BocelliOnline

[Melodie]

NEWPORT NEWS -- Italian tenor sensation Andrea Bocelli will perform Oct. 20 at the Ferguson Center for the Arts at Christopher Newport University.

If you want to go, it will cost you: Tickets priced from $175 to $300 go on sale at 10 a.m. Sept. 6.

The internationally known singer, blind since his youth, performs a mix of Italian songs, opera arias and popular music. He frequently appears in large stadiums and rarely plays smaller venues such as the 1,700-seat Ferguson concert hall. That accounts for the ticket prices, which might be the highest for a performer that the Peninsula has seen.

"We would love to make the concert accessible to everyone," said Bruce Bronstein, Ferguson's director of communications, "But the reality is that the artist's fee does not make that possible. Even at a sellout, we're losing a great deal of money."

Part of the expense for the concert will come out of individual and corporate donations to the Ferguson center earmarked for programming, he said.

Bocelli's Ferguson appearance will be his only public performance in the United States this year, Bronstein said, so the concert is expected to generate interest from as far away as New York.

Born in the province of Pisa in 1958, Bocelli came to international attention when tenor Luciano Pavarotti heard his voice on a demo tape and later invited him to perform at a benefit concert in 1994.

He has performed duets with singers Sarah Brightman and Celine Dion and is a frequent nominee for Grammy and World Music awards. His million-selling recordings include two complete Puccini operas, "La Boheme" and "Tosca."

Bocelli's appearance caps a lineup of more than 40 artists announced for the Ferguson's new concert hall, scheduled to open Sept. 12. Tickets to the Bocelli concert will be available through Ticketmaster outlets or at www.ticketmaster.com.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-73079sy0aug25,0,7048669.story?coll=dp-headlines-topnews

FERGUSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS: http://fergusoncenter.cnu.edu/tickets.html