"VERDI".(Review)

Andrea Bocelli [] "VERDI" Arias from Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Un Ballo in Maschera, Aida, La Traviata, I Lombardi, Ernani, Don Carlo, Luisa Miller and La Forza del Destino. Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mehta. Text and translations. Philips 289 464 600-2

Andrea Bocelli's Verdi CD, although inadequate in several respects, is nonetheless a worthy one. Bocelli is a pop singer; this album should not to be compared to CDs by great opera tenors, but it's a bridge to a wider culture, in the same way that the film The Red Shoes or the singing of Mario Lanza and Jeanette MacDonald introduced listeners of their day to "highbrow" art forms. After listening to this recording, I took a walk in my midtown Manhattan neighborhood, where the streets are full of tables stacked with bootleg pop CDs. On one of the busiest tables near Broadway, piled between releases by Missy Elliott, Eminem and Destiny's Child, was Andrea Bocelli/Verdi. "Blind opera guy," the salesman explained, "but he's cool."

The limitations in Bocelli's sound that would make him problematic on the (unamplified) opera or concert stage actually make him a good salesman for this music among novice opera listeners. He has an affecting tenor, with a yearning urgency and touching tenderness; in music that doesn't move quickly or ask for dynamic extremes, it can sound beautiful. It's to Bocelli's credit that he doesn't dodge any of his music's toughest challenges, but his is a slender voice, with a prevailing whiteness of ...