Ancora CD - Import

2005 studio album that reflects the multi-national character of the group; the songs are not all sung in English, but drift between Spanish, English and Italian. However they are worded, all use the emotional Esperanto of love. The group's debut album, IL Divo hit the #1 slot on both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com after a breakout career-defining appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (April 5, 2005) where the quartet performed its interpretation of Toni Braxton's `Unbreak My Heart (`Regressa A Mi'). Highlights on Ancora include 'Isabel' a duet with Celine Dion and IL Divo's cover of Mariah Carey's 'Hero'. Two of the tracks on this CD `O Holy Night' and `Ave Maria' appear on the 2005 US only release, Christmas Collection. Sony. 2005.

Audio Mixers: Ren Swan; Fredrik Andersson .
Knowing how to strike while the iron is hot, the international all-male pop-opera revue Il Divo, assembled by AMERICAN IDOL's Simon Cowell, followed up its 2005 debut (and subsequent Christmas album) with yet another outing in early 2006. Here the dashing vocal quartet--Urs Buhler (Switzerland), Sebastien Izambard (France), Carlos Marin (Spain), and David Miller (U.S.)--stays true to its multi-lingual repertoire, offering up a suitably dramatic Spanish version of Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" ("Solo Otra Vez") and an English/French rendition of "I Believe in You" (with Celine Dion), among other numbers. While the arrangements on ANCORA are lush and majestic, they never overshadow the full, passionate voices of the foursome, who have clearly become used to working together as a powerful group.
Unbearably handsome opera-pop quartet Il Divo deliver another amorous collection of European housecleaning ballads with Ancora, an album so riddled with Cupid's arrows that it requires its own storage unit. Once again, David Miller, Sébastien Izambard, Urs Buhler, and Carlos Marin bring the love in Spanish, English, and Italian, emoting over classical and opera standards, as well as some notable contemporary compositions. They fawn over Celine Dion -- who can barely contain her own affections -- on "Isabel," and make Mariah Carey's "Hero" sound like the rolling of credits over a Jerry Bruckheimer action/tragedy blockbuster, all the while maintaining the perfect pitch and impeccable showmanship that are their stock-in-trade. Fans who flocked to Il Divo's self-titled debut and 2005 Christmas Collection need no reassurances that their boys are in top form, as a recent appearance on Oprah brought the quartet into the homes of millions of potential converts, but in this age of manufactured goods over artisan rusticity, it's hard not to look at Ancora as the classical crossover equivalent of a bistro-style TV dinner. ~ James Christopher Monger