Music

Andrea Bocelli

SSE Hydro, Glasgow

Marianne Gunn

four stars

ANDREA Bocelli wowed in Glasgow on Saturday evening with the help of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. This short UK tour, showcasing the Italian tenor's love affair with music from the movies, is conducted by Marcello Rota – principal guest conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra – who brought a light and precise touch to the transition between opera standards and popular classical pieces.

Of the special guests, soprano Elisa Balbo excelled in a solo performance of O mio babbino caro, and her encore duet with Bocelli (the apt Con Te Partiro) was goose-bump-inducing. American violinist Caroline Campbell added Bizet's Habanera from Carmen and Nino Rota's Brucia La Terra (the theme from The Godfather). Pop artist Christine Allado didn't quite hit the mark with a slightly baggy version of I Will Always Love You but Canto Della Terra was a successful duet with Bocelli, where she was filling the shoes of Sarah Brightman.

Bocelli himself, provided Mario Lanza's Be My Love, Leonard Bernstein's Maria and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Music of the Night, before a fabulous encore of Nelle Tui Mani (Now We Are Free, the wonderful theme from Gladiator) and an inevitable Nessun Dorma (from Puccini's Turandot). Elements that didn't quite work included a dance duo, superfluous in the gargantuan space, but a programme of great variety was full of light, shade and emotion.