Il Maestro È Veramente Meraviglioso
Okay, I'll admit it: when it comes to Andrea Bocelli I'm an unabashed fan. And I'm certainly not alone. The incredible Italian tenor has admirers in all walks of life. Sure, you'd expect the “opera crowd” to fawn all over him, but I am constantly amazed by the breadth of his appeal among everyday people who wouldn't know Verdi from a Volkswagen.
The first time I ever heard of Andrea Bocelli was about twenty years ago when an admirer in a small-town florist shop waxed effusive about his phenomenal voice. More recently, I encountered a lady in Walmart who struck up a conversation about Valentine's Day gifts. When I mentioned that my wife and I were going to see Andrea Bocelli's Valentine concert, the lady nearly swooned. “Oh, I just love him!” And when my wife mentioned the same concert in her office, a place largely populated by guys who talk a lot about huntin' and fishin' and football, she was surprised when one of them said, “Oh yeah, I'm taking my wife to that concert.” So to say his fanbase is broad would be an understatement.
Now, I'm an old guy, okay. But I'm an old guy who spent decades in various aspects of the entertainment business, and I know a lot of famous people. As a broadcaster, I interviewed hundreds of celebs and stars over the years and as a performer I shared a stage with a few of them. I say this not to brag, but to make the point that I've been close up with a lot of talent in my time and I'm not easily starstruck. So what is it about Andrea Bocelli that compels me to purchase nearly all of his recorded work and to dash out to the box office every time he comes within a hundred miles of me?
First and foremost, I adore music. I always have. I found my singing voice long before any other talent manifested itself, and music has always been my first love. All kinds of music; classical, opera, rock and roll, pop, country, jazz, standards, swing – I can listen to and enjoy pretty much anything. And I can expand and adjust my musical tastes. For instance, I never thought much of Lady Gaga until she teamed up with Tony Bennett and just blew me away. Then I went back and listened to some of her solo stuff with new ears and a new appreciation of her talent.
I also respect music and the power and influence it can have in people's lives. Music is a universal form of expression. Whether it's a powerful tenor delivering a soaring aria, a symphony performing a stirring composition, a folk singer strumming a guitar and singing a moving ballad, or an aborigine beating out a tribal rhythm on a drum, music has the ability to reach in and capture a part of your soul.
In 1697, William Congreve, in his play “The Mourning Bride,” famously said, “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. To soften rocks, or bend the knotted oak.” (And, yes, it is “breast” and not “beast.” Somewhere along the line, the quote morphed when somebody dropped the “r.”) And, as it turns out, that's not just florid seventeenth-century hype. Music actually does have soothing power. Modern scientific research has revealed that listening to music can increase the body's level of oxytocin and serotonin, the brain's natural mood elevators, invoking a sense of calmness and reduced anxiety.
And that's where Andrea Bocelli's voice takes me. In a pantheon of entertainers from ABBA to ZZ Top, no other artist can soothe my “savage breast” the way Andrea Bocelli can. It doesn't matter how horribly life has treated me on any given day, the first notes of any of Andrea's songs will almost instantly mitigate my mood. His voice is truly magical.
Even though he started his musical career playing and singing in a Tuscan piano bar, a lot of people automatically label Andrea as an “opera singer.” And, make no mistake, he is that. But he is also so much more. His “pop” chops are incomparable. As much as I appreciate his operatic virtuosity, it's his pop-oriented repertoire that I can, and do, listen to by the hour.
His work as a solo artist is amazing. But when he partners with other artists, il maestro è veramente meraviglioso! I mean, is there anybody Andrea Bocelli can't sing with? He has scored enormous hits with Celine Dion (“The Prayer”) and Sarah Brightman (“Con Te Partiro/Time To Say Goodbye”). I love his duet with Ed Sheeran on a great arrangement of Sheeran's “Perfect” called “Perfect Symphony.” He's also recorded with Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder, Paul Anka, Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Barbara Streisand, Nelly Furtado, Ariana Grande, Tony Bennett, Alison Krauss, Reba McIntire, Natalie Cole, Michael Bublé, Jennifer Garner, Giorgia, Katherine Jenkins, Christina Aguilera, Cecilia Bartoli, Josh Groban, Helene Fischer, and, through the magic of technology, Edith Piaf, just to name a few. He's recorded with family, too, from a wonderful duet of the Frank and Nancy Sinatra classic “Something Stupid” sung with his wife Veronica Berti, to a fairly big hit, “Fall On Me,” recorded with his son Matteo for the soundtrack of Disney's “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” to a sensational Internet streaming performance of Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah” with daughter Virginia. And his voice blends so perfectly with all of them. I mean, talk about diversity and versatility! Read that list again and then tag him with that narrow “opera singer” label that so many uninformed people stick on him. Of course, he's recorded lots of opera, including “Notte 'E Piscatore” with his mentor Luciano Pavarotti, but that's just the thin surface of his endless musical talent. Did I mention that besides piano, he is proficient on flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar, and drums? But, yeah, he's just an “opera singer.”
Andrea Bocelli was born in a small Tuscan village about twenty-five miles south of Pisa, so naturally he sings mostly in Italian. It's his first language and the one with which he is most comfortable. But he's also produced a lot of work in Spanish and in French as well as in Portuguese and Latin, and I've heard him sing a smattering of German. And, of course, even though he is somewhat halting when speaking English, he sings in it beautifully and effortlessly. I am the reverse; I'm a native English-speaker who can struggle through Italian. And I can understand enough of the other languages I mentioned to know which of them he is using. But the point is that the words don't matter. The fact that you may not know what he is saying is actually unimportant. It's the sound of his voice that will transport you. The tone, the timbre, and the texture of his vocalization is simply superb.
I had the opportunity to attend Andrea's last U.S. concert in 2020, just days before before the planet shut down for COVID, an event made even more magical by dint of the fact that it was the last live musical event I – or pretty much anybody else – would get to see for most of the next two years. I had to content myself with listening to the nearly two hundred Bocelli songs on my phone's playlist and repeatedly watching any and all of the six performance DVDs I own, not including the biopic “The Music of Silence,” which I also streamed a couple of times. (Told you I was a fan.)
And now that things are slowly creeping back toward some semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy, Andrea is back on the road and I burned up Ticketmaster the minute I saw that he was coming to a venue a mere hour-and-a-half away. And so what if I wound up sitting in the section where oxygen masks are optional? He sounded just as wonderful to me up there as he did to the folks who paid five times more to sit in floor seats. And his image was projected on three enormous screens that flank the stage, so I got to relish the whole concert experience and still make my mortgage payment. Win-win.
Obviously, Andrea does not travel with a full symphony orchestra and chorus. He utilizes local talent in the cities where he performs. As a friend of mine pointed out, this is another “win-win” because not only does it provide him with beautiful accompaniment, it also brings much-deserved attention to local artists. He does bring guest performers with him, usually an operatic soprano to accompany him for the first part – the “opera part” – of his show. Then he takes a break and returns to the stage for a selection of some of his more popular contemporary tunes. And he has a guest or two there as well. The last two times I've seen him it was the talented Italian-American singer Pia Toscano, whose voice blended beautifully with his on their duets and stood out strongly on her own solo numbers. A splendid professional dance couple provided some entertaining visual elements from time to time, but the highlights of the evening on the occasion of his most recent concert were Andrea's son, Matteo, and his daughter, Virginia, who added their remarkable talents to an already fulfilling evening.
Matteo is the next generation of extraordinary Bocelli musicianship. He is embarking on a solo career and has released a couple of singles, one of which he performed to enthusiastic response. And his duets with his dad were spectacular. But it was the youngest Bocelli on the stage who absolutely enchanted the audience when she joined her father in singing the previously mentioned adaptation of “Hallelujah.” I'm sure Virginia Bocelli had some people looking around to see who was behind the curtain singing because it was impossible that that voice could have emanated from a nine-year-old throat. And her stage presence is advanced far beyond her years. Her English was flawless as she joked with her dad about not “messing up” the number. She is most assuredly another developing talent to watch.
As I said, I've rubbed elbows with a whole bunch of entertainers across a broad spectrum of music. And I've loved 'em all and I've respected them all for their varied and wonderful talents. But Andrea Bocelli? I've never had the opportunity to meet him and, for all the hours I've spent with other “stars” of various magnitudes, I'd dearly love to spend just five minutes in conversation him. So, does that make me a fanboy? Okay, I'm a fanboy.
If you're one of those people who sees the name “Andrea Bocelli” and immediately writes him off as an “opera singer” who doesn't do “your kind of music,” you are seriously shortchanging the man and depriving yourself of a wonderful opportunity to broaden your musical horizons a bit. So go online and stream something – maybe one of the duets I mentioned earlier – and you'll see what I mean. And, who knows? Maybe I'll see you up in the cheap seats the next time he comes to town.
