The following is from an article entitled "Tenor Inspires Love-Hate
Relationship" by Chris Pasles, Los Angeles Times:
At his American operatic debut in October 1999 at the Michigan Opera Theatre
in Detroit, he sang the role of the hero of Massenet's "Werther," entering
astride a white horse to dispel doubts about his ability to move around on
stage.
Critics praised such aspects of his performance but generally
demolished his singing for being thin and strained without its usual
electronic enhancement.
"Brave and not without a certain charm, but essentially inadequate to
the task and ultimately boring," wrote Lawrence B. Johnson in the Detroit
News.
"I was surely not the only critic surprised by the extent of Mr.
Bocelli's vocal deficiencies for opera," wrote Anthony Tommasini in the New
York Times. "Even many of his fans in the house seemed shaken."
Later, Bocelli uncharacteristically exploded at the critics. "Those
reviews were not really appropriate," he told Barbara Zuck of the Columbus
Dispatch. "What they wrote was not what really happened onstage. It made me
wonder if some of the journalists were actually in the theater at all."
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Of course, Mr. Bocelli was not in a position to hear what the performance
actually sounded like in the house--but that apparently is not important to
him.
Judy
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