Search - Andrea Bocelli :: Viaggio Italiano / Andrea Bocelli

Wasn't What I Expected!

Kathleen Wright | USA | 04/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have spent a lot of time here reading all the different reviews of Andrea Bocelli's recordings and I do not really understand what is so important about his voice being technically perfect. I have listened to lots of opera music and have not had the same reaction as I have with Bocelli. My daughter first introduced me to Andrea Bocelli and I really wasn't that interested, thinking he was just another tenor. Was I ever wrong! I have enjoyed Pavarotti's Nessum Dorma, but when I heard Andrea Bocelli, sing it I wept, quite unexpectedly. I do think that perfection is highly overrated. Being technically perfect doesn't make you better, just more technical. I enjoy music because it moves something in me. Quite frankly Andrea Bocelli does that better than any other tenor I have heard. I will enjoy his opera music, his pop music and his sacred music because he moves me in a way I have never been moved before, and I think that his soul must be just as wonderful. Yes I do think that if God was singing that is what he would sound like!"

Bocelli nothing short of magical

Harinder J. Singh | Woodside, CA USA | 11/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard Bocelli's rendition of Nessun Dorma from this album on an Air Canada flight three weeks ago, on their Operatic Flights audio channel. I knew nothing of the performer, the piece or the composer and have rarely connected with operatic music. I also neither speak nor understand Italian. But I found myself in tears from hearing Bocelli's Nessun Dorma, and stayed on that audio channel to hear it once more on what was left of the flight from Toronto to San Francisco. I'm a 46-year old business man, with virtually no training in music or the arts. I not only felt the magic and depth of the music when I heard it on that flight but have felt its uplifting inspiration every single day after that (so far!)I have since procured, and listened to, a number of different versions of the piece by other famous tenors. They're good or great, but Bocelli is EXQUISITE!The critical comments of the professional reviewers may have some marginal merit in terms of specific technicalities, but should be set aside in favor of one's direct experience of the music. Our connection to music and the arts is much too primal and deep, beyond the merely intellectual and analytical faculties engaged by critics.I'm heartened by the consistent validation of Bocelli's music by "lay reviewers" who have commented ahead of me. I would recommend this CD as a "must have," whether or not one is an opera buff (or snob), even just for that one track alone."

Bravo Andrea!

James A. Holland | Las Vegas, NV USA | 10/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been following the various reviews of Bocelli's CD's over the past few years on here and I'm still as surprised as ever to see so many critical and just ill-spirited opinions posted.



I have had this CD for a good many years now and in many ways it was this very CD that has sparked in me a love and interest in Opera that I did not have previously.



I keep reading how terrible of a tenor Bocelli is, and how he doesn't have this or that and how he will never be in contention with Domingo or Pavarotti.

So what?

Bocelli is a tenor in his own class, as is Pavarotti. There is no reason to compare the two, but the mere fact that all too many people do, even if in a negative context, tells me that something about Bocelli's voice reminds them of the great tenor.



Just listen to Bocelli's "Nessun Dorma". All the technical jibberish aside, his is one of the finest renditions of the great aria period!

True, his voice is not a big, powerful spinto the likes of Domindo or Corelli but the sensitivity and feeling he brings to the aria more than compensate for that.

The same holds true for just about every song on here. From the arias, to the sacred selections, on to the Neopolitan standards...all are very well interpreted. Bocelli's forte is his elegance, the softness and warmth in his sound, and of course, his clear high notes.



When this CD first came out, many opera "experts" wrote Bocelli off as a mere fluke, a pop-singer who tries too hard to be a "legit" tenor. Here we are almost a decade later and Bocelli is about to release his 9th! CD and his international appeal shows no sighns of waning.

The man has, to date, sold more records, both operatic and Pop, than Pavarotti, Domingo, Carerras, Correlli and Bjoreling put together in their long and illustrious careers! Clearly Bocelli is doing something right.



My final verdict on this CD is that this is as good a tenor CD as any ever produced.

More than that, Bocelli has single-handedly brought Pop-Opera to the international forefront and he will always be remembered as that blind man who changed the face of modern opera forever.

Perhaps it is this very fact that makes "legit" Opera lovers bristle at the very idea of Andrea Bocelli.



Let's face it, Opera has been a dying art form for decades and it wasn't until Bocelli and those who follow his path, however, loathed by the purists, that made and continue to make Opera attractive to audiences worldwide.

Bravo Andrea!"