Bocelli can afford to brush off critics

In his airy London studio, David Bailey is hard at work photographing the most popular tenor on the planet. Andrea Bocelli poses quietly, reflectors and flashes creating a light-filled aura around him. His fiancee, Veronica Berti - 25 years his junior and pregnant with their first child (his third) - hovers with an entourage.

The aim is to produce a portrait of the singer for The Official Andrea Bocelli Opus - a project devoted to the singer's life and work, running to more than 800 pages. The book is designed as a luxury collector's item.

With more than 70 million records sold to date, he is truly popular but more as a "crossover" singer than an opera star. His Sacred Arias entered the Guinness Book of Records as the highest-selling solo classical album of all time.

Yet in the classical field, many are still trying to work out the secret of his success. Bocelli's fans don't bother with snobbery: ever since his first album went platinum in 1994, they have bought his discs and flocked to his performances.

But critics are not so kind. He gave a recital at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in February - a programme taken from his latest album, Notte Illuminata - but the New York Times slated his "bland homogeneity" and "dogged, unrelenting quality".

Fans rave over the melting quality of his tone, its gentleness, its directness. Detractors grumble about its lack of expressive range.

Bocelli, 53, seems unperturbed by the apparent divide. "I think in the world of opera that's the way things are," he said. "There's criticism for absolutely everybody. And, in a way, this makes it more interesting because, after all, discussion is life."

He doesn't talk about his blindness. Born partially sighted due to congenital glaucoma, he was rendered completely blind by a football injury when he was 12.

"When I was a child, everywhere people asked me to sing - in school, in church, in my family, everywhere," he said. "I understood that it was my destiny."

- INDEPENDENT