Incanto

Andrea Bocelli (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 4, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B001G5SDJS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,280 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Music > World Music > Europe > Continental Europe > Italy
  #66 in	Music > Opera & Vocal
  #89 in	Music > Classical

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description

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

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Andrea has something for everybody, but there are only LOVE songs., November 15, 2008

By	Gimme_Jazz (Casablanca, Morocco) - See all my reviews

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".

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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, December 16, 2008

By	sunshine "hardwater fisher" (upstate new york) - See all my reviews

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BOCELLI'S VOICE IS GETTING BETTER WITH AGE!, June 26, 2009

By	Steven J. Destefano - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

THE ALBUM IS VERY GOOD. HIS VOICE IS AS STRONG AS EVER. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. FOR ITALIANS, IT IS A REAL TREAT.