Richard Perry/The New York Times  Andrea Bocelli, center, performing with the New York Philharmonic in a free performance in Central Park on Thursday night.  Ordinarily it is difficult for officials to estimate the crowd size for a concert in Central Park. But every attendee at Thursday night’s free performance there by the superstar crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli had to have a ticket, obtained in advance. And 60,000 were given out.  The chilly, rainy weather, which during the first half of the program turned the Great Lawn into a sea of umbrellas, may have kept the crowd a little smaller than 60,000. But the tight security measures, with pat-downs and bag searches for everyone entering, meant that anyone trying to crash the show would have gotten no closer than the park’s cordoned-off pathways.  The concert, in every way a pop-culture extravaganza, lasted nearly three hours. The audience gave the beloved Mr. Bocelli ovation after ovation as he sang favorite arias (“La donna è mobile”), Italian popular songs (“Volare”) and standards in English (“More,” a Frank Sinatra hit). Among the surprise guests who dropped by to sing with Mr. Bocelli were Celine Dion (“The Prayer,” the sappy sacred pop song they have recorded) and, no less, the great Tony Bennett (for a duo version of “New York, New York”).  Oh, and Mr. Bocelli was backed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its music director, Alan Gilbert. Perhaps I should have mentioned this first thing, but the orchestra’s participation was not a major part of the billing. The tickets (which were encased in plastic with a ribbon and had to be worn around your neck) had the name of the event, “Andrea Bocelli: Live in Central Park,” a photo of the star, logos for the sponsor, but no indication that Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic were to perform.  The Philharmonic’s involvement in this concert brought the orchestra some poor publicity when the news came in June. A consequence of taking part, along with deciding to present a free performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall for the anniversary of Sept. 11, was that the Philharmonic had to cancel its annual free summer concerts in New York City parks. Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s president and chief executive, said that presenting the remembrance program for Sept. 11, which took place last Saturday, was a top priority, and that collaborating with Mr. Bocelli made “good economic sense” for the Philharmonic.  After this news broke, I wrote a critical column, saying that with orchestras everywhere buckling under challenges from the poor economy, it was the worst time for the Philharmonic to abandon its popular parks concerts. When Mr. Gilbert conducted his first Central Park concert with the Philharmonic on a balmy summer night in 2008, he and the orchestra drew an elated crowd estimated at 63,000. After the column appeared in June, Mr. Gilbert wrote an e-mail letter to The New York Times, disassociating himself from the decision to cancel the free parks concerts and promising to bring them back in 2012.  Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic musicians did what was expected of them on Thursday and performed well in music of different styles, from a vigorous account of the overture to Verdi’s “Forza del Destino” to a breezy, swinging accompaniment for “New York, New York.” But inevitably the orchestra, especially Mr. Gilbert, came across as artistically diminished. At the Philharmonic’s own parks concerts, Mr. Gilbert is great at speaking to audiences and introducing music and soloists. But on this night he was mum.  It must have been strange for him, after accompanying Mr. Bocelli in “O Sole Mio,” to segue without any explanation into the next segment of the program. The audience was shown a montage of stills and posters from Fellini films, while Mr. Gilbert conducted music from the score to “Amarcord.” This turned out to be an elaborate prelude to Mr. Bocelli’s performance of Ennio Morricone’s theme song from the movie “Once Upon a Time in the West.”  Mr. Bocelli’s fans seemed thrilled, rain or no rain. There remains a considerable divide between the passions of the audience he has reached (his recordings have sold more than 65 million, according to his Web site) and the assessment of most music critics. There is genuine warmth and sweetness in his sound. When he nails a big top note, he likes to hang on, as he did at the end of Verdi’s rousing aria “Di quella pira,” from “Il Trovatore,” which the crowd cheered.  But after a career of nearly 20 years (he turns 53 next Thursday), Mr. Bocelli still has not worked out some of the technical kinks in his singing, which are both masked and revealed by the amplification he routinely employs. His voice quavers on sustained notes; his tone is often thin and shaky. And for all the innate expressivity of his voice, his singing is sometimes curiously bland. His rhythmic delivery can be all over the place.  Still, he has brought operatic music and singing styles to millions. Major orchestras, conductors and opera singers have been quick to take part in Mr. Bocelli’s profitable projects. On Thursday the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel was on hand to sing the final scene from Act I of Puccini’s “Tosca” (“Va, Tosca!”) with the Philharmonic and the Westminster Symphonic Choir, which worked hard on this night, also joining in Mr. Terfel’s unabashedly sentimental version of “Home on the Range.”  The soprano Ana María Martínez joined Mr. Bocelli for the impassioned duet “Vicino a te,” from Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier.” And the soprano Pretty Yende was his partner in the “O soave fanciulla” duet from Puccini’s “Bohème.” But once again, other than the announcement of her name, there was no introduction of Ms. Yende, a young artist from South Africa who was a co-winner of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition this summer.  You could have guessed the encore: Puccini’s “Nessun dorma,” from “Turandot,” which Luciano Pavarotti turned into one of the world’s most recognizable melodies. The rain had stopped; the night was clear; the crowd went crazy. And I was again left in awe at the money, power and appeal of pop culture.
Andrea Bocelliâs free Central Park concert brought out thousands, even with rain, for a pop-culture extravaganza that diminished the presence of the New York Philharmonic.