IL Divo Live in Barcelona
Charliena Diego
Professor Nancy Barlar
HUM 11- World Cultures 1
Dec 18, 2012
IL Divo Live in Barcelona I was not able to attend this concert in person, but I did watch it on youtube.com on December 18, 2012 at 12:46 pm on a Tuesday afternoon. I sat and watched it by myself in my family room, because my children and husband do not care for this kind of music as I do. The concert was with IL Divo, they are four men named David Miller, Sebastien Izambard, Carlos Marin, and Urs Buhler, and they are dressed in black suits when they come out on stage. The concert was live in Barcelona on April 3, 2009 and the performance was at the Palau Sant Jordi. IL Divo is surrounded by an operatic quartet that plays the music beautifully. My initial reaction about this concert/place is what a magnificent place the Palau Sant Jordi is, it was built in the year 1990 in Barcelona, Spain. I truly wish that I could go and see these four beautiful men sing their hearts out, I would be in awe over how big and beautiful these guy’s voices truly are and I bet in person it would be an amazing gift to hear. The song that IL Divo sang is one of my all time favorite songs from Simon & Garfunkel is/was Bridge over trouble waters. Un- break my Heart originally sung by Toni Braxton who sang it in 1993 and she sounded great when she sang it, but when IL Divo sang this song they blew my mind away with the way their voices are so rich and deep it’s like floating in chocolate and you don’t even care if you drown in it. IL Divo also sang Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues; The Winner takes it all by Abba; My Way by Frank Sinatra and also Elvis. Also the song called The Impossible Dream. IL Divo likes to sing the songs by translating the lyrics out of English so that they sound and feel more like Opera.
About eighteen minutes into the concert IL Divo sings a song from their cd, The Promise called Angelina. Carlos Marin starts the song out slow and sweet and then David Miller starts singing the second verse, and what a voice he has but when all four men brings their voices all together they sound so beautiful with such sweet harmony. As they are singing this lovely song they are walking around the big stage while the audience is giving/handing they roses/flowers and the quartet are/is sitting in the middle of the stage playing the music beautifully. After they finish singing that lovely song, it gets all dark and then slowly the lights start to shine on the men that are sitting on stairs as they start singing “Unchained Melodies” only they don’t sing it in English like the Everly Brothers did, IL Divo sing it in the beautiful language of Italian, Aww just love to hear their voices.
Carlos Marin starts talking to the audiences mainly the women and dedicates a song to all of the mothers that are out in the audiences, the song is called “Mama”. As David Miller starts to sing, they all separate on stage in all different directions. I’ve notice all through this concert the main singers that start the songs are/is Carlos, and David. Fifty minutes into the concert the lights start to dim, because it is time for intermission and IL Divo slowly walks off the stage as they wave to the audience, they walk behind the curtains for they are able to rest and also change their clothing. I also notice that many of the audience are getting up from their chairs but most of them stay sat down for they can listen to the beautiful quartet play.
After the intermission comes to an end, the men come back on stage singing “The Winner Takes It All” wearing gray suits and looking very handsome. They stay standing on the stairs as they sing this great song that is originally sung by ABBA. WOW their voices definitely gets your attention. Sebastien Izambard introduces the next song called “Without You” by Harry Nilsson, Mr. Nilsson was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 15, 1941 and he recorded this song in 1971, sadly he passed away at 52 years old in 1994. IL Divo I think did a fantastic job with this beautiful song. Urs Buhler introduces the next song and as he does this he explains that this song is about love and it is his favorite song called “Every time I Look at You”, the men are sitting on stools as they start to sing one by one, and then they all start to sing together. This is the first time that I have heard this song and I find it to be very pretty. As that song finishes they go straight into another song called “Hallelujah” I love this song, but when IL Divo started singing it, it made me think about the cartoon shriek, because that is the last time I heard that song and my kids and I love that cartoon.
Carlos starts to talk about how they are going to change the rhythm to Latin music called “La Vida Si Amor” I never heard of it but is a great fast song. IL Divo finishes the concert out with a great song called “My Way” it was sung by Frank Sinatra, however I truly only know from Elvis because I absolutely love hearing Elvis sing it, but I think now that I have heard IL Divo sing it in Italian in the beginning and in English at the end I think I might enjoy IL Divo singing it better.
This concert lasted one hour and fifty minutes and although I might not speak the language or understand the words they are singing, my heart understands what the words mean. And all I can think of after listening to these guy’s for an hour and fifty minutes is what an extraordinary gift I have been given to be able to hear IL Divo even though it was not in person I know that I will come/go and listen to these four beautiful men on youtube.com as often as I can. Especially this concert I will love to hear them sing these songs over and over with their deep beautiful voices.
