Verdi
With this CD devoted solely to operatic arias--by none less thanGiuseppe Verdi, the  greatest Italian opera composer of all time--pop crossover phenomenonAndrea Bocellithrows his hat  into the operatic ring with the big boys. The hat occasionally fits, and  occasionally it doesn't. The beauty of the voice is undeniable, as is the  relative ease in all registers. But, regardless of what the engineers do, it is  clearly a small voice. For "Celeste Aïda"--Radames's great aria fromAïda--Bocelli opens  with fine, as-big-as-possible exclamation and sounds confident; the long  diminuendo on the aria's final high B-flat is stunning (whether or not the  engineers were twiddling with the knobs, we'll never know). The tenor is more at  home with Alfredo's Act Two music fromLa Traviata; he sings  with grace and charm, ending the rarely performed cabaletta (a brief and showy  piece that usually follows an aria) with one of the longest, most solid high Cs  ever recorded. Elsewhere, there are mixed results: "Di' tu se fedele" fromUn ballo in mascherais  so free of feeling that it seems digitally produced. A big, unnecessary high D  at the close of the Duke's cabaletta "Possente amor" fromRigolettois screamed,  and Bocelli sounds at times as if he's about to collapse from exhaustion during  a heavy aria fromErnani.  But "Ah si, ben mio" fromIl Trovatoreis  beautiful, as is theLuisa Milleraria;Don Carloalso seems to  fit Bocelli well. Needless to say, the singer's fans will certainly want to have  this--and it might encourage them to try other recordings of music by Verdi.  Newcomers and the curious will find plenty to admire, too. The sound itself  remains alluring, and Bocelli has taken steps also towards improving his  technique. In short, some nice surprises for the opera lover, and many for the  Bocelli fan.--Robert Levine