"AN EVENING WITH IL DIVO," EnergySolutions Arena, June 5
Il Divo is an adult boy band.
Seriously, a music impresario ("American Idol's" Simon Cowell) formed the band and told the members what to sing, what to wear and how to act on stage.
It's like the Backstreet Boys. But Il Divo is older, and three out of four have classical training. The other is a French pop singer.
Oh, and they are all nice-looking chaps.
David Miller is the all-around American. Carlos Marin is the Latin lover from Spain. Sebastien Izambard is the romantic French pop star and Urs Buhler is the suave Swiss-German.
Those personalities emerged during the nearly three-hour performance at the EnergySolutions Arena. And, not surprisingly, those in attendance — mostly females — loved what they heard and saw.
The group, accompanied by the Il Divo Orchestra, sang a string of pop songs in classical technique. But not only was the style more operatic, the songs such as Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart," Abba's "The Winner Takes It All" and the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" were not sung in English.
The group would take turns singing in French, Italian and Spanish, with some English thrown in for good measure. And they waved and shook hands with their fans.
Highlighting the singing was a well-programmed stage production with an array of mood-lighting and surreal back drops.
The quartet moved slowly, too. The only choreography of the evening was walking in and out of spotlights.
It would have been nice to see each singer dance some solo salsa moves during "La Vida Sin Amor."
Every song, including, but not limited to, a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" and the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" to "The Impossible Dream" from the musical "Man of La Mancha" all started slow and tender and then grew into a rousing vocal climax.
One of the unintentional humorous portions of the evening came when Izambard said the group was going to do something different with "Everytime I Look at You."
Unfortunately the song followed that same building formula.
e-mail: scott@desnews.com