Andrea Bocelli

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Andrea Bocelli <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Bocelli.jpg </td></tr>
Background information <tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Andrea Bocelli</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">September 22 1958</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Classical</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1996-present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Sugar, MT Opera&Blue's</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">Andrea Bocelli</td></tr>

Andrea Bocelli (born 22 September 1958) is an Italian singer, writer, and music producer. He is both an operatic tenor and a classical crossover singer. To date, he has recorded four complete operas — La Bohème, Il Trovatore, Werther and Tosca — in addition to various classical and pop albums. Bocelli has congenital glaucoma.

1 Personal
2 Early career
3 International presence
4 Criticism
5 Discography
- 5.1 Albums
- 5.2 CD/DVD Package
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Personal

Bocelli's parents sold farm machinery and made wine in the tiny village of La Sterza, a frazione of Lajatico, 50 km from Pisa. As of 2006, Bocelli’s 67-year-old mother and brother Alberto still live in the family home. Bocelli's father is deceased.

As a child, Bocelli played the organ in church, and at age 12 he won the Margherita d'Oro in Viareggio with "'O Sole Mio", his first win in a music competition. That same year, Bocelli lost his vision as a result of glaucoma and an accident while playing football.

After working for one year as a lawyer (he graduated with a Doctor of Laws from the University of Pisa), he undertook singing lessons from maestro Luciano Bettarini and thereafter took up music full time.

He met Enrica Cenzatti in a 1987 at a piano bar called "Boschetto"<ref>http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/2006/07/25/escenarios/esc6.asp&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Denrica%2Bcenzatti%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DTSHA,TSHA:2005-32,TSHA:en</ref> and they married on 27 June 1992 <ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/729/000031636/</ref>. They have two sons, Amos (born 22 February 1995) and Matteo (born 8 October 1997)<ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/729/000031636/</ref>. They separated in March 2002.<ref>http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/654/cu5.htm</ref> In May 2002 he got to know 24-year-old Veronica Berti (born 1981 or 1982).

[edit] Early career

In 1992, the Italian rock star Zucchero Fornaciari first auditioned Andrea while scouting for tenors to duet with him in the song "Miserere"; after hearing this recording, tenor Luciano Pavarotti urged Zucchero to use Bocelli instead of himself. The song was later recorded with Pavarotti, but Bocelli accompanied Zucchero on his European tour.

In 1994, Andrea performed the winning entry "Il Mare Calmo Della Sera" at the Sanremo Festival, which led to his first gold record. That year, he also debuted as Macduff in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, sang at Pavarotti's benefit concert in Modena, and performed for Pope John Paul II at Christmas.

In 1995, Bocelli's song "Con te Partirò" placed fourth at the Sanremo Festival. It was included in his 1995 album Bocelli.

[edit] International presence

In 1996, he sang with the English soprano Sarah Brightman a duet version of "Con te Partirò", entitled "Time to Say Goodbye", which broke sales records and stayed in the German top ten for nearly six months. In subsequent years Bocelli performed in Paris, Bologna, Torre del Lago and Vatican City. He released further albums until entering the American market in 1998 with a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and a White House reception. Both that year and in 1999, Andrea embarked on tours to North and South America and duets with Céline Dion, and performed the first Internet live opera broadcast in its entirety from the Detroit Opera House, with Denyce Graves.

In 2002, Andrea repeated his America tour, winning two World Music Awards. Since then, he has continued his career with concert appearances throughout the world, including singing during the NBA's 2006 All-Star Weekend in Houston. He sang "Because We Believe" from his 2006 album Amore, during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In 2006, Bocelli worked with the six finalists of American Idol to help them sing the week's themed songs, "classic love songs". He was especially impressed with Katharine McPhee. She accepted his offer to perform with him on the 3 California dates of his US tour: Sacramento, San Jose and the Hollywood Bowl, June 9 - 11, 2006.

[edit] Criticism

Though Bocelli frequently sings in operas, some music critics and opera fans consider him a pop singer who has neither the training nor the voice quality of a true opera singer.<ref>http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/bocelli%20performance%20sounds%20like%20strangulation_1007750</ref> Supporters of Bocelli often counter that his stage presence and the heartfelt emotion he puts into his singing make up for any lack of technical proficiency.