Il Divo with Lea Salonga – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – April 10, 2014
A Musical Affair is the latest album and tour for international operatic pop quartet, Sébastien Izambard, Carlos Marin, David Miller and Urs Bühler. Last week Il Divo played their western Canada tour leg starting at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, Broadway icon, Lea Salonga performed along side the group for a selection of duets and solos.
The packed house of Divo-tees were eagerly buzzing with anticipation as the house lights dimmed, the onstage orchestra played a medley of the show tunes that would be presented during the night then as they struck up the opening notes to “Tonight” from West Side Story the quartet strode onstage to great cheer. The night was filled with familiar tunes selected from the best of musical theatre, “Some Enchanted Evening”, “Memories”, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”, “Love Changes Everything”, “Impossible Dream” to name just a few of the set sung in English, Italian, Spanish and French.
Join midway through the first and second act by the incomparable Lea Salonga for “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” and “A Whole New World” (Ms Salongo was the original singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin). She also performed solos of “Defying Gravity”, “Back To Before” and a medley of “I Dreamed A Dream” and “On My Own” from Les Miserable.
Each of the Il Divo members took their own moment during the set to discuss their own experience with musical theatre before introducing a song that held meaning for them. The gentlemen kept the banter light playing with the audience, many of whom who bantered back, especially tenor Carlo Marin making the most of his latin lover character much to the delight of many of the ladies present.
After a brief interlude the encore wrapped up with a version of “My Way” and “Time To Say Goodbye” for which they were joined again my Lea Salonga before taking their bows and receiving another of the many standing ovations of the night.
A Musical Affair tour continues across North America through the summer before moving to Europe, follow their exploits on Twitter @IlDivoOfficial and Facebook.com/IlDivo. Lea Salonga can be found on Twitter @MsLeaSalonga and Facebook.com/MsLeaSalonga