Twenty track compilation, remastered under the personal supervision of Richard Carpenter. Extensive sleeve notes give an overview of their career and track by track breakdown in a16 page booklet. Standard jewelcase housed in a slipcase.2000 release.

When he was growing up, Andrea Bocelli recalls finding inspiration in a favorite recording of sacred music performed by tenor legend Franco Corelli. Bocelli--who in the meantime has come to inspire millions of fiercely loyal fans himself--returns to the genre as the guiding theme of Sacred Arias, the release of which coincides with the first English-language biography of the singer. These performances are filled with the singer's phenomenally well-known vocal signature: his flair for long, sweetly floating high notes and the gentle sense of cadence he brings to a melody. It's a mistake to compartmentalize Bocelli into a singer of "operatic" versus "popular" styles: in truth his approach is at heart the same. Lack of color and control in his phrasing remains a drawback, but the emotional empathy Bocelli evokes is never in doubt. The arias collected here sample some of the most famous devotional pieces: Schubert's "Ave Maria" and Mozart's transporting "Ave Verum," as well as an arrangement of "Silent Night" in which Bocelli tries out his English. There's also a decidedly odd choice of bedfellows for a program of "sacred" music, such as a song from Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder (whose "angel" is the object of an overpoweringly erotic attraction) and Handel's figurative ode to a tree, "Ombra mai fu." Still, Bocelli sings with an unfeigned directness that is sure to expand his already enormous following even further. --Thomas May

Budget-price 2002 compilation featuring material from the artist's RCA period. 14 tracks, 'Spiral', 'Pulstar', 'Freefall', 'Sword Of Orion', 'Alpha', 'Ballad', 'To The Unknown Man', 'So Long Ago, So Clear', 'Shine For Me', 'Mare Tranquillitatis', 'Dervish D', 'Theme From The TV Series 'Cosmos' (Heaven & Hell 3rd Movement)', '12 O'Clock' & 'Bacchanale'.