[ ClassicalX ] Il Divo still learning along the way

Il Divo's David Miller is a classically trained opera singer still adapting to being greeted like a rock star in his current group.

"It does feel that way sometimes," says Miller, who performs with opera-pop hybrid Il Divo on Saturday at Amway Arena. "Standing backstage, the music starts and immediately you hear screams from the audience and it's mainly female screams."

Adjusting to such adulation (how hard could it be?) is only one thing that Miller has learned in his five years with Il Divo. There were initial cultural and language barriers to overcome with the other singers French pop singer Sébastien Izambard, Swiss tenor Urs Buhler, and Spanish baritone Carlos Marin.

And the technique involved with singing "Feelings" and "Unbreak My Heart" is way different than doing Puccini.

"I'm learning additional techniques of how to sing," Miller says. "I'll sing my arias in the shower or in hotel rooms or back stage and I realize I've expanded my repertoire of how to use my voice. It has freed up a lot of the notions in my head that I had held about opera."

(And, gentle readers, isn't it nice to know that real opera singers sing opera in the shower?)

Was it also an adjustment to leave the traditional operatic world to do pop songs in an ensemble put together in 2004 with a mainstream commercial audience in mind by American Idol's Simon Cowell?

"We have never been asked to compromise how we sing," Miller says. "We never touch anything from the operatic repertoire, so it's not like [purists] would say 'What are you doing there?'

"We're making people opera curious. There's a lot of stereotypes that people believe: That opera singers have to be this way or that, 700 pounds and bellowing that hurts your ears. In truth, opera is an enduring tradition and it wouldn't be that way if people didn't enjoy it.

"When people hear us, they say 'Hey, that's not so scary at all.'"

And what about working with the other singers. Is there rock-star drama to go along with that rock-star reaction?

"This has been five years of a continual learning process," Miller says. One lesson? "Learning how to be slightly more diplomatic, because we're all in this together; it's not a solo career."

The long-term nature of Il Divo also is different from the pace and mindset of an opera.

"In an opera, if there are disagreements, you know that it will be done in three weeks' time. This is more of an arranged marriage."

Il Divo's recordings, such as its latest, The Promise, are put together in a highly collaborative way, with input from Cowell, the record company and others. On tour, the singers have much more control.

"Everybody's creative ideas were all pouring onto the table and we came up with something we thought was quite a show. We've redesigned the set, the running order of the show. There are new images for people to coordinate with the music."

With the cultural and language differences, is he surprised that Il Divo has lasted so long?

"Five years ago, it was an experiment," he says, "but now we want to try and make it last as long as we can."

Source: Orlando Sentinel