SebsLady quote:
This one is about Urs
touch of magic and romance
Il Divo will bring their blend of opera and pop May 12 to Mohegan Sun Arena
By SHARMA HOWARD
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Apr 29, 2009 @ 10:15 AM
It could be the caustic judge of “American Idol,” Simon Cowell, harbors a romantic side.
After all, Il Divo, a pop-operatic quartet, was the brain-child of Cowell. It’s hard to conjure up any group more romantic than Il Divo, whose audience base is growing in America.
Four men, each used to solo careers, came together in 2004, concocting a genre that brings opera to the world of popular music.
“It’s magic,” said Carlos Marin, the smoldering Spanish baritone who frequently leads the melody lines at the end of the songs.
“When all four of us sing it’s like a big tsunami — that’s what I feel. When I sing my own line it’s great, but when we sing all together it’s amazing, there’s this testosterone onstage — I can still feel the goosebumps.”
The group is promoting their fifth album, “The Promise,” but the tour, which kicked off February in the UK, includes material from all five albums.
Il Divo will come to Mohegan Sun May 12, after beginning their U.S. tour May 8 in Washington.
“We’ve had such a huge response,” Marin said of the European leg of the tour. “It has been unbelievable, we have a bigger show with a lot of ingredients,” he said, referring to the image makeover creative director William Baker has imparted with more screens behind the singers, as well as movie clips of them performing.
But it is the music, and the men themselves, fans come to see, reveling in the intimacy. At Il Divo concerts, the singers come to the edge of the stage and reach out to touch the audience.
“We were always romantic, now we are maybe even more so,” Marin said of the new staging. Their look will also include a wardrobe designed by Armani.
Vocally, their sound has matured, Marin said, as they have transcended pop and opera to forge their own genre.
“In the beginning it was difficult to find the sound. We would sing pop, sometimes in an operatic way, the way we thought to get over it is to sing in a poppy way with more air, like an actor’s voice — and then finish it in an operatic way with big notes. In our new album, we try new ways to go further — we don’t finish it in a big note, we try to make it as intimate as possible,” said Marin, adding the group is also incorporating more Latino sound.
Once, the quartet struggled with merging their soloist inclinations into a group — a transition heightened by language barriers created by the different countries the men hail from — Spain, America,
Sweden and France.
But now, as “The Promise” has gone platinum, and with more than 22 million albums sold to date, the four men have long outgrown language barriers and the challenging of merging solo talents into a seamless quartet.
“We only need to look into each other’s eyes to know what we can do,” Marin said.
If you go
What: Il Divo in concert.
When: 7:30 p.m. May 12.
Where: Mohegan Sun Arena,
1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville.
Price: $96.50, $76.50, $56.50.
For more information and for tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com or call 1-800-745-3000.
Link: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/entertainme...gic-and-romance