Album review: Andrea Bocelli, Passione (Decca)

Before he became a household name, Andrea Bocelli paid his dues in bars, doing the kind of romantic repertoire that best tickled punters' palates.

It's to those times that he returns with Passione. Songs like “Love Me Tender” and “Girl from Ipanema” are not the most testing material for a classical voice, but Bocelli does bring a dramatic slow-burn to the more dynamic emotional profile of “Era Gia' Tutto Prevista”. Elsewhere, his caress of a voice rides subtle samba strings on Latin American cabaret versions of “Perfidia” and “Roma Nun Fa' La Stupida Stasera”, and copes manfully with duets with Jennifer Lopez, Nelly Furtado and Edith Piaf, the latter's extracted chorus mingling less than congruently with his on “La Vie en Rose”.

Download: Era Gia' Tutto Prevista; Perfidia; Roma Nun Fa' la Stupida Stasera