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.”
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