As tour accountants pore over box office receipts from this summer's concert season and separate the hits (Shania Twain, Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys) from the misses (Stevie Nicks, H.O.R.D.E., Van Halen), one name keeps popping up near the top of the list. Andrea Bocelli. Don't know who he is? Check your parents' CD collection -- chances are they might have a couple of the singer's classical albums. |

Over the summer Bocelli emerged as a left-field pop phenomenon in the States, selling out arenas, wowing the parental crowd with his operatic arias, and grossing $9 million in the process. That's nearly as much as the red-hot Backstreet Boys raked in this summer, but Bocelli earned his eight figures in just twelve North American concerts. The Backstreet Boys, like most pop/rock acts, performed nearly three times as many shows. If it weren't for Bocelli's tight international schedule, he could have done two dozen North American dates and perhaps walked off with the summer's top grossing tour honors. Not bad for a blind singer from Italy who, just five years ago, was singing in piano bars.

"We hit an artistic jackpot," says Ed Kasses, president of Princeton Entertainment, which specializes in symphonic productions and this summer found itself in the unlikely position of shepherding a blockbuster tour that had major rock promoters drooling with envy. Kasses concedes at the outset that he, "never expected to do sell-out business." Particularly since prior to April of this year Bocelli had never even performed in America.

But thanks to PBS, which continually aired Bocelli's A Night In Tuscany concert special, the singer's fame quickly spread, especially among forty and fifty-year-olds who gave up on attending summer rock concerts long ago. "When amphitheaters, which are geared toward the young, took over the concert business, most Baby Boomers stopped going," says Kasses, who saw them turn out in droves for Bocelli.

Boomers are also willing to pay more for concerts. Good news for Bocelli, since most of his tickets went for between $75 and $100, which explains the boffo box office grosses. "Ticket prices are hefty because it's expensive to do this right, to carry ninety world-class musicians and to have a credible opera conductor," says Kasses. Bocelli returns to the States in October for dates in Florida and New York, where fans are no doubt busy searching for baby sitters at this very moment.

ERIC BOEHLERT(September 16, 1998)