Music Review: Andrea Bocelli - Incanto: The Deluxe Edition (CD/DVD) - Page 2

And in his most recent offering—incidentally, one that I wouldn’t hesitate to call his best since Romanza—Bocelli pays homage to the music that has affected him the most by serving up a roster of “tunes [that] are classics, because they’re masterpieces," as he told Decca.  Hitting shelves on November 4, 2008 in both CD format as well as a gorgeously boxed deluxe limited edition CD/DVD package, Incanto is comprised of fourteen unabashedly romantic and historically significant tracks.  A personal tribute “to the great tenors he has admired his whole life,” as Bocelli revealed in the Decca notes, the album which coincides with Bocelli’s fiftieth birthday was compiled as a way “to make an album of all the songs I remember from my earliest childhood, the music of my roots.”   

Whether it’s in his fond recollection of the way that as a young child, Bocelli was initially moved by the romantic songs performed by Mario Lanza in his first experience with opera as he reveals on the DVD or in his revelation that “whenever life gets hard, this music helps me carry on,” it’s easy to get caught up in the singer’s passion for his material.  Astutely observing that in addition to love, the music is made up of two vital ingredients—“sun and sea”-- as the Neapolitan climate gives people the optimism to sing, Bocelli shares that every track comes from the Mediterranean and has been covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Caruso. 

In a selection of “songs to celebrate the triumph of life and love,” including love for a place, progress, women (mothers or lovers), the works that comprise Incanto illustrate the spirit of “a country like Italy that never gives up, despite the wounds and grief inflicted by war,” as the DVD reveals.  The CD begins with “Un Amore Cosi Grande,” a grand collaboration between Bocelli and singer Veronica Berti that translates to the English title “A Love So Great,” setting up the romantic premise of the album, with terrific orchestration.   

Additionally, the track is featured on the companion DVD of the Deluxe Edition, set to a music video celebrating famous romantic relationships of the ’50s and ’60s in just one breathtakingly photographed and edited piece that comprises the roughly thirty-minute documentary that contains rare and priceless footage chronicling a century of Italian history with particular emphasis on archival film footage from the 1950s and ’60s (including candid photos and clips of Elizabeth Taylor, John F. Kennedy, Sophia Loren, and others).   

Article Author: Jen Johans

Jen is a life-long film buff frequently dubbed a "Walking Movie Encyclopedia.” While earning a degree in Film Studies, she joined AFI and IFP. A three-time national award-winning writer, Jen also runs her site Film Intuition as well as its Review …

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