# Do People in Italy Think Andrea Bocelli is Da Bomb? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2002, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970 "2002-12-20T04:06:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/1 "2002-12-20T04:06:35Z")
I ask because, though Andrea Bocelli is Italian, and though he’s quite popular over here, “A prophet has no honor in his hometown.” Or something like that. Furthermore, he’s sort-of gone pop, having recorded a few songs that border on being pop. That has to piss off opera purists to no end. While at Epcot at Walt Disney World a coupla months ago, the Italy pavilion had Andrea Bocelli tunes (some of them in English) playing in the background. Of course, that may have just been pandering (because whom would the American tourists expect to hear at the Italy pavilion if not Andrea Bocelli?). So how about it? Do the Italians like him? And while we’re on the subject, were (are) the Welsh pretty keen on Charlotte Church? ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/2 "2002-12-20T05:23:09Z")
No they don’t. I just came from Italy and he’s no big deal there. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/3 "2002-12-20T12:34:57Z")
By the way, I think Bocelli started out as a pop singer in Italy before he went classical, and I don’t think opera purist care what he does, because opera purist don’t consider him an opera singer. More like a mediocre wannabe. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/4 "2002-12-20T12:38:51Z")
Opera types put him in the same vein as Charlotte Church. They wonder what the heck was Barbara Fritolli thinking when she recorded La Boheme with him. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/5 "2002-12-20T14:39:11Z")
When I was in Italy (1994-96) the Three Tenors were huge. Italians tend to favor pure opera and opera singers. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/6 "2002-12-20T15:39:44Z")
My sense is that SERIOUS opera buffs in MOST countries don’t take Bocelli seriously at all, and many dislike him intensely. Even here in the U.S., reviewers have generally savaged his attempts at singing “real” opera. The best comparison I can offer is this: Bocelli is to opera as Kenny G is to jazz. Both are immensely popular, far more popular commercially than almost every other artist in their genres. But real jazzbos detest Kenny G, and regard him as a lightweight playing watered-down jazz for the masses. I guess poor Kenny and Andreas will have to console themselves with their gold records, sold-out stadiums, and millions of dollars! ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/7 "2002-12-20T17:34:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\* But real jazzbos detest Kenny G, and regard him as a lightweight playing watered-down jazz for the masses. > \*\* F’r instance, [Pat Metheny](http://www.lesharris.net/kennyg.htm) > [@](#): > > But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis’s tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. Ee ignore this, “let it slide”, at our own peril. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-italy-think-andrea-bocelli-is-da-bomb/143970/8 "2002-12-20T23:52:39Z")
The Methany essay is definitely worth reading. He was pretty benign about KG – he’s out of tune, has limited skills and uses a few tricks to engage the audience – until he recorded himself over a Louis Armstrong track (“What a Wonderful World” of all things). That’s when it got personal.