I have a number of people hitting this site through a Search Request for Blind Opera Singer. God knows why - I don't think I have used that expression previously.
However, if you have come here from such a request, I'm assuming you're looking for stuff on Andrea Bocelli. Want my advice? Don't. He's a very average crooner of Middle of the Road pop songs who has sung a few arias, appeared in a 'live' opera with his voice miked up, and recorded a critically panned version of Verdi's Il Trovatore. Just because he's hyped and marketed doesn't make him any good. Proper opera singers don't use mikes in normal size venues, even the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (capacity 4000) or even the Royal Albert Hall (capacity 8,000). If mikes are there, it's for recording and/or broadcast, not for the live audience. They don't need to use mikes - they can sing properly, you understand.
The record companies, and broadcast organisations like Classic FM really plug Andrea Bocelli and I don't understand why. If you want to buy a CD version of Verdi's Il Trovatore, Opera Nights recommends two recent versions that don't include Andrea Bocelli, but do include Roberto Alagna and Jose Cura.
The Rough Guide to Classical Music recommends a Franco Corelli version, but doesn't allow deep-linking...
If you're looking for Tenor Arias, avoid Andrea Bocelli like the plague. Instead, try one or more of the following that I have bought in recent months:
Very Best of Plácido Domingo
Italian Opera Arias - Rolando Villazón
Tenor Arias - Joseph Calleja
Other current tenors worth checking out - and exponentially better than Andrea Bocelli - are Roberto Alagna, Marcelo Alvarez, and Juan Diego Florez.
Alternatively, you could pop along to your local Opera Company and listen live to some very talented singers who don't need mikes. In the UK alone, as well as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, there is Opera North (Leeds-based and touring), Welsh National Opera (Cardiff and touring), English National Opera (London based), Scottish National Opera (albeit currently savaged and decimated by the philistines in the Scottish Executive), English Touring Opera plus high quality student productions from the music colleges, many - mainly summer - opera festivals. And that's just off the top of my head. Most other countries in Europe, Australasia, the Americas and elsewhere have similar operatunities.
Admittedly, they don't have the gimmick of a blind opera singer, but, please trust me - they don't need such gimmicks.
