Italian pop-opera teen singers Il Volo bring their music to the world

The three teens from Italy internationally known as Il Volo — Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble — have grown-up music on their minds. For the past three years, Barone, 19, Boschetto, 17, and Ginoble, also 17, have been singing a pop-classical crossover brand of opera.
Barone, calling from a tour stop in South Florida, immediately acknowledges they “don’t sing real opera,” but his enthusiasm for the style is beyond reproach.
“Our goal is to bring this kind of music around the world,” he said. “Our music is for all ages. I grew up with this music, so the first time I heard this kind of music I fell in love with it. Everybody can love this music. When you discover it, you are going to love it.”
In the span of a mere two years, Il Volo has released four albums. The trio’s self-titled debut was released twice. One version, which includes songs in Italian, Spanish and English, was released in May 2011. A Spanish edition of the disc hit stores a month later. A live album, Il Volo Takes Flight: Live From the Detroit Opera House, arrived in February. There’s even a digital-only EP of Christmas songs.

The international allure of operatic voices ensures that Il Volo will tackle as many languages in song as humanly possible. They have sung in Italian, Spanish, English, French, German, Dutch and Latin. Barone has a good command of conversational English. He enjoys the array of idioms.
“We love music and we love to sing, so everything is really easy,” he said.
But which language is most romantic, since romance is a key ingredient in the pop-opera realm?
“The Italian and even the Spanish is really romantic,” Barone said, “even the French, but not the German. If you know what you are singing, if it’s a love song, you can make it very emotional. You can make people cry and make them very emotional.”
The Il Volo guys might actually be the ones with the uncontrollable emotions. Premier pop vocalist Barbra Streisand handpicked the group to open 11 of her concerts in October. They even plan on singing with her onstage.
“We are, of course, excited,” Barone said. “We are 100 percent excited. We can’t wait to meet her. We can’t wait to work with her. We can’t wait to sing with her. We are the opening act but we are going to do more than one duet.”
North Texas will get Il Volo as headliners Friday at Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie. It will be the inaugural Texas visit for the Italian lads. Barone says to expect songs from the debut CD as well as a tune or two from the upcoming sophomore studio effort, which will be released Nov. 19.
“We can’t wait to come to Texas because it is our first time there,” he said. “It is the first time to sing in this country. We can’t wait to see what kind of audience we get.”

Source: .dallasnews