Andrea Bocelli

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Born Sept. 22, 1958 in Lajatico, Italy

Andrea Bocelli is an Italian opera singer known for the gentle lyricism and warm tone in his voice that enchant his audiences.

“When it comes to classical music, and opera in particular, there is no one who is more of a purist than I am,” Bocelli told reporter David Ng in December 2009. “I have never mixed the two.” This statement may seem as crazy as the murderous Lucia de Lammermoor, but it helps explain the huge appeal of this definitive classical crossover music star.

Bocelli, born in 1958 in Lajatico, in Tuscany, is the top-selling solo recording artist in classical music history and a major bridge from pop to opera for many listeners. He was born with glaucoma and has been blind since the age of 12, when he was struck in the face by a soccer ball at school.

He practiced law for a brief time before he began to pursue his musical career.

After studying with the tenor Franco Corelli, he was discovered by the Italian pop star Zucchero in 1992. A splashy win at the Sanremo Song Festival in 1994 catapulted him to fame, and since then, he has released more than a dozen studio albums, eight full opera recordings, and several concert DVDs.

In 2002, he wrote an ingratiating memoir called "The Music of Silence" in which he frankly described his blindness, the pains and prejudices he confronted as a kid, and years he scraped by as a piano player in bars and clubs in his native Tuscany.

He acknowledged that his book was poorly translated from Italian into English, which may explain why it quickly disappeared in the U.S. after being published. Still, it lays bare a little hellion — his parents called him Terremoto (earthquake) — behind the international hits.

Bocelli has sung for popes and queens and at the memorial service at ground zero in New York after 9/11 and at Luciano Pavarotti’s funeral in 2007. He’s performed duets with Celine Dion and with "Sesame Street’s" Elmo. Critics may declare his voice weak and unpredictable, but as the embodiment of classical gravitas in a pop age, he’s broken through boundaries even as he maintains that air of purism that makes him so attractive to so many.

— Ann Powers and Kevin Berger for the Los Angeles Times June 29, 2010, and Dec. 9, 2010

Related stars

Celine Dion
Professional

Points of interest

Six thoughts about Andrea Bocelli

“

Andrea Bocelli is an Opera singer, a Latin singer, and a Crooner. Artists who belong to each of those categories are connected to him.

He was also one of People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people of 1998, which makes him also connected to every person who has made and will make their list.

Bocelli is from Tuscany, Italy, so that is a place important to him in the world.

Bocelli is the biggest-selling artist in the history of Classical music, with over 70 million copies sold wordwide since 1994, and is generally described as the king of his Music genre, which is Classical Crossover/Operatic pop, or Popera as it is popularly called.

In fact, people like Josh Groban and Il Divo, the other big names of the music genre, pretty much owe their careers to him. Groban's first big break was replacing Bocelli during the 1998 Grammy awards rehearsals, singing The Prayer with Celine Dion, while Bocelli was stranded in an airport in Germany, and couldn't make it in time. Simon Cowell created Il Divo after hearing Con te Partiro sang by Bocelli, while watching an episode of the Sopranos.

He definitely deserves this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Live theatre. In fact he deserves an other one in the field of recording.

” — Misha, May 31, 2010 at 1:50 p.m.

“

Tuscan, like Puccini and Mascagni, Andrea Bocelli was born on September 22, 1958 and grew up at the family farm in Lajatico, nestling between the vines of the Pisan countryside. His parents must receive the credit for having encouraged young Andrea's musical talent, allowing him to start studying the piano from the age of only six years old.

Later his musical passion would extend to the flute and the saxophone but it was in his voice that Andrea discovered the ideal instrument and this was the beginning of the formative process which would produce Bocelli, the star, "a modern but old fashioned tenor" (as he likes to describe himself). In 1994 Andrea had the opportunity to make his debut on the operatic stage in Verdi's Macbeth (in the role of Macduff): Andrea Bocelli had found the stage. In fact the stage had found Andrea Bocelli and would never leave him.

There is something miraculous about the parallel track along which the tenor Andrea Bocelli's career developed. In 1996 the melody of the song "Con te Partiro`" (and later its arrangement as a duet with Sarah Brightman with the title "Time to say Goodbye") was heard in every corner of the world. In Germany, the duet became the best selling single of all time.

At the same time Andrea embarked on his operatic adventure performing parts of Madame Butterfly and Tosca, and also the "Aria of 9 C" from La fille du regiment, which received a standing ovation in Torre del Lago during the summer of 1997.

In 1998 came a new debut, this time playing Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème in Cagliari, prompting praise from legendary tenor Franco Corelli, who commented: "Andrea is an operatic tenor with a voice of rare beauty. His sense of romance and melody goes beyond the very essence of Rodolfo the bohemian".

1999 was a very intense year and saw his debut in the United States in Massenet's Werther. At the same time his album Sogno including Andrea's duet with Céline Dion of "The Prayer", which had already won the Golden Globe Award and was subsequently nominated for an Oscar, was released. From this point on the Bocelli legend, supported by huge record sales, was unstoppable. His concerts would find the most celebrated directors on the podium such as Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Valeri Gergev, Zubin Mehta and Myun Whun Chung.

His first "classical" recording dates back to 1997 and was entitled Viaggio Italiano. 1998 saw the release of Aria -- The Opera Album, while the dawn of the new millennium, was marked by the release of a cd dedicated to Sacred Arias with the Orchestra and Choir of the National Academy of Saint Cecilia conducted by Myung-Whun Chung : an homage to Christianity which remains one of his most shining artistic productions, becoming the best selling classical album ever released by a solo artist. Bocelli earned a place in the Guiness Book of World Records by occupying the first, second and third place in the American classical music charts.

” — Giorgio De Martino, May 31, 2010 at 2:03 p.m.

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The year 2000 marked a new milestone in Andrea Bocelli's recording career: Puccini's La Bohème, with Zubin Mehta conducting and Barbara Frittoli in the role of Mimì.

Still under the baton of Zubin Mehta, the start of the millennium also celebrated the release of the Verdi album and in the autumn of 2002 Andrea Bocelli combined his energies with those of Lorin Maazel for Sentimento, a collection of romantic pieces by composers such as Tosti, Denza and Gastaldon.

The project was an enormous success earning Andrea a double nomination at the 2003 "Classical Brit Awards", where he won both "Album of the Year" and "Best Selling Classical Album of the Year".

In May 2003 Andrea sang the role of Mario on Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, directed by Zubin Mehta.

His last album My Christmas, produced by David Foster, shot to success in no time entering the Billboard Top 200 Charts at number 3 and climbing to #2 on week 2, where it remained for six consecutive weeks. Achieving sales of more than 4 million, this makes it the 5th top selling album in the world in 2009. And these can be added to the 65 million records already sold to date.

” — Giorgio De Martino, May 31, 2010 at 2:06 p.m.

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