Without a doubt, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli‘s music has moved beyond public television showcases. He’s been covered by “South Park’s” death-prone Kenny McCormick and featured as a theme for mob wife Carmela Soprano’s fumbled attempt at an affair with a wallpaper installer.

“Con Te Partiro” has the distinction of being perhaps the only decipherable thing ever to emanate from Kenny’s animated mouth. In an episode earlier this year, the mumbling third-grader takes up opera.

The same song also turned up frequently during romantic scenes this year in HBO’s mobster opus, “The Sopranos.”

Bocelli’s road to stardom has already taken its share of twists. He started his career not as an artist but as a public defender in Pisa, Italy, and was discovered performing in piano bars and cafes in the late 1980s.

He’s in demand on the concert circuit as well; Bocelli’s draw is strong enough to command a high ticket price. In fact, a 2001 performance at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto will set a record top ticket price – $550. That’s the most ever charged in the city for a solo artist’s concert, according to the Toronto Star.

That date is part of Bocelli’s eight-city North American tour with the 78-piece Russian Symphony. The outing will launch March 22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and travel to Las Vegas; Philadelphia; Columbus, Ohio; East Rutherford, N.J.; Boston; and Hartford, Conn., before closing out in Canada.