Il Volo live in Fresno (Saroyan Theatre)

Review Il Volo at the Saroyan Theatre

You don’t have to search long and far on the Internet for times in which fans of Il Volo — the pop-opera singing trio that enthused a packed Saroyan Theatre Friday with a peppy, crowd-pleasing performance — rebuke the local music critic for not “getting it.” You know the online comment drill when it comes to transgressing reviewer: draw, quarter, eviscerate, turn into Italian meatballs, etc. The chief fan complaint: Critics treat Il Volo like it’s opera, and it isn’t. Don’t judge a group for what it isn’t trying to be.
([Note] Team Il Volo is not associated with this review)
And you know what? I’ll buy it. Il Volo isn’t opera. The group sings lots of songs in Italian, yes, and even some opera classics, but in no way, shape or form is this meant to represent the highly trained, specialized style that allows mere mortals to boom over full orchestras and fill 2,000-seat halls unamplified. Il Volo is pop-opera, and while its repertoire might lean toward the operatic — especially to American ears — the mentality is heavily pop, from the format (three adorable young guys wooing the audience) to the delivery (five musicians, heavily amplified and synthesized).

Il Volo singer charms in talk about Fresno concert

Can you blame a guy for wanting to kick back a little? Some downtime with his beloved grandfather, hanging out with his 13-year-old younger brother (who's already taller than he), soccer every day with his buddies, some free moments to wander the meandering streets of his quaint hilltop village — it's all a nice break.
"I'm enjoying my vacation — for a month!" exclaims Gianluca Ginoble, on the phone from Italy.
But don't get the 18-year-old Il Volo singer wrong. He's excited to get back to the crushing schedule of an international pop-opera star.
After a whirlwind couple of years in which the trio has criss-crossed the globe, including concerts and TV appearances, in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America, the three singers — Ginoble, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto — are embarking on a new American tour.
Fresno is one of four West Coast appearances scheduled, along with Vancouver, Concord and Los Angeles.
The group plays Friday in a presentation by Fresno Grand Opera at the Saroyan Theatre.
The funny thing is, Ginoble says, that Il Volo gets more attention overseas than in his native country.
"We are not so famous in Italy," he says.