Andrea Bocelli the wedding singer: tenor surprises newlyweds

A bride and groom were given a wedding present to remember when Andrea Bocelli gave a surprise performance at their marriage ceremony in Italy.

Edoardo Provalosi and Rosa Murroni were amazed when they entered the 13th-century church of San Pietro in Porto Venere, on the coast of Liguria, to find the classical tenor singing and playing the organ.

The church sits on a promontory just outside the town, where Bocelli, 56, who had never met the couple, was on holiday. Porto Venere’s name derives from the Latin “Portus Veneris”, or Port of Venus, and the church was built on the ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess of love. Hearing that a wedding was about to take place, Bocelli sent his wife to ask permission from the church warden to perform Ave Maria.

The warden, Rita Giannasi, said she was surprised by the request. “I asked her who her husband was and why he wanted to sing at a wedding to which he had not been invited,” she told La Stampa newspaper. “She explained that she was the wife of Andrea Bocelli and that he wanted to do it as a gift for the newlyweds.”