The misty, verdant gorges of the Pacific Northwest and the sunny hills of Tuscany are 5,600 miles apart, but on June 23 they'll be bridged by the voice of Andrea Bocelli. The Tuscan opera/pop crossover sensation will bring his wheat-cracked tenor to Portland in a program of beloved arias and heart-on-the-shirtsleeve Italian contemporary music, backed by the 69-piece Oregon Music Festival Orchestra and Choir.

It's the type of over-the-top musical extravaganza that tugs at our very notions of romance: impassioned singing, tremulous violins, the swell and surge of synthesizers and emotions writ large, delivered without a trace of irony. This is Bocelli's specialty and has been for nearly 25 years.