Amazon.com Classical Music Reviews
With this CD devoted solely to operatic arias–by none less than Giuseppe Verdi, the greatest Italian opera composer of all time–pop crossover phenomenon Andrea Bocelli throws his hat into the operatic ring with the big boys. The hat occasionally fits, and occasionally it doesn’t. The beauty of the voice is undeniable, as is the relative ease in all registers. But, regardless of what the engineers do, it is clearly a small voice. For “Celeste … More >>
The Beggar’s Opera
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana & Leoncavallo: Pagliacci with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, Tullio
#1 by Il-hwan Kim on July 3, 2010 - 12:27 am
I bought this CD last Sunday. First I hear his ‘Possente Amor Mi
Chiama’, I was pleasant. His lively voice was very good.
(Have you heard ‘Ramon Vargas-Verdi aria’? If you hear ‘Possente
Amor Mi Chiama’in his album, you’ll find out that he couldn’t
sing last high D, then he sang an lower octave.)
Of course, Andrea Bocelli has many defects. But, Other tenors
are too.
Roberto Alagna. His voice is powerful. But listen carefully. His
melody is not correct.
Jose cura. Dramatic voice is good. But his tone is so low.
Don’t speak of his defects again and again. And commend him for
his strong points.
That is my point.
Anyway, this album is excellent.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Gregory J. Diercks on July 3, 2010 - 12:44 am
Tiny voice, highly amplified and/or electronically enhanced. Why bother — go with a REAL Verdian tenor like Domingo or Del Monaco.
Don’t spend the $’s – it’s not worth it!
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on July 3, 2010 - 2:28 am
What a sad spectacle. In crossover material this performer has carved a niche for himself: he’ll go down in cultural history as the vocalist who made it almost respectable to own Mario Lanza records. This tiny, unformed instrument is absolutely inadequate in this repertoire. The poorly-supported sound is geriatric and strangled, the tone gray, the phrasing amateurish at best. This is simply the worst excuse for Verdi singing ever committed to disc. Maybe a few of the apparently hypnotized fans of this poor, exploited man will buy a disc by a real singer, and hear these arias actually performed; apart from that hope, this is sad, depressing self-parody. My apologies to those sincere fans of Mr. Boccelli who will feel slighted by these unhappy words. This is just not professional quality at all.
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on July 3, 2010 - 2:46 am
I’m only sorry I couldn’t rate him 7 stars out of 5. His voice is simply astounding. I could almost hear Salieri (played by Murray Abraham of the much-beloved Amadeus cinema, ca 1984) giving effusive superlatives. The quality of his voice packs power and and plenty of emotion to go with it. His voice is most dynamic. It’s hard for me to explain in words. His diction is crisp and just perfect.
He’s much better than even Mario Lanza, whose movies I’ve seen. I’ve got an album of his, too — as do I the other two tenors who’re past their prime — Domingo and Pavarotti. Lanza’s voice is just loud, all the way through. His diction is brutal. Just see his film Be My Love, co-staring Kathryn Grayson, you’ll know what I mean. His face contorts when he strains too much. When the last syllable of a word reads “se”, he vocalizes it as “sah,” which is Americanized, not quite the phoentically sounding Italian. Bocelli correctly sings it as “se.” To be fair with the “legendary” Lanza, he was too Americanized for Italian singing, being born in America.
I can understand the popular interest in the three tenors are waning because they can no longer deliver the goods. Domingo and Pavarotti can not sustain real high notes as Bocelli.
But the reason I’m giving Bocelli 7 stars is because of the obstacles he had to overcome, which is miraculous when you consider it. I give him a sixth star for singing difficult, and may I say, risky arias WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF SEING THE SCORE! To really top it off, how does he know precisely when to come in? How does he coordinate his voice with the conductor’s baton? And I give him the 7th star for the ability to memorize scads of lyrics with all its nuances.
The world is truly fortunate to have such a tenor virtuoso who is nonpereiled. We must all appreciate his talent while it lasts, because geniuses somehow are short-lived.
The only thing I don’t understand is why would a man take on the name Andrea, with an “a” at the end. We can understand Andre, as in WWF’s Andre the Giant. A lady co-worker of mine is named Andrea. Lest anyone thinks he’s… Well, he couldn’t be more manly than having a wife and two kids.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Anonymous on July 3, 2010 - 5:20 am
The guy is blind for crying out loud. Before you rip the poor fellow, do your research.
Rating: 5 / 5