Director
Lorenzo Mariani

Performers
Andrea Bocelli
Daniela Dessi
Davide Damiani
Orzaio Morio
Renato Girolami
Erwin Schrott
Angelo Nardinocchi
Patrizia Ciofi
Gianluca Valentini

Teatro Lirico di Cagliari
Steven Mercurio (conductor)
Set, costumes : Perluigi Samaritani

This is one of the most remarkable opera performances you are likely to see. In February 1998 Andrea Bocelli, whose pop and light-classics recordings are worldwide best-sellers, performed Rodolfo on stage in Sardinia.

Bocelli, who has been blind since childhood, clearly faced enormous difficulties in performing the role, not only being unable to see the set and his fellow singers, but denied a view of the conductor too: it was a severe test of memory, far beyond the challenges of musical recall that face most singers.

And the enthusiastic reception, from audience and from most critics, was not merely based on sympathy. Bocelli turns his relatively small voice (by operatic standards) into an advantage, making his Rodolfo an intimate, sincere, tender man who does not need grand gestures. His Che gelida manina here is one of the most moving on record.

A must-see performance of one of the great works of opera.