Track Listing

1. Un Amore Cosi Grande
2. O' Surdato 'Nnammurato
3. Mamma
4. Voglio Vivere Cosi
5. Santa Lucia
6. Funiculi Funicula
7. Because
8. Vieni Sul Mar
9. Granada
10. Era de Maggio
11. A Marechiare
12. E Vui Durmiti Ancora
13. Non Ti Scordar Di Me
14. Pulcinella

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1567 in Music
• Brand: Andrea
• Released on: 2008-11-04
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Andrea Bocelli's new studio album is a collection of the most famous Italian songs - including Mamma, Funiculi Funicula and Santa Lucia. They are the songs which have enchanted Andrea since childhood. Released to coincide with his 50th birthday, the album is a personal tribute to his musical heritage. Popularized through concert, radio and record and the film industry by the great tenors of the 19th and 20th centuries, this selection of songs is a celebration of the Italian tenor tradition. Thanks to the legendary voices of Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli, Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti, these songs have become a huge global export and fueled the romance of generations to come. Incanto is also a homage to Love. It includes a group of songs which have told love stories in music for the past 170 years. The repertoire is a tribute to the many faces and places of love: love for a mother (Mamma); love for a woman (O surdato 'nammurato , Era di maggio , Un amore cosi grande , Non ti scordar di me ); love for a place (the pier in Santa Lucia, Mount Vesuvio in Funiculi Funicula ); love for a city (Napoli, Granada) and love for a country (Italy). Love for Italy, and a particular affection for Naples are prevalent themes throughout Incanto. Andrea has chosen one contemporary Neapolitan song - the "tarantella" Pulcinella, which highlights his fond connection to Naples and the city's unique position in the past, present and future of Italian song. The deluxe edition sets Andrea's songs in the romantic context of 1950s Naples. The archive materials provide a nostalgic snapshot of 1950s glamour, when Naples was the honey-pot for the rich and famous. The footage captures the spirit of romance and optimism during the days of Andrea's childhood - a sense of optimism prevalent in post war Italy around the time of Andrea's birth is captured by the visual themes of the album. The incomparable natural beauty of southern Italy is celebrated, as well as the magical aura of the 1950s and La dolce vita, which has enchanted generation upon generation since. The DVD also includes an interview with Andrea shot in different locations in Naples.

Andrea Bocelli Photos

Amazon.com
(Amazon.co.uk Review) Incanto is the first studio album from Italian operatic star Andrea Bocelli since 2006's Amore, stop-gapped of course by the following year's Vivere. Now 20 albums deep and heading for 70 million sales worldwide, there doesn't seem to be much Bocelli can do wrong, though perhaps key to his success is his refusal to rest on his laurels--to always present a considered and varied selection of material. On Incanto he again offers a well-selected mix of folk songs, operatic evergreens, and musical hits. Opening with a stunning collaboration with singer Veronica Berti on “Un Amore Cosi Grande" (“A Love So Great"), the album gets off to an impassioned start. A romantic thread is weaved through “O Surdato Nnammurato", Cesare Andrea Bixio's “Mamma", and “Voglio Vivere Cosi", while album highlights include Neopolitan classic “Santa Lucia" and the 19th-century folk song “Funiculi Funi! cula"--an ode to the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius. Add to that the soaring “Because" and the sweeping “Era De Maggio" (featuring Anna Bonitatibus), and you have what is arguably Bocelli's best collection since Romanza. --Danny McKenna

About the Artist
Andrea Bocelli was born in Lajatico, in rural Tuscany, not far from the ancient city of Pisa. Fascinated by the passion and storytelling of opera and traditional Italian music, Andrea dreamed of following in the footsteps of his idols; celebrated Italian tenors including Mario Del Monaco, Beniamino Gigli and especially Franco Corelli. While a child, Andrea's beautiful, natural voice had made him something of a local celebrity. However his musical dreams were to be interrupted by the realities of adult life. To placate his family and their concerns for his future, he graduated from the University of Pisa in law, practicing as a state-appointed defense attorney for a short time. But his passion for music remained, and Andrea was soon studying under a number of maestros, most notably achieving a personal triumph and a source of encouragement when accepted as a pupil for master classes by his hero, tenor Franco Corelli.

In 1992, Italian rock star Zucchero enlisted then-unknown Andrea to record a `demo track' of "Miserere", a duet to be recorded with Luciano Pavarotti. Andrea effortlessly captured the very essence of the song. As Zucchero later said, "He just had this `soul'".

Andrea's voice was soon attracting attention outside Italy. His international breakthrough hit was the beguiling "Con Te Partirò" and in it's duet arrangement with Sarah Brightman, "Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò)". The solo version was a worldwide smash, topping the French singles chart, while the duet held the top spot on Germany's single chart for fourteen weeks, and, at three million copies, went on to become Germany's best selling single of all time. "I have wonderful memories singing with Andrea," says Sarah Brightman today. `'Time to Say Goodbye' will always hold a special place in my heart".

In 1996 and 1997 Andrea Bocelli exploded on album charts across the world, with the international debut album, Romanza, a collection of passionate popular songs. Conquering Europe, then charts around the world, the album amassed a multitude of platinum and multi-platinum awards, with worldwide sales in excess of 16 million copies to date. Selling an impressive 500,000 copies in the Far East, one million in Italy, and more than three million in Latin America and Spain, the album also contained "Vivere ", "Il Mare Calmo Della Sera," and the title track, "Romanza," all of which feature on the new Best Of collection.

Andrea's 1999 Best New Artist Grammy nomination marked the first time a classical artist had been nominated in the category in 38 years. `The Prayer', his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film, The Quest for Camelot, won the Golden Globe for Best Song and was nominated for an Academy Award. In March 1999 Andrea released his second pop offering, Sogno. The album, which included "The Prayer," entered the upper reaches of the pop album charts around the world, confirming Andrea's position at the pinnacle of the world of popular music, and giving birth to the phenomenon of "Bocellimania". In the fall of this watershed year in an already impressive career, Andrea released Sacred Arias, which went on to become his most successful classical album to date. It has also become the biggest selling album by a classical soloist of all time. With its release, Andrea captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records, as he simultaneously held the No 1, 2 and 3 positions on the US classical album chart. The next three-and-a-half years followed with Andrea holding permanent residency at the No 1 spot.

In 2001, Andrea released the semi-autobiographical memoir, The Music of Silence, and closed the year with another hugely successful pop album, Cieli di Toscana, which included "Melodramma" and `'Mille Lune, Mille Onde". The romantic yet melancholic sound of 2002's Sentimento combined the voice of Andrea Bocelli with the exquisite violin of Maestro Lorin Maazel. The album was another huge success on the international pop and classical charts and this was reflected by Andrea's acquisition of two awards including Album of the Year at the prestigious British Classical Brit Awards in 2003. In support of this album Andrea embarked on a packed concert schedule that took in places as far ranging as China and Madison Square Gardens in New York. In addition to these ubiquitous landmarks Andrea also performed in front of the Egyptian Pyramids (a highlight that could only be equaled by his performance in front of The Statue of Liberty earlier in this prolific career).

The 2004 release of Andrea's fourth pop album, was followed in 2006 by Amore, featuring guest appearances by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera. The album also featured "Because We Believe", which Andrea performed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.

As his zest and passion for life has shown, Andrea Bocelli is not a man to avoid a challenge, although his goals it seems are quite simple. "What I crave most, what I hope to achieve", he says, "is to communicate with the listener; to touch them in the same way that I was touched as a child by my favorite singers, who made me cry and made me dream".

Customer Reviews

Andrea has something for everybody, but there are only LOVE songs.
Andrea has just turned 50 last september.
To celebrate the date, Andrea has released a new CD with only "love" songs.
The album is a mix of Italian/Spanish and Neapolitan popular love songs.
His latest record is called "Incanto", which means "enchantment" in Italian but has a suggestion, too, of "cantare", meaning to sing, and "bel canto" ("beautiful singing"), the lyrical singing tradition in which, on this album, Bocelli locates himself.
The choice of songs gives us a chance to see what Andrea can do - and he does it well. Although I am not crazy about this material , the versatility of Andrea Bocelli's voice is obvious. There are a duet on the CD on the track "Era Di Maggio (in Italian for "It Was May") with Anna Bonitatibus, and also Andrea's partner, Veronica Berti, makes a cameo appearance on the opening track, "Un Amore Cosi Grande" (in Italian for "Such a Great Love"). Veronica Berti, even makes a cameo appearance on the opening track, "Un Amore Cosi Grande".
"This is a record that originates from my earliest childhood", he says. "That was the time I really found a passion for opera, but above all I was passionate about the great voices. It was through my passion for voices that I discovered my passion for opera, not the other way around".
By "great voices", he explains, he means the world-famous tenors produced by Italy in the early- to mid-20th century: Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli and the like. "All these great tenors of the last century had an extraordinary passion for songs," he continues, "and in particular for songs derived from opera, known as 'la piccola lirica' or 'little opera'."
"These are the hoary old favourites with which Bocelli has filled Incanto: "Funiculì Funiculà", "Un Amore Così Grande", "Mamma", the old Neapolitan favourites "'O Surdato 'Nnamurato"and "Torna a Surriento ( a huhe hit by Elvis Presley with the title "Surrender"). And recorded with the sort of old-fashioned brassy arrangements.
The result is an album that will no doubt be dismissed by snobs as Bocelli once again "warbling his way through the Shmaltzmeister's Songbook" - as a recent critic described him, less "bel canto" than "can belt out".
Yet it is an album in which, after all the dalliances and collaborations of his past albums, Bocelli declares his true love.
It is an uncompromising work, and as such it will be interesting to see whether it repeats the success of what he has done to date.
Because operatic bellowing giving way suddenly to husky intimacy has always been part of the Bocelli-Cola formula. And now he wants none of that. "When you sing using a microphone, the mic is like an ear". "It's like singing in a baby's ear. It's a completely different way of expressing oneself. In this way there is no 'arte del canto', no 'art of song'. And it's a pity to lose it."- Peter Pophan
His voice, phrasing, and control are all superb. The orchestrations are good and the Milano Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi does a fine job.
"Incanto" is a good place to start if you are thinking about adding Andrea Bocelli's music to your collection.
This album has something for everybody.
Its range is wide indeed, from Neapolitan love song to pop ballad.
This is very much a well-trodden path, nothing startlingly new, and plenty more of the tried-and-tested formula. Bocelli's beautiful voice is complemented by swooning strings, lush orchestration and gloriously cheery tempi, conjuring the Mediterranean Sea, lemon trees and a large dollop of "la dolce vita" and italian design (check the Vespa in the back ground of the front-cover and..I bet you he wears an Armani suit) straight into your living room.
The album may be a little obvious, and certainly it is not his best, but it shows that he has a grand set of lungs, vocal agility, a sense of direction, a sense of purpose and confidence and, most of all, a great sense of 'Italian Style'.
Highlights: "Mamma", "Because", "Un Amore Cosi' Grande" and "Funiculì Funiculà".

Pavarotti's Greatest Hits
The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere

Take a stroll across the cobblestones of Italy
Andrea Bocelli has a voice that is a gift from God. On this CD he mixes Italian and English songs with arrangements that include everything from lush orchestrations to snappy pop tunes. It will remind you of a stroll along the Via Veneto, a boat ride with a gondolieri in Venice, or a glass of vino in the piazza San Marco. A delightful offering for any music lover!

disappointed
Not one of his best. Collection of Italian songs that have a sameness to all of them. The music is ok but not memorable.