Former lawyer Dr. Andrea Bocelli is one the world's most popular classical and operatic singers and his easy listening style of singing and choice of many popular songs to sing has brought classical style singing to the masses.

Andrea is blind and it has been a long debated scientific discussion amongst musicologists as to whether blindness enables musical artists to better understand sound.

Romanza is his third album and reached number 6 in the UK album charts.

It is a greatest hits album released in 1997 and co-produced by no less than 5 producers. Although the album didn't reach No.1 in either the USA or the UK it has become one of the highest selling albums of all time selling something like 17 million copies worldwide to date.

The style of the album is an easy listening classical genre in my opinion.

Track 1, Con Te Partiro is perhaps the best known hit on the album. This is the solo version sung in Italian but he had a big hit single singing the English mixed with Italian version of it with Sarah Brightman and this is also on the album, track 15.

This version is called Time To Say Goodbye and is a song frequently played at people's funerals. It is an uplifting song but at the same time can be interpreted as a last good bye song.

There aren't any weak tracks on this album and the highlights are: Con Te Partiro, and Caruso with the really outstanding track being Miserere (Live) featuring John Miles. There is also a great version of this song by Zucherro which is worth getting hold of on a Zucchero album.

This is a great album. Full track listings:

1. "Con te partirò" (Lucio Quarantotto, Francesco Sartori) - 4:09
2. "Vivere" (Angelo Anastasio, Celso Valli, Gerardina Trovato) - 4:01 (featuring Gerardina Trovato)
3. "Per Amore" (Mariella Nava) - 4:41
4. "Il Mare Calmo Della Sera" (Gianpietro Felisatti, Malise[2], Malise, Gloria Nuti) - 4:40
5. "Caruso" (Lucio Dalla) - 5:16
6. "Macchine da guerra" (Angus Smith) - 4:08
7. "Le Tue Parole" (Joe Amoruso, Sergio Cirillo) - 3:57
8. "Vivo per lei" (Valerio Zelli, Art Mengo, Gatto Panceri) - 4:23 (featuring Giorgia)
9. "Romanza" (Mauro Malavasi) - 3:41
10. "La Luna Che Non C'è" (Dario Farina, Antonella Maggio) - 4:30
11. "Rapsodia" (Malise[2], Malise) - 5:28
12. "Voglio Restare Così" (Andrea Bocelli) - 3:51
13. "E Chiove" (Amoruso, Cirillo) - 4:21
14. "Funiculì, Funiculà" - 1:25 (live, featuring John Miles) - bonus track
15. "Time To Say Goodbye" (Sartori, Quarantotto, Frank Peterson) - 4:04 bonus track (featuring Sarah Brightman)

This review is also posted on www.ciao.co.uk
under my user name bella6789