The pop-based Sogno (Italian for "dream") is a greedy recording, one that's sure to line the Italian tenor's pockets with some serious cash, but will forever bruise Bocelli's reputation in the eyes of his peers. Miles from opera's artistic purity (speaking not even as an opera "buff"), Bocelli has, with his popularly received albums like this one and Romanza, mongrelized opera as an art form — call it "popera" — smearing his works with despicable daubs of Lionel Richie-esque pop and over-the-top Celine Dion sheen. On "The Prayer," his yucky, Disney-esque duet with Dion written by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager, Bocelli alternates vocal roles with the Titanic princess in a paragon of cheesy melodrama. And the same goes for the awful, faux-soul "Nel Cuore Lei," another nauseating duet, this time with a paisano Eros Ramazzotti.
When Bocelli plays it straight, that is when he sings atop a proper orchestra as he does on "I Love Rossini" and on the pretty Ennio Morricone composition "Come Un Fiume Tu," as well as his entire Aria album, the man can be devastating, a true talent. A project like this, though, regardless of how it might serve to turn pop music fans on to "opera," is nothing more than gooey detritus that'll ultimately leave the genre with a bad name and the listener with a bad taste, and quite possibly a Sogno cattivo (bad dream).
— Bob Gulla (Wall Of Sound)
It's a blue-moon occurrence when an opera singer gets his record reviewed on a pop music Web site. But then, Andrea Bocelli's new disc isn't exactly your run-of-the-mill opera recording. In fact, it's way, way worse.