Italian singing sensation Il Volo flying to Cleveland's Jacob's Pavilion

The latest star act born out of reality television comes from Italy, where, just over three years ago, a trio of teenagers took the country by storm.
The operatic pop world was turned on its head when Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble appeared on the popular Italian talent show “Ti Lascio Una Canzone” and performed a flawless rendition of the Neapolitan standard “O Sole Mio.” The boys won the competition, decided to name their group Il Volo (Italian for flight) and watched as their self-titled debut CD went platinum, turning them seemingly overnight into global stars.
 “It’s completely crazy because everyday is different,” said Barone, 19, calling from Ontario, Canada. “We tour a lot. It’s hard but it’s easy for us because we love what we’re doing. We didn’t imagine this would happen. We met on this TV show, and we thought after this program everything should be done, but then we signed a contract and now we sold more than 1 million copies. I didn’t know my colleagues, but now we’re like three brothers.”
Barone’s three-brothers comment is apropos considering the youthful trio has garnered names such as The Italian Jonas Brothers, The Italian Heartthrobs and The Baby Teenage Tenors. Stateside, the act’s sound went mainstream after PBS’s repeated airing of concert “Il Volo Takes Flight: Live From the Detroit Opera House” led to performances on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” “Today” “Good Morning America,” “Ellen” and even a surprise appearance on the final episode of the HBO Series “Entourage.”
What’s striking about the trio is the maturity regarding not only its publicity but the members’ reverence to the craft.
“We like when people say it’s the meeting of The Jonas Brothers and The Three Tenors,” Barone said. “That’s good but we are completely different. We sing operatic pop but we don’t sing ‘La bohème.’ We don’t sing the real opera because we can’t. We have to study and learn our ears. We can sing that kind of music when we’ll be 28 or 30. The important thing is we have to study. We have to keep our voice. Sometimes people who have become real famous forget to study and study. That’s really important.”

A disciple of The Three Tenors — specifically Pavarotti — Barone said Il Volo is taking a serious approach to its highly anticipated follow-up effort, which is due out this fall. The new album continues the trend from the first CD with songs written by Diane Warren, as well as numerous duets. That includes one song recorded with Plácido Domingo.
Hoping to build off the momentum it experienced over the past couple of years, Il Volo’s ambition for its sophomore effort is lofty.
“Our goal is to bring our new songs all over the world because we did that with the first album, but the first album was only covers,” Barone said. “Now with the new songs our dream is the people in our concerts sing our songs. And we hope to sell a lot of copies and hope to get the American Grammy.”
He quickly added, “The first album we showed our powers, but with the second album we want to show to the people the real kind of music of Il Volo.”

Source: news-herald.com