Il Divo a showcase of sheer talent

Il Divo" is Japanese for "divine wind." No, wait, that's "kamikaze."
Actually, Il Divo is Italian for "divine performer." Male, to be exact. But you would have to be a kamikaze to come between the men of Il Divo and their ardent fans. Four hunks of burning voice lessons floated into Credit Union Centre on Sunday on a cloud of dry ice fog to pay a first-time visit to their predominantly female audience.
The divine roll call: Swiss tenor Urs Buhler, French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Marin and American tenor David Miller.
"We're Saskatoon virgins," quipped Sebastien. "Does that mean it will happen for us tonight?" Urs followed up.
The climax of the first set answered that. The singers forcefully handled Andrew Lloyd Webber's Don't Cry For Me Argentina, giving those odd, meandering verses their full attention and holding nothing back on the oh so familiar chorus.
The world-class lighting and video added drama, not that much was needed. One magical effect made it look like sun-bleached stone shelves had lowered themselves from the ceiling. At one point, the tuxedoed men were in a cityscape. Then, it was a star-strewn galaxy.
Simon Cowell's genius in choosing the quartet was apparent - not just the sheer talent or international flavour but the variety in the group. One immediately identified Sebastien's more nasal style and David's definitive classical sound.
Taken together, the group could put gravitas and beauty into a radio jingle, so whether they were undertaking Dove L'Amoure or I Did it My Way, it seemed special.
After Nikki Yanofsky, the opening act on Sunday, strides off the stage, you can only shake your head and wonder if anyone got the license of the truck that just hit you. The Quebec vocal jazz and blues prodigy used her opening few minutes to pretty much knock you on your butt.
That such a voice should come out of someone so young has been well documented. But you have to feel that youthful exuberance and see that radiant smile to really get it. And you have to hear how she grinds into Etta James' I'd Rather Go Blind and does vocal yo-yos with Sweet Georgia Brown to believe it.

Il Divo Concert Review Vancouver, BC July 25, 2012

July 26th, 2012

The pop-opera group Il Divo performed at Rogers Arena in Vancouver last night in a lavishly lit setting with a full orchestra, and left the predominantly female crowd panting for more. Their formula, now nine years on and perfected in extensive touring, is not only intact but appears unstoppable. Four great voices emanating from four handsome gentlemen in elegant clothes, oozing charm and sex appeal: that was the original concept dreamed up by Simon Cowell when he hand-picked them for the initial recording session. As things turned out, they got along incredibly well and they still do. It shows on stage.
The classical crossover phenomenon has done wonders for record sales and concert halls from London to Russia to China, and Il Divo stands at the head of the class. The amazing thing is that the group is still together after nine years, with not one personnel change. That’s a rarity in the music business, especially considering their gruelling touring schedule. The current tour features songs from their latest album Wicked Game (yes, the Chris Isaak number – though their interpretation is considering more rousing than that of Isaak). After all, the members of Il Divo introduced themselves to the audience as “four caged tigers with a lot of energy to release”. They did just that, performing more than twenty songs (scroll down below to see the setlist) with a mere ten minute interlude.
Best of the evening: a beautifully tender “Dove L’Amore” based on Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, demonstrating conclusively that not of all their numbers are over the top. Their melding of voices was superb, almost overwhelming in its combination of restraint and intensity. This was a truly beautiful piece, exquisitely sung. Also a highlight was their version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”, one of their most effective pieces for the way it maximized the variety in their individual voices. Their Italian version of The Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” was particularly glorious, pulling out all the stops and bringing the audience to its feet in unalloyed appreciation. And as for their rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, this may well be a song you think you’ve heard too often, but Il Divo triumphed with this as well, bringing to it both tenderness and restraint.
Somewhat less successful was their Spanish version of Roy Orbison’s “Crying”. Personally I love the fact that they’re attempting this material, but this is a song that requires more subtlety than they offered, but then it may be simply that the original is impossible to match. Many great singers have stumbled over this one and given up on recording Orbison; he was a master at pop opera, perhaps because he sang most of his biggest numbers in a quiet voice, with many shadings, but always leaving his emotional dynamics to the very last. That said, Il Divo quickly bounced back, though, with a very moving performance (in Spanish) of Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart”, bringing just the right amount of grief, longing and regret to this song.
Special mention must also be made of the opening act, Nikki Yanofsky, one of Canada’s best and most sparkling young jazz singers. With a cohesive swinging band and a highly appealing stage presence, Nikki made the most of her time on stage, particularly in a spectacular powerhouse performance of “I’d Rather Go Blind”, proving that this young star can sing anything in any genre she cares to tackle. Her version of “Drink Muddy Water” closed out her set in a hard-driving blues rocking number that was quite a delicious surprise. And yes, she sings some marvellous jazz too. Hard to believe she is a mere 18 years old.
Il Divo setlist:
Come What May
Dove L’Amore
Adagio
Nella Fantasia
Medley of La Vida Sin Amor/ Ti Amero/Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman/Angelina
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
Every Time I Look At You
Passera
Unchained Melody
My Way
Senza Parole
Melanconia (Wicked Game)
Si Tu Mi Amas
Mama
Hallelujah
Crying
Ven A Mi
Regresa A Mi (Unbreak My Heart)
Por Que Tu Me Amas
Somewhere

Review: Il Divo hits all the right notes with Calgary fans

 

 

Il Divo — Urs Buhler, left, Sebastien Izambaard, David Miller and Carlos Marin, seen here performing in Vancouver on Wednesday — brought their popera to the Saddledome on Friday.

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann , Vancouver Sun

They came, they sang, they conquered.
Big, romantic . . . fun.
That pretty well sums up what transpired at the Saddledome on Friday when the well-oiled Il Divo machine — four tuxedoed guys with Hollywood looks — rolled out on stage in support of their fourth album, Wicked Game, and proceeded to work the crowd with an impressively polished rendition of poperatic vocal magic and charm.
It seemed almost too easy, the way this pop-classical crossover quartet could wow a mostly female audience of 5,000 with their practised repertoire of moves, easy banter and musical emotionalism. But it was all done with “poperatic” precision — not a hair of sentiment was out of place in the Il Divo quest to win over hearts through strongly sung material that ranged through some fairly affective territory, all of it highlighted by a striking range of video-inspired lighting.
Hitting all the right notes with their Calgary fans were the four talented men comprising Il Divo — a ringing blend of French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Marin, American tenor David Miller (the comic of the group) and Swiss tenor Urs Buhler.
Between them, they performed a playlist that ran the gamut from the opening Come What May (the love theme of the 2001 film Moulin Rouge) to West Side Story’s Somewhere, about 20 songs later.
After the first song, Miller introduced the group, liberally interspersing his remarks with good humour of the kind that extended from the almost trademark (at least on this tour, apparently) “We are like four caged animals,” to the corniness of “We just flew in from Vancouver, and our arms are really tired.”
Formed over a period of two years a decade ago by former American Idol judge Simon Cowell with a view to filling in the “grey area” between pop and opera with musical theatre that was more suited to their voices, Il Divo has continued to score huge popular points with operatically dressed pieces like Evita’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, Unchained Melody and Roy Orbison’s Crying — all outstanding in a program that clearly made an emotional impact on all those in attendance.
In her half-hour set that opened the show, Nikki Yanofsky offered real vocal freshness, agility and presence, demonstrating musical mastery well beyond her years.
With her quartet (guitars, drums and keyboards), Yanofsky got things off to a jump start with a driving Sweet Georgia Brown and then settled into a string of other attractive numbers that included, among others, a swinging Lullaby of Birdland; an Etta James song that she handled like a Janis Joplin; a Beatles tune, and, of course, her signature anthem from the 2010 Canadian Olympics, I Believe.
Though warmly received by the audience, Yanofsky proved more than a mere warm-up act.
She has a brilliantly jazzy career in store.

Hi everybody.
The last two weeks of our US tour have been a madhouse. Playing on the West Coast is always very intense because there are a lot of friends and business people coming to the concerts, so before and after show is always very busy.
On top of that we spent quite a few days in Las Vegas, not only performing two sold out shows at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace, a venue which we've been aspiring to for some time now, because of all the world famous people who are so identified with it; Celine Dion and Elton John are just two to be mentioned here.
But we also spent a very long day doing a photo shoot all over town including some very special locations usually "off limits" that gave us a great perspective of the city. It was wonderful to work with Max Dodson and his team again. We know each other so well by now, and he always manages to capture us like nobody else.
Between all that I've been driving from Vegas to LA, to Phoenix and back up to Vegas. I always wanted to do a road trip in the States, and because the routing worked out that way, I thought I'll take the opportunity and get a little taste of what it would be like. The experience has only strengthened my decision to make that wish come true one day. I thoroughly enjoyed myself driving through the Nevada and Arizona desert, and California has always been one of my favourites. I just need a bit of free time to be able to stop where ever I want and go at my own pace...
The crowning highlight for me was of course being able to celebrate my birthday in Los Angeles where I've got so many dear friends, and as it fell on the show day, the boys did not let me down either, got me a wonderful cake on stage and sang happy birthday for me...!

I'm sitting on the plane to Seattle now, still trying to let all the turbulence settle in my brain and get my head around all that's happened over the last two weeks. What a wonderful life we live!
And on that note I would like to thank all of you lovely people out there who come to our shows, enjoy our music and make it possible that the four of us in Il Divo can travel the world like this and do what we all love most in life: Singing!

Urs

Il Divo with Nikki Yanofsky

July 29

The world's foremost classical crossover quartet IL DIVO announced their North American 2012 tour last week and have just added Nikki Yanofsky to a number of the Canadian dates. The rising young Canadian jazz-pop prodigy Nikki Yanofsky has been invited to open for Il Divo at select North American shows. An incandescent live performer who became the youngest artist ever to headline the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2006 (she was 12), Nikki has since recorded two successful albums--the live Ella...Of The I Swing in 2008 and her studio-debut Nikki in 2010. Her single, "I Believe" achieved the highest first-week sales of any Canadian artist in SoundScan history.

The Il Divo world concert tour will see this phenomenal quartet- Carlos Marin, Sebastien Izambard, David Miller and Urs Buhler – perform at leading venues across Europe, UK, Australia, South Africa, Japan & Asia in advance of their stateside shows.

Their most recent "An Evening With Il Divo" tour, which spanned most of 2009, saw sold out shows across 130 cities. Il Divo received the Billboard Breakthrough Award for one of the biggest grossing tours of the year. With a new show designed by Creative Director Brian Burke (Artistic Director of 'La Reve' and Celine Dion's 5 year run of 'A New Day' at Caesars Palace, both in Las Vegas), and performed with the Il Divo band and famed orchestras across each city, the 2012 tour promises to incorporate a stunning visual and musical mix of fan favourites as well as premiering songs from their eagerly anticipated new album Wicked Game.

"Il Divo is the perfect modern fusion of opera, theatre and concert performance. It is a privilege as a director to create a visual landscape inviting the audience on a theatrical journey of their music," said Brian Burke.

Il Divo singers stick to their musical guns

The members of Il Divo have discovered just how much of a wicked game the music business can be.
The multinational group of crossover classical pop vocalists had to fight back against a reinvention of the quartet by a producer and some record company executives prior to the recording of their latest album, Wicked Game.
"The first vision before it was even called Wicked Game was, 'Let's throw the baby out with the bathwater and pretend Il Divo never existed before today. What would you do?'" says David Miller, the only American in the group.
None of the ideas presented clicked and ultimately the hunky Armani suit-wearing group -- Miller, Sebastien Izambard of France, Urs Bühler from Switzerland and Carlos Marin from Spain -- stuck to their guns and continued mixing pop, symphonic and operatic music together for covers of Chris Isaak, the Swell Season and Roy Orbison, the Broadway favourite Don't Cry for Me Argentina, the Andrea Bocelli hit Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro) and some originals written for the group.
"We can't start from zero: there is a known template; there is an Il Divo," Miller says. "The thing that makes Il Divo work is a massive juggling act. You've got four voices, you've got four countries and you've got four personalities. There are pop elements and orchestral elements. The beginnings of the songs start in an intimate place and end up as an operatic scream fest."
The first producer, who was eventually let go, was trying to get the group to head in a jazzier direction in the same vein as Michael Bublé, but that didn't work for the guys. Miller is pleased with the results, but would have liked to have even more pop elements on the album, he says.
"This isn't a classical group, it's a crossover group," he says. "I like having the variety of sounds and approaches to different songs. It's blending a new approach to traditional techniques. When one side gets out of balance from the other it takes away from the balance we're trying to achieve.
"I miss the pop elements: the bass guitar coming in, the drums; some of the pop elements that give it the colour and lighting shade. We had multiple producers as well with different people with different ears coming in with their approach. It added more balls to the juggling mix."
One of those jugglers is British record executive Simon Cowell, who assembled the four classically trained opera stars and created Il Divo (Italian for "divine male performer") when he was making his name in the United States as the tell-it-like-it-is judge on American Idol.
Cowell still has a say in the band's direction but is less hands-on than he was initially due to his busy schedule, Miller says.
"It's not like it was -- he simply doesn't have as much time as he did (with) all of his TV shows and being on different continents," he says. "He spends most of his time in the air going back and forth between London and L.A."
Cowell's idea to form an adult-contemporary classical crossover group, and help popularize the genre known as popera, proved to be a good one. Since releasing its debut in 2004, Il Divo has sold more than 25 million copies of its seven albums, toured with Barbra Streisand, recorded the single I Believe in You with Celine Dion and released five concert DVDs.
Winnipeggers will get the chance to see them again when the group performs at the MTS Centre Tuesday backed by a full orchestra. Teenage Canadian jazz artist Nikki Yanofsky opens.
The new concert production was designed by Brian Burke, the creative director of Dion's Las Vegas show, A New Day, and the Wynn Las Vegas circus show, Le Reve.
"He had a clean vision of what Il Divo was about: us, the orchestra and the music, everything else was a supplement to that," Miller says. "It's a very clean presentation of what we do and frees us up to be ourselves. We've got some fancy schmancy LED screens that move in and out to create mood, but no actual fire pots going off."

Not that Il Divo needs pyro, because for their fans, the four members of the group are usually hot enough

Il Divo still defining 'popera'

 

It has taken a while for four artists to get comfortable with one another

 

By Tom Harrison, The Province

They were an international success first, then they got to know each other.

Carlos Marin from Spain, Sebastien Izambard from France, David Miller from the U.S. and Urs Buhler from Switzerland were selected by Simon Cowell for their background in opera, christened Il Divo, made a record and sent out on tour.
There was only one question in the back of the four's minds: Would this work?
Another six studio albums, three world tours, and 25 million records sold patently says, yes. Eight years ago, Il Divo wasn't so sure.
"In the beginning, we didn't know each other," Miller recalls. "So we had a few communication issues. But we picked English, so I was the mediator in the group. As the other guys' English has improved, it's no longer a problem.
"It was a huge experiment, all of this," he continues. "And all of us had different individual tastes. I think the turning point for us was "Unbreak My Heart." Then there was a flow to it. Then it became a question of how do you build with-out becoming repetitive?"
It has taken five albums to answer that question. The latest, Wicked Game, is titled after the haunting/haunted Chris Isaac song. It's operatic and lends itself to the four voices and the lush orchestration Il Divo has favoured.
As well, Wicked Game is the kind of pop - a hit but not a big hit, recent but not too recent, dramatic but not a party piece - that fits the Il Divo direction.
"There has been a certain amount of expanding of the horizons as far as repertoire," Miller agrees. "We might have gone too far with The Promise [Il Divo's fourth album] with the Frankie Goes To Holly-wood song, "The Power Of Love."
"Some things that look good on paper don't work when we get in the studio. It's never give and take."
Il Divo became the forerunner of what became tagged "popera," a crossover of classical and pop, which finds the four singers poised between opera and pop. This has confused audiences expecting a more classical program or those expecting the pop of "Wicked Game" or Roy Orbison's "Crying." There is a feeling that Miller thrives on the challenge of overcoming their puzzlement.
"We actually hope it will be different," he says of the night-to-night audience reaction. "A lot of people will go to see us expecting classical pop, like the Four Tenors. So, some-times it takes a while to get through to them."
Il Divo now is at a point where the four know one another, know what will suit their repertoire, and know they are equals.
"We all have ideas but ultimately all our ideas are suggestions," Miller says. "There is a kind of thinking outside the box [with Il Divo taking other ideas from its advisers]. It's give and take; it's all a big committee.
"The more we go along, the more democratic we become."

 

Review: Il Divo sticks to the formula in Vancouver

 

Carefully tailored quartet delivers feel-good pop-opera show at Rogers Arena

 

By Francois Marchand, VANCOUVER SUN July 26, 2012 12:01 AM

 

VANCOUVER -- It may not have been quite like shooting fish in a barrel, but pretty close.

Pop-opera group Il Divo certainly knows how to push the right buttons in concert, and for two hours Wednesday evening at Rogers Arena, they did exactly that for their mostly middle-aged and largely female fans.
The group masterminded by former American Idol judge and musical mutations mogul Simon Cowell, the man responsible for such worldwide phenomenons as teen-pop sensation One Direction, is a cross between boy band appeal and the classical operatic gusto of The Three Tenors.
Carefully tailored and groomed for the pop-opera stage, Il Divo’s four members were recruited in a global search that spanned two full years a decade ago. Singing in multiple languages including English, French, Spanish and Italian, the group has sold over 25 million albums worldwide, their latest being last year’s Wicked Game, whose title is lifted from the song made famous by Chris Isaak.
Decked in formal attire and spending most of the evening amidst a cloud of dry ice mist, Swiss tenor Urs Bühler, French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Marin and American tenor David Miller, who are now all in their late ‘30s and early ‘40s, took little time to start doing what they do best: Emote.
In a set heavy on the strings, thanks to a full-sized orchestra accompanying the group, Il Divo wasted no energy on subtleties.
Seeing Il Divo live Wednesday night was witnessing an exercise in controlled melodrama: The quartet’s concert was one big build-up after another, and from Moulin Rouge’s Come What May to Dove L’Amore and Evita’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, it was all grandiose gestures and over-the-top vocals.
“We are like four caged tigers looking to be released tonight,” Izambard said early on.
Tacky banter was par for the course throughout the evening, yet the crowd seemed to eat it up.
Female fans got a kick out of Marin (the single one) predictably playing up his European Dean Martin crooner side and declaring, “There are so many beautiful ladies in Vancouver, I think I’m going to have to stay a while longer.”
Technically, however, the concert was flawless.
The full-sized orchestra layered the singers’ spine-tingling harmonies with plenty of heartfelt pomp, sending the songs soaring high, and the sound was pretty sharp, though the vocals sometimes came out a bit muddled in the rare softer moments.
Partial LED screens moved above the stage with the music, projecting a snow-covered landscape, fire and flames, evoking Renaissance art, or showing nighttime cityscapes depending on the mood.
And let’s not forget Il Divo’s most important prop: The stairs.
The dual set of steps at the center of the stage played an important role in the group’s presentation, the four members often strategically positioning themselves for the camera angles shown on the video screens on each side of the stage.
Actually, it sometimes felt like the group was performing as if a television taping was taking place, which gave the performance a surreal, artificial gloss.
Miller managed to get a few laughs when he took a break to undo his bow-tie, a fan telling him to take off more.
“You’ll have to buy me dinner first,” he quipped with a smile.
The first of two acts ended with operatic renditions of Unchained Melody and My Way, two songs perfect for those larger-than-life, emotional Il Divo build-ups, and which had the crowd on the floor on its feet.
The second half of the show featured the four men in more casual wear, though the tone was still very much the same for songs like Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game (sung in front of a wall of fire, singers knee-deep in smoke), tearjerker Mama, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, and Roy Orbison’s Crying.
For all the bombast and earnestness of Il Divo’s performance, which to be fair was a superbly executed and choreographed a pop-classical crossover show, the concert somehow ultimately lacked a real emotional connection.
In the opening slot, 18-year-old singing sensation Nikki Yanofsky showed off a vocal reach way beyond her years. (It’s actually strange to hear her talking between songs, her singing voice carrying such power compared to her childlike banter.)
The young vocalist from Montreal surprised many when she did the Beatles’ Oh Darling justice, hitting all the flourishes with her sharp, crisp tone, something Paul McCartney apparently complimented Yanofsky for in the past.
Her set wouldn’t have been complete without a rendition of Olympics anthem I Believe, which despite having been much overplayed in and around 2010, still managed to get an enthusiastic response.

Il Divo on a wicked winning streak

 

Release seventh album

In the wicked game of show business, Il Divo tends to get its way. The four-piece singing phenomenon invented by Simon (American Idol) Cowell in 2003 has made operatic singing cool, thanks to sex appeal and modern musical embellishments such as drums and rock guitar.

Their newest recording finds Carlos Marin, Sebastien Izambard, David Miller and Urs Buhler continuing to do it their way. When the idea of going after Chris Isaak's hit song Wicked Game came up, the boss Cowell simply said no. Il Divo wanted to do the song in a language other than English. Isaak and his publishers said no. You'd think the plan would have ended there. Not so, Buhler said in a recent interview from Mexico.
"It turned out that Chris Isaak's mother is Italian, so she got wind of it and she said let the boys do it under the condition they do it in Italian. So we had an Italian translation written and submitted and that is how it came together."
The quartet has never met Isaak, but learned through reporters that he liked their version.
"That's always nice to hear," said Buhler, a Swiss who lives in London.
The album Wicked Game, the group's seventh, also includes Roy Orbison's song Crying and a song inspired by Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings called Dove L'Amoure. On past albums, Il Divo has incorporated pop and rock hits such as Nights In White Satin (Notte Di Luce) and The Power Of Love (La Fuerza Mayor).
The multinational group - Miller is American, Izambard from France and Marin from Spain - has enjoyed multinational success: More than 150 gold and platinum awards in 33 countries and tours spanning the globe. As it happens, Canada stands out for Buhler.
"I like Canadian people. Canadian people are lovely. Canadian people are friendly. Canadian people are not obnoxious. They don't make a big fuss about everything."
The avid motorcyclist was looking forward to a day off in Vancouver so he could motor up to Whistler.
Il Divo, Italian for divine performer, has played for crowds as big as 35,000 people. By the group's own standards, the current tour is relatively modest in its production values. This, despite having been designed by Brian Burke, who oversaw Celine Dion's show in Las Vegas.
"It's somehow simpler. We've got an orchestra on stage, which is a main feature," said Buhler. "We've got, like, 35 musicians with us, which is great and for us as classical singers, it's kind of a coming-home feeling."
The lighting and LED screens create what Buhler called a beautiful envelope for the music. The singers felt so in tune with Burke that they made a huge exception and let him create the set list.
"He came up with a proposal and we just looked at it and listened to it and thought, wow, that just flows beautifully. And the responses that we have gotten are incredible so far."
Buhler is classically trained in a variety of instruments as well as voice. In his younger days he fronted a heavy-metal band. He sees similarities between rock and classical. Fast runs on strings, for instance, foreshadow by a few hundred years the sound of fast, distorted, electric guitars. Wicked.
"The composer who had written that probably 300 years ago had probably the same intention in mind, although he had completely different tools at hand."
Urs Buhler on special guest Nikki Yanofsky:
"I think she's great. It's unbelievable when you hear her that she's so young. The voice is so mature and she sings fantastic. I think, yeah, she just needs proper guidance and to do the right thing and I think she's got a big, big career ahead."

Il Divo heartthrobs eliciting sighs from the ladies

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — If it wasn’t for Chris Isaak’s mom, the dudes in Il Divo might still be looking for a title track to their latest record.
Initially, Isaak wasn’t hip to having the neo-classical pop vocal group cover his signature tune, “Wicked Game,” for their fifth and most recent studio album.
Enter Isaak’s Italian mother, who prodded her son to give his assent to the reworking — albeit with a catch.
“She told him, ‘Let the Il Divo boys sing that song, under the condition that they do it in Italian,’” recalls Il Divo’s Urs Buhler.
Isaak wasn’t alone in not digging the concept at first.
Music executive/reality TV star Simon Cowell, who assembled Il Divo in 2004, wasn’t too keen on the idea either.
“He didn’t get it,” Buhler recalls. “He said, ‘No, this is rubbish. What are you going to do here?’”
But then the group got a demo of the song with an orchestral arrangement underneath it.
“That was stunning,” says Buhler. “It was just catchy from the first bars that we listened to.”
Doubt, equivocation and eventual resolve has been a motif of Il Divo’s career.
Buhler himself wasn’t even sure the project had any kind of future when he was selected for the group.
“When I had done the auditions for Il Divo, I literally said to Simon Cowell, ‘I’ll go into the studio and record those tracks for you if you pay me, that’s fine, but I don’t think it’s going to get us anywhere,’” he says. “And then the first record came out and went straight to the top of the U.K. charts, five times platinum. Our first two, three years, we were all very surprised and very happy, but we were all very skeptical and almost scared, ‘This has come so quickly, this could be over just as quickly.’ “
But if anything, the opposite has happened, as Il Divo has seen their popularity continually grow.
They’ve sold more than 26 million albums and become a strong global touring draw.
A multinational group consisting of French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Martin, American tenor David Miller and the Swiss Buhler, Il Divo, which means “divine male” in Italian, are the leading heartthrobs for PBS’ older female viewership.
Their repertoire consists of dramatic, operatic takes on pop hits such as Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” and more traditional pieces, all ripe with bombast, romanticism and the sighs of thousands of moms the world over.
It’s some unabashedly effusive stuff, gooey as melted taffy, that verges on the maudlin, but it’s also expertly crafted and polished to a sheen with outsize production values.
Classical music purists might find it all a bit corny, but not their grandmas.
Seriously, not since the advent of chocolate has anything been greeted as rapturously by the ladies as this bunch.
For his part, Buhler fits into this role comfortably, looking like he stepped into the recording studio straight from the pages of GQ.
He’s also a highly accomplished musician, singing and playing violin since the age of 5.
As a teenager, he fronted a hard rock band and still counts metal among his primary musical influences.
“I’m a big, big fan of the big guitar heroes of the ’80s and ’90s,” Buhler says. “I’m still very much into that music.
“There’s a lot of congruences between classical music, especially opera and the big symphonies, and heavy metal,” he continues. “I was just listening on the plane yesterday to Schubert ‘Symphony No. 2,’ the second movement, and it’s just the strings shredding away. You could play it on an electric guitar and it would sound like a virtuoso metal track. You wouldn’t have to change a note. It’s brilliant.”
All the Il Divos have different musical backgrounds, and you can hear it in the disparate nature of their catalog.
Buhler acknowledges how hit-or-miss the whole process is of trying to figure out what fits in the context of Il Divo and what doesn’t.
To wit: The band spent 18 months trying to find the right material for “Wicked Game.”
“There are songs, old classics or bigger music theater stuff, where you think, ‘Oh that’s obvious. You just go and record that, lay a few harmonies down and that will work brilliantly,’ and it somehow doesn’t,” Buhler says. “I can’t even tell you what it depends on sometimes, whether the melody is too flat or the harmonies are too complicated.
“I remember, for example, on the very first record we wanted to do Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold,’ such an amazing song,” he says. “It flows along and it’s beautiful, but we didn’t manage to take it anywhere and we just abandoned it after a certain point.”
Of course, the biggest knock on Il Divo is the prefab nature of the group.
Buhler is well aware of this.
But, to hear him tell it, the only strings being pulled when it comes to Il Divo these days are on the harpsichord.
“It’s us by now,” he says. “We’ve come very, very far from those first meetings and auditions when it was all was kind of a manufactured thing. Now, Il Divo is really an established music quartet. And that’s the four of us.”

 

Il Divo, a pop-opera league of nations, coming to Vancouver

 

Hunky crooners come from Spain, France, Switzerland and the U.S.

 Il Divo, a pop-opera league of nations, coming to Vancouver
 Hunky crooners come from Spain, France, Switzerland and the U.S.

 Il Divo at Rogers Arena, July 25. The divine ones sing classically arranged pop tunes in Spanish, English, Italian and French, accompanied by a full orchestra.Only the name is Italian, but that doesn’t mean the four men in Il Divo don’t fit the role of a divo.
Il Divo is the male equivalent of an operatic diva, and in the case of American David Miller opera has been the focus of his career.
He was singing opera when he got the call in 2004 to join Il Divo.
“It’s not the repertoire I’m accustomed to singing,” Miller said recently from a concert stop in Spain.
“As far as I knew, it was a record company interested in using my voice for its operatic capacities but not to sing opera.”
Only later did Miller discover Il Divo was the brainchild of music impresario and TV singing judge Simon Cowell.
The rest of the group includes French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, classically trained Swiss tenor Urs Bühler and Spanish baritone Carlos Marin.
Eight years later, Miller has an international profile and a bank account that would be the envy of most opera singers.
“This is not how I thought my music career would turn out,” the 39-year-old California native said. Miller was born in San Diego, but grew up in Littleton, Colo.
Married to opera singer Joy Kabanuck, Miller knows the life of a tenor has its ups and downs.
“As an opera singer, you really live job to job. Now my wife and I have more money than either of us ever thought we’d earn and we’re saving it for a rainy day.”
No lavish, diva-like lifestyle for him.
“If the day comes that I have to go back to opera,” he said, “I won’t be worried about getting the next job to pay the rent.”
Il Divo has sold more than 26 million albums worldwide. It is Cowell’s vision of a pop equivalent of the Three Tenors.
Their multi-platinum debut, Il Divo, went Top 5 in 25 countries, and No. 1 in 13 of them. Subsequent releases have also notched multi-millions in sales — Ancora (2005); The Christmas Collection (2005); Voices, a collection released during the 2006 FIFA World Cup; Siempre (2006); The Promise (2008); and Wicked Game (2011).
Il Divo has also released six bestselling DVDs of videos and live performances, the latest of which came out late in 2011, Live In London.
Miller admitted he had to learn to perform on stage as himself.
“It’s the toughest role I’ve had to play in my career,” he joked.
After getting tips on how to handle a microphone from Izambard, the member with the most pop experience, Miller dedicated himself to his part.
“The real fun for me is actually being in an opera, losing myself for the three hours I’m on stage. It was a big adjustment coming into Il Divo and having to play David Miller.”
The David Miller that audiences see, however, is a bit more glamorous than his offstage version.
“The real David is kind of shy and introverted. Audiences want to see an extroverted David who loves talking to the fans.”
Miller is a nose-to-the-grindstone type, and has been since his college days at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. When some of his friends were out partying and enjoying student life away from home, Miller hit the books.
“It was a pass-or-fail system at Oberlin,” he said. “If you didn’t get a 70, you failed and had to take the course over. Unless you come from a lot of money, that can get too expensive.”
Miller’s dedication to his studies paid off when he got into an apprentice program right out of school, found an agent and immediately launched a professional career.
“To this day, I think I’m the only one in my class working full time,” he said.
His operatic career included an acclaimed appearance as Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann’s pumped-up version of La Bohème on Broadway and in Sydney, Australia.
He has performed with companies around the world, from La Scala in Milan to the Los Angeles Opera Company and the Vancouver Opera.
“The competition is fierce,” he said.
“But talent only goes so far. You have to have a certain business acumen. You have to have a thick skin to deal with rejection. You also have to be aggressive at times.”

Il Divo, Los Angeles, Nokia Theatre, Urs B-day with Sebastian chatting video 7-19-12.mov

IL DIVO cheer
The quartet of tenors gave an emotional concert full of romance and humor, on Tuesday at the San Diego Civic Theatre, getting a standing ovation from the first song.

SAN DIEGO. - Lovely, pleasing and talented members of Il Divo came on stage at the San Diego Civic Theatre, to delight in the power of their voices, on Tuesday as part of the tour Il Divo & Orchestra, taking not only the applause and admiration from the public, also standing ovation from the first song.
Punctual to his appointment with the public sandieguino, Carlos Marín, Urs Buhler, Sebastien Izambard and David Miller, appeared on the scene of the eight o'clock at night, going down the stairs to open the theme Come what may.
Attendees, mostly elderly, could not avoid the excitement of listening to the talent of the tenor to the beat of the orchestra consists of 30 musicians, and broke into applause leaving the chair to express their admiration for the eminent singers.
Elegant in dress and in a good mood to talk, feel happiness tenors said returning to San Diego, promising a great night framed by good songs. Thus, as interacting with the audience, David Miller introduced the item Dove 'L'amore
The show Il Divo & Orchestra, created by music producer Simon Cowell, gave a special ceremony in which the play of light together with the great voices of the tenors and the talent of the orchestra performers, delighted the senses of the public region.
Topics such as Every time at look at you, Do not cry for me Argentina, My Way, Senza Parole, Somewhere, Time to say good bye, among others, were part of the repertoire. In turn, the singers took to play tracks from his latest album Wicked game.
Il Divo is an international group of opera-pop from their debut album in 2004, conquered the world selling over 26 million copies on disk, and standing at the top of sales in Britain and the rest of Europe.
In 2009, were chosen to sing the theme Spell of love for the Televisa telenovela called Spell written by Brazilian singer-songwriter Denisse de Kalafe and in 2011 received the award for Best British Artist Of The Decade.

https://www.facebook.com/ildivo#!/divodavidmiller

Entrevista Good Day LA

Divo: The Magic of popera
The charismatic quartet performs Thursday in LA
As part of their international tour, famous quartet Il Divo will perform at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles this Thursday.
The singers of the successful band, having sold over 26 million albums since their debut in 2004, will sing their classics as well as songs from their most recent album Wicked Game when they hit the city.
Since it's formation in 2004, the group Il Divo is a sensation. This is not just due to their particular style and the harmonious voices of the four singers, but also because the charismatic performers represent different cultures and languages.
"The magic was there from the beginning", was told on the phone by Sébastien Izambard, Frenchman and singer in the band which left its mark on the opera pop scene. "And I think it was the result of the combination of many factors, among others our voices and the fact that people like our style".
The rest of the group -formed nearly nine years ago by music mogul Simon Cowell for record label Sony BMG-, is made up of Swiss tenor and composer Urs Bühler, Spanish bariton Carlos and American tenor David Miller.
As part of their international 2012 tour, taking them to Canada, the US and Europe, Il Divo will perform tomorrow at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, situated in the popular LA Live Centre.
According to Izambard, the band will bring a new show to the Nokia Theatre, called Il Divo & Orchestra, containing mostly songs from "our most recent album Wicked game", for example the classic don`t cry for me,  Argentina.
"It will be an interesting set list, as people will get the chance to hear our new and old songs in a harmonious combination of our voices with the musical instruments", the singer who is also a guitarist and pianist pointed out."
Izambard explained that it was Simon Cowell who got the idea to create a group similar to the Three Tenors [Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo], but "in popera which is much more accessible to a wider audience".
"After large auditions for lyrical singers, I was lucky to be joining the group to add the pop flavour", Izambard explains. Without classical vocal training, his voice timbre resembles that of a tenor. His tone of voice was classified as vox populi.
Since the release of their first album Il Divo (2004) up to their most recent production Wicked Game (2011), the convers sung by the quartet have managed to become the most listened to and requested songs on radio markets in different countries.
Il Divo also received multiple platinum discs (double and triple) as well as gold ones for their album sales. They were also awarded 2011 Artist of the Decade at the Brit Awards, and to date, with six albums released, they have sold over 26 million copies of those worldwide.
It has to be noted that Il Divo's popular success started in 2006, when they were elected to star next to Toni Braxton to sing the anthem of the Soccer World Cup in Germany, The time of our lives, which was subsequently added to the compilation album Voices with songs performed by stars like, among others, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Annie Lennox, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley and Mariah Carey.
"We are very happy with our career up to this point, and I hope that with our music we open the door for younger singers who know nothing about popera", said Izambard, also known as the French Divo.

When asked if Il Divo could indirectly instigate a revolution in the purely operatic genre with their distinctive style of singing, Izambard started laughing and replied: "Absolutely! It's something I do hope for... It would be very suprising, fabulous

Photos: Il Divo ready to make fans swoon at the Colosseum for two nights

David Miller hails from Colorado, Urs Buhler from Switzerland, Sebastien Izambard from France and Carlos Marin from Spain, but fans across the world know the four men as Il Divo, the operatic pop vocal foursome created by Simon Cowell who have sold more than 26 million albums.
Il Divo -- “divine male performer” in Italian, but there is no Italian singer in the group, although they do sing in the language -- hits the Colosseum at Caesars Palace tonight and Saturday evening.
Miller, a tenor (Buhler also is a tenor, while Marin is a baritone and Izambard is a pop singer), talked with me en route to Phoenix on Wednesday afternoon, Il Divo’s stop before their two-night stand on the Strip.
Don Chareunsy: Are you prepared for the weather in Las Vegas? It’s 118 degrees right now.
David Miller: (Laughs.) It’s a dry heat! I grew up in Colorado, and as a child we would go on vacation in an RV to California, L.A., and stop in Las Vegas on the way or back. So I’m familiar with the heat there. Balmy!
D.C.: So you’re familiar with Las Vegas, having performed here previously, as well. What do you like to do when you’re in town?
D.M.: I like to gamble and dine at the world-class restaurants and check out the shows. There is always something fun and exciting to do in Las Vegas.
D.C.: What can the audience and fans expect Friday and Saturday nights at the Colosseum?
D.M.: We have evolved over the years, there has been an evolution in our performances in the pop, opera and classical spectrum. We have matured, and we now perform with a full orchestra. There used to be this tug-of-war of the band vs. strings and the different styles of music. But we know who we are as artists now, and we just perform what we’re best at -- opera, pop, classics.
There will be songs from the first and second albums, and about 30 percent will be from the last album. People may say, “We’ve been to an Il Divo concert.” But I think of our shows as reincarnations; each one is very different.
D.C.: What is your favorite type of music to perform? A favorite song?
D.M.: My heart lies in opera, that is where my heart truly is, and there are beautiful pieces in “Romeo & Juliet” and “La Boheme.” Our first album has the most variety and is still a favorite of mine. From our last album, I love that we have embraced “Come What May” from “Moulin Rouge.”
D.C.: Who are you listening to right now on your iPod?
D.M.: (Laughs.) There is so much on there right now. I have always loved dance music, techno, Tiesto, the Chemical Brothers. In high school, I loved Art of Noise. Of course a lot of opera, and I have the entire Beatles collection that was released last year.
Editor’s Note: The interview is interrupted for 30 minutes as Miller checks in at the airport.
D.C.:The Colosseum where you’re performing this weekend is home to Celine Dion, Elton John, Rod Stewart and, starting in December, Shania Twain. Who would you most want to see and why?
D.M.: That is a tough question! I really like them all. Shania is a great performer, and Celine’s voice is a gift. We worked with her on the second album. I would have to say Elton John because of his musical diversity, and he is truly a legend.
D.C.: OK, and now for some quick-fire Las Vegas-related questions.
D.M.: Shoot!
D.C.: Who in Il Divo is most likely to be gambling -- at the poker tables? The slots?
D.M.: (Laughs.) At the poker tables? Carlos. The slots? None of us. That’s not our style.
D.C.: Strip club?
D.M.: (Laughs.) Carlos!
D.C.: Who is most likely to be in bed first?
D.M.: (Laughs.) Me! It doesn’t matter if it’s Las Vegas. No matter wherever we are in the world, I’ll be the first one going to bed.
D.C.: And who is the most likely to drunk dial Celine Dion?
D.M.: (Laughs.) None of us would ever get to that point. We like to have a glass of wine, but we don’t get rip roaring drunk!
Il Divo performs at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace today and Saturday at 8 p.m.
Don Chareunsy is editor of VegasDeLuxe.com and senior editor, arts and entertainment, of LasVegasSun.com.
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Il Divo: Soaring voices celebrate culture

They sing ballads with an operatic flavor, and Il Divo ends up celebrating the diversity of culture.
An American, a Frenchman, a Swiss and a Spanish baritone comprise the incredible quartet, and Las Vegas had a taste of their music for two sold-out nights Friday and Saturday at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace.

View slideshow: Il Divo concert

"An evening to remember for the rest of your life," said Nimfa Raagas Aguila, a neurologist from nearby Kingman, Ariz, who watched the show Saturday night. "They're so good. I love them."
Even though they sang mostly Spanish and Italian arias, the English songs they performed received repeated standing ovations from the crowd.
From the haunting "Mama" and resplendent "Somewhere," to the soaring "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," Il Divo captivated the crowd with their mesmerizing vocals - and they even poked fun at themselves and the audience in an intimate performance.
It's this connection with the people they are singing for that has been the hallmark of Il Divo, a group formed nine years ago with the help of former "American idol" judge Simon Cowell.
They call it the "in-between," the place between opera and pop where their music resides, but it is in performing live that they draw their juices from.
"The stage is where we really come alive," said David Miller, the American member of the group, in their profile. "When you are in the recording studio, everything is built around the melody and you tend to sit behind that. But a concert is different. You can hear the orchestra swells. You can feel the fullness. It's a deeper experience."
With Carlos Marin of Spain, Sebastian Izambard of France and Urs Buhler of Switzerland, Il Divo has performed all over the world, before kings, queens, presidents and millions of fans.
They have sold more than 25 million albums and awarded more than 150 gold or platinum discs. In 2011, they were honored as Artist of the Decade at the prestigious BRITs in London.
Taking our music to the world is our biggest achievement, said Izambard, a former French pop star, who joined the group in 2004.
At Saturday's night concert, he told how driving to Arizona in a convertible two days ago, he suddenly ran into a downpour, and ended up soaking wet because he could not get the car's roof back in time.
"For the first time, too, I won in a casino. So I'm staying in Las Vegas for good," he joked.
Marin, who is single at 43, provides the soaring baritone on the quartet's flourishes and finishes, and with his Latin good looks, is easily the favorite among women fans.
A child prodigy, he recorded his first album at eight, and later became a star on Spanish TV and stage.
"I love opera," Marin said, "but Il Divo allows me to interact more with the audience."
The fourth member of the group, Buhler, once sang in a rock band, but like the other three, had formal training in classical music. He earned degrees in top schools, including the Academy of School and Church Music in Amsterdam.
"To sing pop is different to singing classical," said Buhler. "When you sing a classical aria, there is a right way and a wrong way. With pop, you can throw all of that out of the window, as it is more important to convey emotion."
At Saturday's concert, the first time the group has brought along a live orchestra, there was plenty of emotion.
On songs tailored for dancing, people, mostly women, were dancing on the aisles and near their seats.
"Their songs are so emotional, they give you goose bumps," said Christie Anacta, who accompanied Aguila.
A Filipina-American, Anacta said that their songs transcend cultural barriers and personal background.
"They touch your heart," she said. " I don't speak Italian or Spanish , yet I can feel it. Their music celebrates our differences and still make us come together

"I was scared of being judged"

WORRIED about office gossip, Renee Murphy put off going out with Il Divo's Sebastien Izambard, but he had other ideas.
Seb and I met eight years ago. His group, Il Divo, was touring Australia and I was a publicist for Sony Music. At the start, I paid him no attention - I was way too focused on my career to look at a recording artist in that way. Plus, he was a very suave Frenchman and not my type. He had this following of women everywhere he went!
I didn't realise Seb was interested in me until I sat in on an interview the group was doing and he kept winking at me. I ignored him at first, not wanting to jeopardise my job, but he wouldn't give up. He convinced the tour manager to give him my number, and when I returned to the office, he'd left a message asking me to call him. After many similar messages, I finally gave in and we started chatting on the phone quite regularly.
I was scared of being judged. When people hear about a romance between a publicist and an artist, they start making assumptions. But when you work long hours, you don't get to go out and meet people. I was 26 and had been single for seven years. I'd go straight home to bed after work and spend the weekend in my pyjamas.
After six months of talking on the phone, Seb booked a trip to Thailand and asked me to go with him. Even though I said no, he booked my ticket anyway. I ended up telling my family and close friends about us and they said, "Just go! What do you have to lose?" I thought, well, my job! But I knew there was something special about Seb, so I met him in Thailand. We spent a week together and basically fell in love.
Before the relationship turned into office gossip, I went to see our chairman and told him everything. I was terrified, but he was happy for me, which made things easier.
Of course some people made mean comments about my relationship and about me personally. Being a publicist, I thought I knew the dynamics of how negative criticism worked, and was sure I could handle it. But there were moments when it was difficult to deal with.
Over the next 12 months, we only saw each other twice, because he on tour and I was consumed with work, so I decided to leave my job in Sydney to live in London with Seb. Moving was scary but amazing. Soon after arriving, I set off on a world tour with Il Divo. When it finished, we bought a house in Paris and started renovating - an interesting thing to do when you're discovering how different your tastes are!
After two years together, Seb proposed. We were in a little bar in Brussels when he took a box out of his pocket and passed it across the table. I opened it, closed it, passed it back to him and started giggling. He looked upset that I was laughing at him, but it was the perfect proposal.
We'd been trying to have a baby at the same time as planning our wedding and, after fertility treatment, I fell pregnant with twins. We had to postpone the wedding, but we didn't care - we were over the moon to not only be having one, but two babies. Now we have three amazing kids, Rose and Luca, 4, and Jude, 1.
Even though it's a bit of a handful, we all travel together when Seb goes on tour. I base myself somewhere with the kids and two nannies, and Seb does his shows and comes back to us on his days off. It's tiring, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
I haven't worked in publicity since I left Sydney. Initially, I was in charge of our home renovations, then the kids came along. At the moment, I'm setting up a children's vintage clothing and homewares company.
We're hoping to move to Australia in the near future. We want to enjoy the lifestyle and the sun while the kids are young.
Although I was nervous about how we met, now I wouldn't change a thing. Everything happens for a reason and I think the universe takes care of whatever's meant to be. If I hadn't followed my heart, I wouldn't have my amazing husband and beautiful children.

Il Divo heartthrobs eliciting sighs from the ladies

If it wasn't for Chris Isaak's mom, the dudes in Il Divo might still be looking for a title track to their latest record.
Initially, Isaak wasn't hip to having the neo-classical pop vocal group cover his signature tune, "Wicked Game," for their fifth and most recent studio album.
Enter Isaak's Italian mother, who prodded her son to give his assent to the reworking - albeit with a catch.
"She told him, 'Let the Il Divo boys sing that song, under the condition that they do it in Italian,' " recalls Il Divo's Urs Buhler.
Isaak wasn't alone in not digging the concept at first.
Music executive/reality TV star Simon Cowell, who assembled Il Divo in 2004, wasn't too keen on the idea either.
"He didn't get it," Buhler recalls. "He said, 'No, this is rubbish. What are you going to do here?' "
But then the group got a demo of the song with an orchestral arrangement underneath it.
"That was stunning," says Buhler. "It was just catchy from the first bars that we listened to."
Doubt, equivocation and eventual resolve has been a motif of Il Divo's career.
Buhler himself wasn't even sure the project had any kind of future when he was selected for the group.
"When I had done the auditions for Il Divo, I literally said to Simon Cowell, 'I'll go into the studio and record those tracks for you if you pay me, that's fine, but I don't think it's going to get us anywhere,' " he says. "And then the first record came out and went straight to the top of the U.K. charts, five times platinum. Our first two, three years, we were all very surprised and very happy, but we were all very skeptical and almost scared, 'This has come so quickly, this could be over just as quickly.' "
But if anything, the opposite has happened, as Il Divo has seen their popularity continually grow.
They've sold more than 26 million albums and become a strong global touring draw.
A multinational group consisting of French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Martin, American tenor David Miller and the Swiss Buhler, Il Divo, which means "divine male" in Italian, are the leading heartthrobs for PBS' older female viewership.
Their repertoire consists of dramatic, operatic takes on pop hits such as Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart" and the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" and more traditional pieces, all ripe with bombast, romanticism and the sighs of thousands of moms the world over.
It's some unabashedly effusive stuff, gooey as melted taffy, that verges on the maudlin, but it's also expertly crafted and polished to a sheen with outsize production values.
Classical music purists might find it all a bit corny, but not their grandmas.
Seriously, not since the advent of chocolate has anything been greeted as rapturously by the ladies as this bunch.
For his part, Buhler fits into this role comfortably, looking like he stepped into the recording studio straight from the pages of GQ.
He's also a highly accomplished musician, singing and playing violin since the age of 5.
As a teenager, he fronted a hard rock band and still counts metal among his primary musical influences.
"I'm a big, big fan of the big guitar heroes of the '80s and '90s," Buhler says. "I'm still very much into that music.
"There's a lot of congruences between classical music, especially opera and the big symphonies, and heavy metal," he continues. "I was just listening on the plane yesterday to Schubert 'Symphony No. 2,' the second movement, and it's just the strings shredding away. You could play it on an electric guitar and it would sound like a virtuoso metal track. You wouldn't have to change a note. It's brilliant."
All the Il Divos have different musical backgrounds, and you can hear it in the disparate nature of their catalog.
Buhler acknowledges how hit-or-miss the whole process is of trying to figure out what fits in the context of Il Divo and what doesn't.
To wit: The band spent 18 months trying to find the right material for "Wicked Game."
"There are songs, old classics or bigger music theater stuff, where you think, 'Oh that's obvious. You just go and record that, lay a few harmonies down and that will work brilliantly,' and it somehow doesn't," Buhler says. "I can't even tell you what it depends on sometimes, whether the melody is too flat or the harmonies are too complicated.
"I remember, for example, on the very first record we wanted to do Sting's 'Fields of Gold,' such an amazing song," he says. "It flows along and it's beautiful, but we didn't manage to take it anywhere and we just abandoned it after a certain point."
Of course, the biggest knock on Il Divo is the prefab nature of the group.
Buhler is well aware of this.
But, to hear him tell it, the only strings being pulled when it comes to Il Divo these days are on the harpsichord.
"It's us by now," he says. "We've come very, very far from those first meetings and auditions when it was all was kind of a manufactured thing. Now, Il Divo is really an established music quartet. And that's the four of us."

David Miller Day: July 13, 2009

  

Il Divo Sings Their Way Into Caesars Palace

You can’t really appreciate the art of song until you’ve heard the operatic pop group Il Divo. Named the most multinational UK No. 1 album group in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, Il Divo pours their heart and their vocals out in Spanish, English, Italian and French in a way you won’t believe. And on Friday, July 13 and Saturday, July 14 you can listen to the award-winning group belt out their hits during their 2012 World Tour Las Vegas stop live at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
The Il Divo 2012 World Tour is the group’s fourth, following the release of the quartet’s latest album, “Wicked Game” and is a new milestone for the crossover singing group that blends amazing vocals with opera undertones, and all in several different languages.
The tour brings the spectacular quartet of French pop singer Sebastian Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Marin, American tenor David Miller, Swiss tenor Urs Buhler,
the Il Divo band, and famed orchestras from each city together. They incorporate a visual and musical mix of fan favorites as well as songs from their new album for one powerful night of music.
“Wicked Game” is the Il Divo’s fifth studio album and includes the title track, which is a reworking of the Chris Isaak classic; a beautiful rendering of Roy Orbison's 'Crying;' a new song inspired by Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' called 'Dove L'Amore' and an unforgettable version of ‘Time To Say Goodbye’.
Believe it or not, former “American Idol” judge and record producer Simon Cowell was behind the creation of Il Divo. The idea for a multinational quartet was spurred after Cowell heard Andrea Bocelli sing Con te partiro while watching the Sopranos. He soon set out across the globe to discover young singers who were willing to be a part of Il Divo and in 2003, after nearly two years of searching American tenor David Miller signed to the group, finally completing Il Divo.
Recording for their first album, “Il Divo” began in 2004 and included a Spanish rendition of Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart;” their first original song “Mama;” Sinatra’s “My Way;” “Nella Fantasia” and “Passera.” Within weeks of releasing the album it hit the #1 slot on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The multi-platinum selling CD became #1 in the charts in 13 countries and achieved a top 5 placing in 25 countries. Since then they have gone on to receive the Billboard Breakthrough Award for their 2009 tour, “An Evening With Il Divo” and have sold more than 25 million albums across the globe!
To experience the voices and music that is captivating the world you can find discounted Il Divo 2012 World Tour tickets right here on Best of Vegas.

Founded in 2003 by entertainment mogul Simon Cowell, Il Divo consists of Buhler, American opera star David Miller, French pop artist Sebastien Izambard and Spanish baritone Carlos Marin. The internationally beloved male vocal group sings classically arranged pop tunes in Spanish, English, Italian and French.Touring through six continents and 30 countries in support of the album “Wicked Game,” the impeccably clad quartet performs Thursday at Comerica Theatre.
Last week, Buhler took time to answer a few questions for Il Divo’s East Valley fans.
Q: Il Divo has been defined as a hybrid or crossover group. How do you describe it?
A: To me, what we’re doing is pop. It’s not classical music and it’s not opera (a musical form that tells a story). We take pop songs and we put a classical twist (on them) with the way we sing and the arrangements. ‘Hybrid’ doesn’t sound very complimentary to me, but I kind of like the term ‘crossover.’ It encompasses crossing boundaries, being creative, melding the two together. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. Just call us Il Divo.
Q: You’re in the middle of a very long tour. What do you do to stay fresh night after night?
A: That’s something I was worried about when I first joined Il Divo, but I just love what I’m doing. When we do four shows in a row I want a day off, but that’s enough to get me all excited again. It works out brilliantly. Every night the crowd is different and every note you sing is a balancing act. You can never take your voice or what comes out for granted.
Q: You were classically trained but were in a heavy metal band before joining Il Divo, so you’ve covered it all. How can you enjoy such opposite genres?
A: My two favorite genres are classical music and heavy metal. They have a lot in common, funny enough. What I like about heavy metal is the virtuosity of it. Guitar players like Randy Rhoads and George Lynch or the thresh metal drummers are incredibly good at what they’re doing. I’ve studied so many years and heard so many people practicing piano or guitar 8 or 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and what they get out of their instruments blows my mind. When you listen to classical pieces, there’s a lot going on. There must be a certain feel of emotion that I’m attracted to. The difference is that one’s been written in the 20th century and the other in the 17th or 18th century. They had different ideas about themselves, but it’s the same emotion.
Q: The ‘Wicked Game’ album includes interpretations of Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ and Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ What inspired you to go in a more classical strain?
A: I think it has a lot to do with our new arranger, Karl-Johan Ankarblom. He’s been working on TV and film, so this is the first studio album he’s arranged. When I heard his arrangement of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game,’ I thought, ‘That could be interesting.’ He came up with something that takes it to a different level. We take these words and this melody and take it somewhere else, where we feel inspired. Oh my word, the emotion! I think that’s what inspires our fans. We put our heart and soul into it every night and it feels wonderful. It is so uplifting. We get so much back from the audience. We spend a couple of great hours together.
Q: Which songs from your new album ‘Wicked Game’ will fans hear you perform Thursday?
A: We do most of them. There’s only two or three that we don’t do. We do ‘Come What May,’ ‘My Way (A Mi Manera)’ ‘Un-break My Heart (Regresa A Mi)’ and ‘Time to Say Goodbye’--people love that one

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Some call them a hybrid. Others say they’re a crossover. Urs Buhler, the group’s Swedish tenor, prefers to just be Il Divo — the divine ones.

Night of romance and humor with Il Divo

After three years, the pop opera quartet gave two concerts at the Auditorium

A night of romance with a little humor, compliments and pop opera music heard on Saturday night with Il Divo concert he gave at the National Auditorium.Accompanied by an orchestra of 30 musicians, the quartet comprising Carlos Marín, Urs Buhler, Sebastien Izambard and David Miller returned home after three year absence to play both their successes and their latest album, Wicked Game.At 20:15 hours, the strains of "Come what may" from Moulin Rouge, kicked off the evening that lasted two hours. At the back of the stage appeared the four members of the group wearing dark suits."Goodnight, DF. We had three years of not coming ... I'm not a good drinker, but you are like wine, as time goes on you are better, "joked Carlos, the Spanish group."It's a pleasure to be here, we have a new show for you," said Urs, Switzerland, to continue with "Dove'L'amore".EmotionAmong the shouts and praise from the fans who snatched the words the singers, Sebastien presented "Every time at look at you", but not before enjoying the banter of his followers."My Way" served to evoke their original interpreter and add humor, using the lyrics of the song. After an intermission of 20 minutes, the quartet returned clad in gray and black outfits to play with "Senza Parole", "Wicked game (Blues)" and "Do not cry for me Argentina", with which the group showed her vocal."Melancholy makes me feel many chills and makes me feel sad," joked Carlos. "My colleagues are married, have children or girlfriend, and I am the only bachelor of the group," he said, causing the euphoria of the fans, who were suggested to change their status.With "Somewhere", the artists announced the dismissal with "Time to say good bye" and continue with your tour "Il Divo & Orchestra."