Tag Archives: Gianluca

Concert Photos/Reviews, Gianluca, Ignazio, Il Volo, Myron's Music Notes, Piero

Three Part Harmony ~ L.A. ~ Myron Heaton

April 1, 2016 mariecrider 63 Comments

PART III – Los Angeles – the Dolby theater in Hollywood – March 26, 2016

Giampiero Grani 2 — Photo Giampiero Grani

Program order– Las Vegas 2016 Order for Los Angeles

Overture same

Volare same

Il Mondo same

L’Immensita same

Tonight (west side story) – Ignazio same

E Aranjuez con tu amor – Gianluca same

E lucevan le stelle (Tosca) – Piero same

Piove (Ciao, Ciao Bambina) same

Beautiful that way same

My Way (duet – Piero & Gianluca) same

Quando l’amore diventa poesia same

Unchained Melody (duet – Ignazio & Ginaluca) same

Si me Falta tu mirada same

O paese d’ ‘o sole (duet – Piero & Ignazio) same

Delilah same

Memory (cats) – Ignazio Eternally ( full trio )

Anema e Core (Heart and Soul)Gianluca Hablando de ti (Ignazio )

No Puede Ser – Piero

El Triste Bridge over Troubled Water-

O Sole Mio (Gianluca)

Surrender ( Torna a Surriento ) ) Ne Puede Ser – (Piero)

Grande Amore and Finale El Triste

O Sole Mio

Surrender

Grande Amore

*******

The day after the Las Vegas “blow-out” and the Fan Faire a few of us went to Los Angeles to take care of some business with Barbara Vitali of Il Volo and to attend the Il Volo concert at the Dolby theater. This is the theatre where the Oscars- Academy Awards are presented each year. At 3600 seats the place has about 1000 more seats than the Pearl (2500) and one of the largest stages in the country.

I have attached the program order for both concerts so that comparisons can be made. The biggest difference is in the last third of the concert. That difference was another “mind-blowing” experience for those of us in the audience.

Singing: As in Part II, the guys are employing great sophistication and artistic power with the greatest of ease and absolute control that most singers never achieve even if they go on into their 80’s. The guys’ singing was superb. Regarding their singing, you have to have sound tech sitting at the sound board who is on task properly. Friday had been perfect but Saturday he missed about three entrances – when a singer enters stage singing the opening of a song and the mic is not on right away but a split second later. Generally small item but professionals should not miss those key things. This is not the guys’ fault. The guys were superb once again.

Orchestra: they decided to use an orchestra half again larger than Vegas since it is a much larger stage and a much larger theater. They had a problem from the start keeping tight in their ensemble since the addition of a additional conductor. On the tour to that point they got used to Giampiero as conductor and music director. But now, they, in effect, had two until they settled down to trust the tempo. The guest conductor on one side of the stage referring to Gianpiero on the other side of the stage also conducting from the piano. For the first 4 or 5 songs it was a little tricky since they only had the one rehearsal as a full orchestra. However, the instrumentalists were very, very good.

Please understand that most groups like this travel with an inner core of 5 to 7 key musicians like piano, bass drums and guitar and maybe a few others and then they add the full compliment of strings and winds from the local musicians. Il Volo does too.

All other aspects of the Dolby concert were great.

I want to call special attention to the two biggest highlights of the concert which were a total surprise to everyone (you could tell from the audience response – no one expected these two things to happen). These two songs were NOT performed on any other concert up to now. Why they waited this long to present them I don’t know.

A new composer and his song:

First, instead of doing his usual solo, “Memory” from Cats, Ignazio went over and sat at the piano and announced that the next song was going to be (finally) a new song that he, himself, composed. IGNAZIO , himself, as composer as well as pianist and singer. The song (see list) was “ Hablando de ti” . When I saw him after the concert we chatted just briefly about this song. He has written several songs and this was written about 4 ½ years ago and he “tweeked” it over and over for a couple of years and it is just now being released for the first time on this tour. I loved the song and he sang it very well. I hope they do more of this.

The second incredible and unexpected event was a solo that Gianluca decided to do.

He had been scheduled to sing “Anema e Core” as in previous locations but he changed that Saturday night. I must say that it is very difficult to write with normal, English words what happened after his introduction to the song. He talked about the need for peace in the world and mentioned that many singers through the years have used this song written by Paul Simon many years ago. But Gianluca’s most personal and emotionally favorite performance is that of Elvis Presley. The song : “ Bridge Over Troubled Water” . A song that we need so badly right now. To add even more power to the scene was the fact that Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ former wife, was in the audience (just a few feet away from Jeannette and me) in the Dolby Theater that night.

giampiero Grani 1 — Photo Giampiero Grani

Up to touch the face of God:

Then, just when you thought the emotional level could not get any higher, Gianluca started to sing. I could not believe it. The people around me (including Jeannette) and the whole audience could not believe it ! Gianluca took himself and us to an entire new level of passion. I am telling you this young man went to where he had not been before. We all were in tears and he was in tears. Way beyond the other songs in the show. When he was done he could barely breath and we were totally emotionally spent. The tears flowed like a river. This song stopped the show. The audience would not stop the applause – it went on for over 5 minutes. That kid was overwhelmed by the response and we were too. I know this has been put to video by people in our group and has been posted so you must take a look. But the only way to understand is – sorry – you have to be there live, in person to feel that kind of power.

When I saw him backstage after the show, Gianluca asked (after I mentioned the song) if I liked it. The humble kid has no idea how big it was. I could only hug him like my son.

The remainder of the show was very, very good but the audience was almost numb by that time from the power of the one song. Interesting that is was Easter Sunday because the spirit moving in that audience that night was so uplifting. To borrow a famous phrase: lifting us up to touch the face of God.

Coda: call it the “kitchen chat”

A little personal reflection on the Fan Faire: while our crowd was waiting up on the 52^ndfloor in the View Room for the boys to arrive, I was getting conflicting reports of which elevator they were going to use – the two main ones that we all used or the west side one. Turns out there is another one in the back of the kitchen storage room. When the word came to me I asked them to hold in the rear kitchen so that I could talk with them before letting them loose (or should I say letting you guys loose on them). So as soon as they arrived out of the rear elevator (you could not see where they coming from where you were seated) I went back in there and we met again.

It was all hugs and wonderful statements of support and apology for being so late. I did not care about the apology because I was just happy to see them there. Piero and Ignazio found a table-top shuffleboard unit about 10 ft. long being stored there and they started to play it. Piero just about got stuck to that thing. I was laughing all over the place. Then I finally said “hey, guys! We are on my time now so please continue the game later”. It was all just in fun anyway. Those three came over and we formed a little huddle to talk about what we were going to do with the limited time. I tell you it felt like I was home with my family – just the four of us talking together to come to a solution. I had them all to myself for nearly ten minutes before Barbara came over to see what we were talking about. It was cool. We were back there for nearly 10 minutes and very few people even knew they were there already.

Love those guys. Love the fact that they came to us even though there was no contract and no money changed hands to get them there.

To those of you that came to the Fan Faire, it looks like they want us to do another and have offered to help out this time. I do hope that you remember this event for along time.

Myron

Concert Photos/Reviews, Gianluca, Ignazio, Il Volo, Myron's Music Notes, Piero

Three Part Harmony ~ The Concert ~ Myron Heaton

March 31, 2016 mariecrider 35 Comments

Part II – Las Vegas Il Volo Concert review – Friday, March 25, 2016 – Pearl Theatre

From the front I want to say that I know that some of you worry if I say something constructive because I am a voice teacher and music director and that is my job. But please understand that I review the concert as if I were their voice coach and the conductor. That means being accurate and not gloss over problems. You that have been around for a while know that already.

I will go right to the Boy’ singing work. No one is perfect and even the most perfect singer may have a problem once in a while. As that voice teacher I mentioned I am automatically looking for a problem to fix. The same measurements I have used in the past: breath support; vowel shapes ( large and round shaped); head resonance, projection, tone quality, intonation (is he singing in tune); and on and on. I looked hard and I am telling you this was one of the most perfect examples of quality singing I have ever seen and heard. It has been a year since the last time I heard them in person and WOW ! What growth and increased professionalism as a singer – for each of them. Oh, sure, if I get really, really picky I can point out tiny problems for each guy at one or two places in the concert lasting for all of two notes. So trivial it is not worth mentioning. From a pure singing standpoint – I repeat myself – this is one of the best vocal performances by any singers any place that I have seen in probably 30 years. It is partly due to the fact that they still use a voice coach on a regular basis and they DO NOT TAKE their voices for granted. BRAVO!

Other issues: In every concert I have seen them do I have had complaints about the sound system or the lighting or the acoustics or the stage layout or the orchestra being out of tune. I get mad at things like that because the boys deserve the best in their organization. They do their work the highest standards and therefore everyone working with them need to do that same.

Orchestra: I feel this orchestra was the best, the most in tune, with the over-all best musicians they have had. It was also a very tight ensemble – very precise. Giampiero is the pianist / conductor and this guy is very , very good. It is hard to keep an ensemble together when conducting from the piano, but he had them in very tight rhythm.

I have to give credit to the Pearl Theatre. It may not have been the most beautiful place but it had good acoustics and the sound was very good and very well balanced. There were maybe two or three places where the bass sound was too loud for the singers in some soft place in a song, but I was very pleased with the sound. The Il Volo company brought a nice and very effective lighting program to go with the concert. This program was staged very nicely.

My last comment for this program: I was blown over by the incredible maturity that these guys showed off Friday night. Especially, Gianluca who in the past has sometimes looked very serious about his singing and perhaps a little “wooden” as he would navigate around the stage (after all this was was a very, very – I mean painfully shy boy as a kid). But now – WOW – we saw a mature performer that was in total command on the stage and navigated all over the place with confidence and real class!

This is one classy gentleman.

Piero and Ignazio have had this stage thing down quite well in previous shows and they were, again, their wonderful and charming selves. I swear one of these days when Ignazio does one of his “ballet” twirls he is going to fall off the stage badly. He already had an accident that sent him to the hospital on this tour – ugh! But that is part of his charm, too.

The music itself – solos first: Ignazio, the sometimes clown, once again blew us away with his INCREDIBLE rendition of the great and famous tenor solo from West Side Story – TONIGHT. Talk about a song that was almost intended for him; this is sure it. What a wonderful job of putting serious singing powers to perfect use. Of course, I missed that he was going to do the “fake-the-audience-out with a non-ending” . He is just great.

For Piero the aria from Pucini’s Tosca is so marvelous as is his “No Puede ser” Gianluca brought back a song from two years ago which I love called “E Aranjuez con tu amor” which also features a violin soloist. Our lady from Vegas that was first chair violin for the Vegas orchestra was brilliant and quite wonderful as she played musical Q & A (the violin taunts the baritone, Gianluca and he replies in kind. The best violinist he has worked with so far (including the next night in L.A.).

I have been waiting for almost a year to hear “live” Gianluca’s “Anema e Core” and he was the true “romantic baritone” of our age. There is no one on the scene. He mentioned some of his favorite singers and I find that Gianluca is better than those guys were in their prime. That is my belief.

This was first tour here to have the duets in and my favorite was “My Way” so powerful and even kind of sad. But it was done so well by Piero and Gianluca. Even more wonderful when you consider the health problems that Piero had in Denver just a few days ago.

All of the ensemble pieces were wonderful although I was sad that they did not do“Eternally” by Chaplin – (my family favorite and they were there finally Friday night.) That quest would turn out to be answered the next night.

I have reviewed a video of the entire program and once again I am going to say that this entire concert was one of the best ensemble concert, best solo concerts and best concerts with orchestra accom. To put it simply: the best program I have seen these guys do and the best that I have seen from any other professional performer in the business – period.

~Myron

Gianluca, Ignazio, Il Volo, Myron's Music Notes, Piero

In Three Part Harmony ~ Myron Heaton

March 30, 2016 mariecrider 40 Comments

From Myron Heaton for March 25 – 27, 2016

I am writing this in three parts with a short personal comment at the end.

Part I – Las Vegas Il Volo Fan Faire convention and Banquet

Part II – Il Volo Concert at the Pearl Theatre – Palms Hotel March 25 – Las Vegas

Part II – Contrasting two back-to-back concerts using Los Angeles March 26

Part I – IL VOLO FAN FAIRE – 2016

I want to thank all of our volunteer staff for their work on the Fan Faire. There were quite a few and I do not have all the names as of this morning so I will only spotlight three. Some of you started with us this last year but some others have been tagging along with me since 2012 (through thick and thin) Huge thank you goes to Jeannette for being a great working partner. All the many, many things that she did behind the scenes to get so many details organized and ready for this event.

Jeannette and I could not have the Vegas work without Marie and Kelly at Flight Crew and their staff members helping to get the word out and really being a tremendous support. Marie is one of those hanging in there since 2012.

Let’s face it, There has never been an event like this for Il Volo. I asked Barbara Vitali (Manager) while they were here and aside from small private “get-togethers” that some people have had with 6 or 8 or so people – informal type of gathering – This is the first organized and official (from Il Volo) large Il Volo fan gathering anyplace – and including the apprearance of the the boys in person at our event. WOW !

If it sounds like I am kind of high, I AM !! On a personal basis this was always a gamble because they were only doing this as a favor. We did not contract them for money. They came because I asked and because they wanted to come. The old fashioned term was: “gentlemen’s agreement” but now it should be “gentleperson’s agreement” because the Barbara, Gianluca, Piero, and Ignazio were the other “gentleperson and that was the central key. I must tell a little secret. Even the day of our event there was a time problem around noon and for a while I did not know if they were going to make it let alone when. But then I saw Gianluca at lunch and we chatted a little while and that was the confirmation I needed. He said: “ we will be a little late but we will be there” (almost words from God at that moment).

End result: the most important thing to me was that later that night Barbara and the boys said they were very happy with and actually surprised at how big the event was. They loved it. Barbara and later Piero told us that next time (get that phrase: “ next time” again words as if from God) they will help us put it together and then find a way to guarantee they will schedule at least a full hour with us and do more activities. Now from my self-centered attitude, I loved that reaction and the news with it.

From our group stand point we have already had many emails and tweets indicating that, even though there were some issues to be fixed and some other minor problems to deal with, the general report we are getting is a very positive response. One item that needs to be changed for the next time is that the dinner places must be assigned in advance with name cards and there cannot be last minute changes like we put up with Friday.

The reports I have gotten were that the room was a nice room (great view – duh!) and the food was very good. We found the staff to be very nice and very helpful. I was not sure if we were going to need security but I went ahead with it and, boy! , am I glad we did! When the Il Volo boys came to us I thought there was a high-pitched earthquake happening. I thought only teenage girls acted that way (I say that with tongue in cheek). I was surprised that the boys got out of there with their clothes still on !!!!!

But that is a sign to me that we had an event that achieved the excitement we wanted. Can you imagine an hour instead of 30 minutes (those poor boys – ahem ! Cough !)

There will be one more comment after all three of these parts are done.