O que vale na vida não é o ponto de partida e sim a caminhada. Caminhando e semeando, no fim terás o que colher. 
By Jean-Claude Elias
AMMAN - Was it the ultra-chic tuxedos they wore or the Elvis Presley looks of Spanish baritone Carlos Marin? Was it the warm, beautiful summer night and the picture-perfect outdoor setting of the Amman Citadel? Was it the smart choice of the well-known songs they interpreted? Or was it the excellent performance of the 24-member orchestra?
It was a little bit of all of the above, and foremost, the beauty of Il Divo’s voices combined with their charisma, stage presence, wit and youth that made their charm - a key word here - work as expected and even more during the quartet’s performance last Friday night in Amman as part of the Jordan Festival.
The festival must be in a multilingual spell, for this is the second group to sing in multiple languages (following Pink Martini), singing in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
“Il Divo” in Italian means the lead singer, or literally, the divine singer. Usually the term is reserved for a female opera singer who is called “Diva”. The group of four male singers includes tenors Urs Bںhler from Switzerland and David Miller from the USA, baritone Marin from Spain and French pop singer Sژbastien Izambard.
Il Divo sang Charles Aznavour’s hit “She”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel and “Unchained Melody”, the song made famous by the Righteous Brothers in the 1960s.
The group then moved on to the Moody Blues’ haunting “Nights in White Satin”, sung in Italian, “Without You” (by Nilsson) in Spanish, and to the audience’s delight, “Pour que tu m’aimes encore”, the song written by Jean-Jacques Goldman for the great Celine Dion. It, of course, was performed in French.
Between songs, each of Il Divo members stopped to say a nice word to a mesmerised, delighted audience. The quartet then sung “Every Time I Look at You”, “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen) before shifting to the classical “Adagio” by Albinoni and its moving harmonies. “Adagio” was the only classical piece in Friday’s repertoire, and Il Divo sang it very, very well.
Towards the end, the group performed “Caruso”, the Italian tribute to the great tenor from the early 20th century, a song that was originally recorded by Lucio Dalla. The talented, four-part harmony quartet closed with Frank Sinatra’s cosmic hit “My Way” sung in Spanish (A mi manera).
The audience managed to have Il Divo back for two encores. They sung “Amazing Grace” with the excellent orchestra recreating the sound of bagpipes, and then “The Impossible Dream”, saying goodbye for a second, final time.
The role of the orchestra was essential to recreate the classy pop sound, one of Il Divo’s trademarks. Particularly noticeable were the acoustic guitar and piano segments, with the latter mostly done on digital keyboards. The bass and drums worked remarkably well together and constituted a solid foundation, the section that made the difference between purely classical arrangements and pop.
Overall the sound system was good, except for a few brief moments, when the power of the four voices brought the system close to distortion.
The turnout for Il Divo, formed and managed by TV producer and presenter Simon Cowell, eclipsed that of Pink Martini last Sunday, practically a full house.
Il Divo’s charm works its magic
Il Divo perform at Amman Citadel as part of the Jordan Festival last Friday night (Photo by Jean-Claude Elias)
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