Puccini: La Boheme Andrea Bocelli and Barbara Frittoli with the Israel Philharmonic; Zubin Mehta, conductor (Decca) Having been thoroughly charmed by Andrea Bocelli’s sincerity during a recent PBS conversation with Charlie Rose, I very much wanted to love this recording. Alas, while Bocelli has a lovely voice—his sweet innocence at the start of Rodolfo’s great aria, “Che gelida manina,” is especially touching—the instrument lacks weight and heft. Though Bocelli clearly loves this music, his voice will not grant him the range of expression and the sheer body of tone necessary to raise his interpretation to greatness. As Mimi, Barbara Frittoli sounds far more ample (though a bit less steady) than her partner, but she seems to hold back when they’re onstage together. Either Frittoli is trying to balance her voice with Bocelli’s slimmer one, or she lacks the passion needed to make Mimi’s love and fragility palpable. (Listen to Bidu Sayao and Claudio Muzio sing “Mi chiamano Mimi”; these very different women give a much better sense than Frittoli of what Mimi’s very Italian passion is like.) Zubin Mehta’s slow and spiritless conducting does nothing to help matters. Bocelli fans who are unfamiliar with opera will probably listen to these discs and wonder what’s so special about La Boh譥. To experience Boh譥‘s greatness, turn instead to Bjoerling and de los Angeles with Beecham; Pavarotti; Freni with von Karajan; or the classic Tebaldi.