Not the best attempt! (Romanza - Andrea Bocelli)

Member Name: Mr Kipling

Product:	Romanza - Andrea Bocelli
Date:	20/04/01 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very easy to listen to. An alternative to opera.

Disadvantages: Not as powerful as it could have been. Dissapointing.

Andrea Bocelli is one of the finest tenors singing today. No doubt about it, he easily ranks with the Pavarottis of this world. I had heard quite a few of his classical arias on TV, as well as his hit with Sarah Brightman, 'Time to Say Goodbye'. I bought this CD as it contained the latter song (which is a delightful and warming piece of modern classical music), and sounded as though the other tracks would inspire me as well.

Unfortunately, the album was not quite what I was expecting. While all of the songs are beautiful romantic pieces in their own right, they do not exploit Bocelli’s wonderful voice to its fullest potential. This is probably because most of the songs are attempting to sound very modern, but don’t always succeed. A couple of the tracks even stoop to sounding very much like a lounge act. I can imagine couples smooching away in the small hours of the morning on a cruise ship listening to this. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you like this style of easy-listening romance, but Bocelli is capable of so much more that it often seems disappointing.

The highlights of the album are the wonderful 'Time to Say Goodbye' (with Sarah Brightman), 'Con Te Partiro' (pretty much the same song, without Sarah Brightman!), 'Per Amore', 'Miserere' (not the classic you might expect), and 'Romanza'.

If you like Andrea Bocelli’s voice but are not inspired by heavyweight operatic music, then this could be the album for you. If you do like classical music, opera in particular, then I would advise getting one of his other albums.

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