EMOTION…..
Emotion, what a delicate human trait…it can be wonderful, or it can be terrible. How many different ones do we go through in a day—or in a lifetime? Sometimes we try to hide it or suppress it, but it usually wins and comes out. They may be spontaneous or developed over time.
Emotion expressed in song is one of the surprising and beautiful things about our boys’ abilities. One wonders how they could feel and express such emotion at the beginning when they were so young.
Many of their current songs are about love–often lost or unfulfilled, and they bring such feeling to the lyrics, which we usually don’t understand, but can get the meaning just from what we see on their faces and hear in their voices. Other singers sing their songs, but no one brings to them the emotion that the men of Il Volo do.
Consider the reverent expression of “O Holy Night.” It must be a challenge to project the perfect facial expression while focusing on the vocal aspect. In the video in which they are singing in the cathedral, when Piero is hitting the high notes with perfection, Gianluca is looking at him with such an expression of affection and admiration. This is something that we often see–the way that each of them is emotionally involved the the others’ singing. It’s a thing of beauty, and something that they are not inhibited about showing.
The emotional component of the operatic solos of Piero is so evident in his delivery
that even though the language in unfamiliar, one can feel the emotion of the song through the masterful technique he shows with his voice plus the exquisite facial expressions.
Watch Ignazio’s face when he is singing “Memories.” He isn’t just singing–He’s experiencing the emotion of the song. His delicate shading of the musical tones and the lyrics, as well as the depth of facial expression, contributes so much to the emotional impact of the song.
Gianluca, too, is the master of cuing in to the emotion of the song. He brings his impish grin and twinkling eyes when appropriate, or becomes sultry and sexy (a la Frank Sinatra) when that is called for.
With their talent and the kind of men that they are, we can only imagine.
Meanwhile we will continue to listen with awe and love to what they bring to us today.
~Mary