BOCELLI, ANDREA

(Amazon.co.uk Review) Incanto is the first studio album from Italian operatic star Andrea Bocelli since 2006's Amore, stop-gapped of course by the following year's Vivere. Now 20 albums deep and heading for 70 million sales worldwide, there doesn't seem to be much Bocelli can do wrong, though perhaps key to his success is his refusal to rest on his laurels--to always present a considered and varied selection of material. On Incanto he again offers a well-selected mix of folk songs, operatic evergreens, and musical hits. Opening with a stunning collaboration with singer Veronica Berti on “Un Amore Cosi Grande" (“A Love So Great"), the album gets off to an impassioned start. A romantic thread is weaved through “O Surdato Nnammurato", Cesare Andrea Bixio's “Mamma", and “Voglio Vivere Cosi", while album highlights include Neopolitan classic “Santa Lucia" and the 19th-century folk song “Funiculi Funi! cula"--an ode to the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius. Add to that the soaring “Because" and the sweeping “Era De Maggio" (featuring Anna Bonitatibus), and you have what is arguably Bocelli's best collection since Romanza. --Danny McKenna