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.
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.
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