The great Opera and Classical singer Andrea Bocelli performed at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. Sunday night (12/4) along with his son Matteo, daughter Virginia and a few guest performers. This was a show of not only Bocelli’s incredible music, but also a few Christmas classics, legendary Opera compositions, and covers. In the entire 20th and 21st century few singers have been globally known like Bocelli. Bocelli now 64, still has a perfect voice and Matteo at 25 and Virginia at 10 are just incredible vocalists like their father. Bocelli is known as one of the greatest singers globally of any genre, however he’s quite a comedian as well, always making the audience laugh. For the ultimate fan, there’s a classical guitar Bocelli plays to be auctioned off from each show for his foundation benefiting those living in poverty.
Bocelli has been awarded a Guinness World Record for his album Sacred Arias for simultaneously holding the top three spots on the U.S. Classical Albums chart, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is a seven time World Music Award winner. Outside of music Bocelli has earned a law degree. Bocelli can sing in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin. Bocelli also had the best selling Classical album by a solo artist of all time with Sacred Arias. In 2020 Bocelli released his latest album Believe including covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and “Amazing Grace,” with Allison Krauss.
This 2+ hour show featured Bocelli with a full orchestra and choir totalling around 80 members. The show began with the classic “La donna e mobile” (Giuseppe Verdi) a song everyone knows and was famously performed by Luciano Pavoratti in he 1987 film adaption of Rigoletto and parodied by Adam Sandler as Opera Man in Saturday Night Live. The Christmas classics came during the second of the show starting with :White Christmas” and later “Do You Hear What I Hear” and “Joy to the World. Virginia joined for an incredible rendition of “Hallelujah” and with Matteo “Over the Rainbow.” Together they also sang “The Greatest Gift '' together and “Have Yourself a Merry Christmas” was sung by Matteo solo. There was a father and son duet for “Fall On Me” from Disney’s “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms' 'which they recorded together and was released in 2018. There is a great music video that accompanies it featuring the Bocellis on dual pianos.
If there was one song that left the audience in tears it was the incredible “Time To Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro).” This was the third to last song and Bocelli’s most famous one. This was followed by none other than “Nessun Dorna” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot which Luciano Pavarotti sang at the 1990 FIFA World Cup bringing it to a global audience and has been covered numerous times including versions by Jeff Beck, Chris Botti, Jennifer Hudson and is part of Billy Joel’s shows before “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” The finale was “Perfect Symphony”
If there is any artist to see today that’ll blow anyone away, it’s Andrea Bocelli. The show left the crowd in awe and stunned.
