Super-tenor Andrea Bocelli gave two endearing performances at the Schottenstein Center on Saturday night. An intermission separated them, and they seemed to be targeted at various fan bases.

The first was devoted to those who merely wished to hear Bocelli perform opera and was direct and solemn. Wearing a dapper suit, the silver-haired singer stood still in the center of a huge stage and sang aria after aria without a break.

One could complain that these pieces are taken out of context, but their emotional strength is undiluted. Bocelli’s extraordinary voice is both powerful and precise, with each word and phrase clearly articulated. The singer was joined in duets from “Madame Butterfly” and “La Boheme” by soprano Larisa Martinez, whose singing was as nimble and playful and Bocelli’s was controlled, and who therefore made an intriguing match for him.

The singers were backed by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the lead of Eugene Kohn music director and conductor traveling with the singer. The post-intermission show was more eclectic and slightly more relaxed, covering a range of material from spiritual to decidedly secular.

This section offered a few moments of confusion. Why, for example, did the orchestra open the set with a long overture from “The Sound of Music,” a musical never referenced again, aside from the fact that it was probably familiar to most of the audience?

And why, during a pious rendition of “Ave Maria,” backed by videos worshippers paying tribute to the subject of the song, were two ballet dancers performing an erotic dance off to the side? The two, who appeared several times throughout the concert, seem to have been meant to provide visual interest, but were usually overshadowed by the singers and orchestra.

Sacred songs, backed by images of Bocelli schmoozing with one Pope or another, gave way to traditional Italian ballads. Schmaltzy but irresistible, “’O Sole Mio” was backed by images of some of the many singers who have covered it over the decades.

Accompanying BocellI in this half of the concert was belter Pia Toscano, who soloed on a melodramatic version of “All by Myself,” perhaps loading more emotional weight on the song than it could easily bear, and then joined the tenor in a duet on “If Only,” in which the two were well paired.

Rather than sing in English for more than a verse or so here and there, Bocelli chiefly, and wisely, stuck with Italian, which didn’t present the same impediments to his vocal charms.

Bocelli appeared for three separate encores: a choral-backed Italian version of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” a duet with Martinez on “Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye)” and an exhilarating cover of the demanding “Nessun Dorma.”

Even if divided into two disparate halves, the concert was meticulously composed. Definitely falling on the formal, Classical side of the Classical/Romantic divide, the singer clearly pays close attention to what his voice can or can’t do on a given day, and keeps well within his (considerable) range.

Watch his incredible performance below: