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.
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