman (of Phantom of the Opera fame), went multi-platinum and made him an international celebrity.

But there was not much on these discs -- comprised of ballads and a few lighter classical pieces -- to impress hard-core opera fans. What they're most interested in is live performances in full opera productions. And here, the popular tenor's achievements are thin. He sang his first major role -- Rodolfo in La Bohème -- in 1997, in Sardinia, to decidedly mixed reviews. Since then, he's appeared in about one production per year in smaller European houses, or at festivals. (He's also taken to recording complete operas, with some of the world's leading opera singers, and has thus far released La Bohème, Il Trovatore and Tosca.) Apart from the difficulties associated with a blind singer performing in a staged opera -- an almost unprecedented thing -- many critics have complained that his voice just isn't strong enough for live opera. This point was driven home at his 1999 appearance in Massenet's Werther at Detroit's Michigan Opera Theatre.

"Heard without the souped-up amplification of his arena concerts," remarked Opera News magazine bluntly, "Bocelli's voice was revealed as an imperfect instrument."

Observed The New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini: "I was surely not the only critic surprised by the extent of Mr. Bocelli's vocal deficiencies for opera. Even many of his fans in the house seemed shaken. You could see people gathered in little support groups during intermissions, searching for explanations." Tommasini went on to scold Michigan Opera Theatre for engaging such an ill-equipped artist in the first place.

After these reviews appeared, a planned appearance by Bocelli at the Houston Grand Opera was quickly shelved. He hasn't sung with a North American opera company since.

"Those reviews were not really appropriate," a stung Bocelli responded at the time. "What they wrote was not what really happened on-stage. It made me wonder if some of the journalists were in the theatre at all."

Today, he is more philosophical about his critics. "I think every artist, when he has a big success, has friends and enemies," he muses. As for those who charge that he can't sing without a microphone, he responds: "They would be correct if I didn't go on-stage for real concerts, and opera. Nobody can sing without a microphone in a sports palace."

Here, Bocelli knows whereof he speaks. While his name remains conspicuously absent from the rosters of La Scala or Covent Garden, he's performed at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., and in scores of similar large venues around the world. His fans -- who couldn't care less about what the critics think -- pack arenas and buy millions of his CDs.

So why is he so loved? David Patrick Stearns, writing for USA Today, has labelled the phenomenon "the Helfgott effect" -- a reference to the mentally unstable pianist David Helfgott whose life was dramatized in the film Shine. While Bocelli's blindness is officially Not An Issue, Stearns's remark suggests that the singer's handicap might in fact attract sympathy. And then there's his dark, scruffy good looks: Recording executives well know that his target demographic is women between their mid-30s and their mid-60s.

Or perhaps it's exactly those qualities in his voice that his detractors don't like -- a roughness and thinness of tone -- that appeals to his public. To many people today, brought up on a steady diet of pop music, trained operatic voices can sound affected and contrived. To put it another way, maybe Bocelli is the ideal opera singer for people who don't like opera singers.

Whatever the reasons for his mass appeal, Bocelli believes his popularity is attracting a new generation of listeners to operatic music. "I'm sure that many young people come to the theatre when I sing opera," he states with confidence.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050405/BOCELLI05/TPEntertainment/TopStories

[Marilynn]

That article is disgusting. Why does he not go to the concert and act like a real music critic instead of going online and just rewritting everything every other writer of his calaber has written? I think he does not know what he is talking about or he would listen and express a opinion after the concert. The critic from NY times and the Philadephia Enquirer both got my opinion of their qualifications as music critics. Andrea was wonderful in Detroit. Although I don't think that Andrea's Management or Promoters have done him justice, but they are making lots of money, and want only a quick buck and that means POP. All I see in them are back pockets suits with no class.

[westsider]

I am afraid you are reading this article backguards. Where is the ugliness?
_________________
"Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua
ferita ogni sua carezza..."

"I sing to life, to its beauty, to each of its
wounds and each of its caresses..."

[Melodie]

I'm with you on this one, Nellie. Actually, the writer isn't even making any personal comments, just reporting observations that others have made and concluding partly with the statement: "To many people today, brought up on a steady diet of pop music, trained operatic voices can sound affected and contrived."

How many Bocelli fans out there say that they could never listen to opera until they heard Andrea sing it?

[westsider]

Thanks Melodie. I have the same impression. All what is said in the article is true. No viciousness there...
_________________
"Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua
ferita ogni sua carezza..."

"I sing to life, to its beauty, to each of its
wounds and each of its caresses..."

[Marilynn]

I never said it was ugly I said it was disgusting. Just quoting Stearn & the NY writer from 1997-98 is an insult then and is now, to Andrea. This is from a Toronto Newspaper a week before the Concert. This is like Domingo calling Graves every day in Detroit to see if he is going to fail....What can AB say back to the writer when he ask insulting question? He is nice and takes it. If he weren't nice and he came back with sour grapes, would you think it was a nice article????

[Kathleen]

A critic's view is just that...an expression of his own personal opinion. Perhaps we should just accept it for what it is. However, as a lover of all types of music, I can see some merit in this critic's ideas. Bocelli has been gifted with an incredible talent, but it is not one which is confined to operatic pieces. His voice is suited to a wider range of musical genres than many artists, and his voice does pale compared to some operatic greats in regard to technical quality. I believe that Bocelli's true gift is in his ability to express emotion, to draw the listener into the music in every dimension. That is a quality defined as soul. Who would I choose to sing Bach's "Ave Maria" at my funeral Mass??? There's no question about that...