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© by June Head Zaner, Dec. 24, 2009
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- We have grown white-headed
together, Andrea Bocelli, and I…something I am certain
that neither of us planned or intended.
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- I discovered him in l996, in
the CD department of the Unclaimed Baggage store in
Scottsboro, Alabama, and purchased his CD just for his image
on the cover (for I had never heard him sing, had no idea
that I would like his voice), this dark-haired Italian
singer, wearing a red shirt and looking down with his
unseeing eyes while leaning, perhaps, on a piano. In red
letters running down the side of the CD, printed in the same
red of his shirt, was just one word, “Romanza”.
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- The CD was still in its
wrapper, purchased no doubt in Italy by a music lover who
had lost his or her baggage in the airport…..another
example of the chance we take when flying….trusting that
what goes up with us will come down with us. It is not
always so and the Unclaimed Baggage store in
Alabama
is proof that many things are lost as we humans make our way
from here to there.
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- The enterprising couple from
Dallas
who established this store of lost and unclaimed baggage
had quickly learned that airlines sold at auction the
baggage which never found a proper owner. With a bit of
garage sale know-how they developed a "store" with
departments, containing everything from dog food to diamonds,
priced reasonably, sometimes ridiculously. Like the debris
from a shipwreck washed ashore, there are treasures to be
found, but there was also an abundance of international
"trash". Still, it is fascinating to see
merchandise bought or carried by travelers in lands where I
will never journey.
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- At $2.99, I came away with
Andrea Bocelli in my shopping bag....it was early in
December. As we returned to
Nashville
with our treasures I popped the CD in the car player and let
Italian fill the air as we drove through tiny towns, all
aglow with Christmas lights. At first I regretted that
Bocelli sang all but one song in his native language.....aside
from a few words of slang, about pasta mostly, we knew
almost none of this most romantic of languages. But soon we
fell under his spell and it did not matter what
Vivo Per Lei meant in English......and that it had nothing
to do with the Christmas season.
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- I purchased several other
things that day……a sterling bracelet with religious
medals on it, a “charm bracelet” from a traveling nun,
perhaps, and a silver ring I still wear, with the word
“Veritas” etched deeply on its surface. Dick found a
fish-eye lens for his vintage Leica camera at pennies on the
dollar, a real bargain. But, as I walked out of the store I
had no idea that it was the love for Andrea Bocelli's voice which
would last the longest, be the strongest, and the most
priceless.
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- All that Christmas, his
music filled our house, as we trimmed the tree, as we opened
presents, as we had Christmas dinner with our children
around the table. They were accustomed to hearing only Bobby
Darin's Christmas album play through the holidays so I'm
sure that they were a bit puzzled that a sightless Italian
now sang to their parents night and day......and the songs
were about romance and not the music that fit the season.
Well, Christmas is where you find it, and we found it
in "Romanza" that year.
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- Over the years since then
I've purchased each CD released by Bocelli (even his
operas), watched every TV concert, read almost every article
written about this lawyer turned singer....as he married, as
his little boy was born. I do not belong to his fan club, do
not have an autographed photo of him, have never heard
him sing in person—but he has sung to us when we were
happy and when we were lost in sadness over the passing of
friends or family members. His voice has the magical
quality of healing the heart as it breaks it.
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- As we entered this Christmas
season I was happy to see that Bocelli had FINALLY made a
Christmas album and at some point over our years together he
has learned to sing in flawless English. We purchased the
album quickly because it promised to be a sell-out and we
couldn't wait to put it into the CD player as we drove
home from our shopping. Sure enough, David Foster's lovely
arrangements filled the car as I looked at the album
cover......my now white-haired Italian crooner, seated at a
white Steinway, dressed all in white, even to his shoes.......or
in a white wool turtleneck sweater against a snowy winter
background, his trademark scarf around his neck, a smile on
his glancing down face. He has aged well!
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- I do not regret the purchase
of this truly seasonal album but somehow the shine is
off.....there is something about hearing Bocelli sing
"Jingle Bells" with The Muppets or "Blue
Christmas" with Reba McEntire that is just not right.
So, tonight I return to my first CD and let “Romanza”
put me in the Christmas spirit as it did in '96, when we
first met this mild Italian man. Never mind that Santa is
missing from this album and that there are no jingling bells.....for
me it will always be a Christmas album, with the dark-haired
Andrea smiling in his red shirt with his arms folded,
unseeing and unaware that his music is just about to set the
world on fire.
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- Sometimes music is more
important than language, and it may be true that all
progress requires change..........but not all change is
Peace,
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- June & Dick Zaner