Blind crossover tenor ties knot with manager in second marriage
(ANSA)
- Livorno, March 21 - Italy's blind crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli is
to wed for the second time on the birthday of his two-year-old
daughter Virginia Friday, Tuscan daily Il Tirreno reported.
Bocelli,
Italy's most successful international recording artist, will marry
his companion and business manager Veronica Berti at a Roman Catholic
shrine near the Tuscan coastal city of Livorno, it said. A small
group of friends and family will move on to a banquet at the tenor's
stunning villa at the chic resort of Forte dei Marmi - next door to
the luxury home of his ex-wife Enrica and their two sons, where
Bocelli used to live. Bocelli, 55, met Veronica, who at 31 is young
enough to be his daughter, at a party 12 years ago, shortly after his
separation from Enrica, with whom he has sons Amos, 19, and Matteo,
15. Bocelli met Enrica Cenzatti while singing at piano bars early in
his career. They were married on 27 June 1992 and separated in 2002
after he started going out with Veronica. Meanwhile Bocelli's signing
career goes from strength to strength.
His
last album, Passion, featuring duets with Jennifer Lopez and Nelly
Furtado was released a year ago to critical and public acclaim, The
18-track album also included an unusual virtual duet with late French
chanteuse Edith Piaf. Bocelli and friends sing in at least five
different languages on the album - Italian, English, French, Spanish,
and Portuguese - as well as the Neapolitan dialect. Music critics
said the track with Piaf was the highlight of the album, as Bocelli
sings with the Little Sparrow, who died in 1963, in her signature La
Vie en Rose.
The
Italian tenor is the most successful classical solo artist ever and
one of the best-selling artists in music history with more than 80
million albums sold worldwide. He is also credited with enabling the
core classical repertoire to cross over and find a home atop the
international pop charts, creating a new genre of music along the
way. He has performed for four US presidents, two popes, and the
British royal family, as well as at ceremonies for the Olympic Games
and the World Cup.
Bocelli
has been praised by such luminaries as the late supertenor Luciano
Pavarotti, fellow member of the Three Tenors Jose Carreras, Zubin
Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Renee Fleming and Celine Dion - as well as his
own first teacher and guide, Franco Corelli.
