Il Divo – A Musical Affair now touring Canada
By Alexandra Heilbron on May 22, 2014 | Leave a Comment
Il Divo performed at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts last night in Toronto and this time around, they focused on singing Broadway songs, with Lea Salonga as their special guest. For those of you who don’t know who Il Divo are, the band was created by Simon Cowell, which is ironic, because as I watched, I was thinking, “This is ‘One Direction’ for the over-30 crowd.”
They’re not pop singers, although French singer Sébastian Izambard does have a pop background and a very pleasing sound for audience members who aren’t into operatic-type voices. Spanish baritone Carlos Marín is the lady killer of the four, with a strong, classically trained voice. Swiss tenor Urs Bühler easily makes the switch from pop to musicals to opera, but it was American tenor David Miller who stole the show.
He was the first to introduce himself to the audience and during his chat, it became clear he could be a stand up comic – he had the audience in stitches. That’s not all – during the next song that we sat up and took notice due to the phenomenal range and strength of his voice. He could play Phantom of the Opera and/or Jean Valjean in Les Misérables – both very challenging roles vocally. His performance rose above the others and just amazed us. He also lightened up the atmosphere during group songs and seemed very much the prankster of the bunch.
Lea Salonga, who rose to fame playing the title role in Miss Saigon on Broadway, showed off her beautiful vocals and enormous range during songs like Defying Gravity from Wicked and, having played both Fantine and Eponine in Les Misérables on Broadway (or, as she joked, two dead girls), she sang a blend of the show stoppers I Dreamed a Dream and On My Own. It was clear some audience members came just to see her, from the amount of applause she received (as well as shout outs of “I love you Lea!”)
Il Divo (and Lea) received standing ovations throughout the show, but especially at the end, as the audience demanded an encore. Just as it seemed the singers would not return, the orchestra began playing again and the singers returned to perform a few more numbers for a very appreciative audience. Il Divo performs in Ottawa tomorrow evening (May 23), then in Kingston, Oshawa and Montreal before heading to the States. ~Alexandra Heilbron
Here is a full list of their remaining concerts:
Il Divo Spring 2014 tour
May 23 Ottawa, ON National Arts Centre Southam Hall
May 24 Kingston, ON K-Rock Centre
May 27 Oshawa, ON General Motors Centre
May 28 Montreal, QC Place Des Arts
May 30 Akron, OH Akron Civic Theatre
May 31 Columbus, OH Palace Theatre
June 1 Kettering, OH Fraze Pavilion
June 3 Raleigh, NC The Red Hat Amphitheater
June 4 Baltimore, MD Modell Performing Arts Center At The Lyric
June 7 Providence, RI Providence Performing Arts Center
There are no comments yet, why not be the first?