Customer Reviews

The Promise

5 star:		(150)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Prior to receiving this CD, I was only minimally aware of Il Divo, the princes of popera. I had seen them on television several times, and knew that they had amazing voices and harmonies. When I first listened to this, I was blown away. These songs truly showcase Il Divo's incredible harmonies. The instrumentals are expertly arranged. The melodies are deceptively simple, yet compelling. Each song is full of pleasant surprises in harmonies, melodies and dynamics. If you listen, and emerge yourself in the music, you will not only be interested, you will also be lost in the music. With the exception of Amazing Grace, the songs are in Spanish. Regardless if you understand the words, the music emotes the sentiment of the song in a way that makes it easy to understand the message of the music. Songs such as "La Luna", Angelina and Amazing Grace really showcase the power, range and precision of Il Divo's voices.

I'm a fan of the group, but tired of same old/ same old. Regret this purchase. As Simon sometimes says on "American Idol" - best not to repeat songs well identified by those who did it right the first time.
Now - with that being said, if they wish to repeat some music others have done - PLEASE go with a classic that their voices can make the most of - like THEY CALL THE WIND MARIA, from Paint Your Wagon. That's a song like Unchained Melody and one loved by millions. I would buy an entire album if that song were on it - and done well. But, please get into the music more than just singing the tune in a variety of languages. You've become redundant and boring. Sorry.

Disappointed! No challenge. The same tempi and the same mood with a huge tutti at the end with a cheap modulation. Sorry, don't take it negative!
I have been a sincere Il Divo fan since 2 years ago. What is cross-over music? I wonder how much they (4 wonderful singers) are involved in music choice and arranging. I want them to be original. They can find any motif or melody from Faure, Massnet, Richard Strauss, Rachmaninov, even from Bach---anywhere. Think what they did in the past: 'Isabel' from Faure, 'Aranjuez' from Rodrigo, 'All by Myself' arranged by Eric Carmen who had taken a motif from Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 (if I am right). These are cross-over music. But I liked 'Regresa A Mi', 'Nella Fantasia', ' Passera', 'Notte di Luce', 'Caruso' and 'Musica' etc.
This recent album makes me feel so dull--even 'Adagio' by Albinoni.
They don't have to be operatic because of their backgrounds. It depends on the song itself. Am I the only person to think this way? I do wish Il Divo's future prosperity.

After all the hype I have heard about their previous albums, I was very excited to sit down and listen to my first Il Divo CD. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

I can best describe the album as "not bad". There are definitely shining moments throughout the album, such as:
Adagio--one of the most gorgeous melodies written by Albinoni. I am very familiar with the original instrumental version, but was impressed with the vocals and the arrangement.
L'Alba del Mondo--like many of the other songs, it starts out beautiful, with a nice instrumental introduction. The melody is gorgeous, but like MANY of the other songs, the ending is a bit over the top.
The opening of Amazing Grace--I'm not sure who sang the opening verse but it was amazing! He sang with such clarity and purity and made such a simple opening very moving. And the bagpipes were unexpectedly a very nice instrumentation for the piece.

There were several reasons that I felt disappointed with the album. One was the song selection. There was a nice variety of classical and pop, but almost all the songs were the same slow tempo! I also don't really understand the reasoning for changing the original languages to the songs. There was really no reason to change everything into Spanish or Italian (except for Amazing Grace in English). But my biggest issue with almost every song on this album, even Amazing Grace which opened with such an amazing opening, was that the musical climaxes were OVER THE TOP! The arrangements were poor, and almost every song had a huge, over the top harmonic climax which was never prepared for properly Almost every song, it came out of NOWHERE and felt like they just threw it in to show how loud they could sing (though I'm sure the men of Il Divo did not throw it in, I blame the producers and arrangers for that tackiness).

My final recommendation...it's not a bad album, there are wonderful songs and moments, but not enough to warrant buying the whole album. Better to buy individual tracks from itunes and perhaps invest in one of their other albums.

Very dissapointed in this CD. With all the hype from apprearances on Oprah and Regis&Kelly expected much more. Amazing Grace on the CD is no where near the wonderful rendition they gave on those shows. What a shame to promote the CD with those renditions and not being able to produce them on this CD.

To some degree, I'll probably always be an Il Divo fan, but The Promise is likely the last album of theirs I'll buy.

As I read through the reviews I note that those most enthusiastic about the album seem to be relatively new to Il Divo. And, don't get me wrong, the voices are as glorious as ever in The Promise. Somehow, though, it just sounds like more of the same; like a form letter. To be fair, I should probably say it sounds like a limited quantity of form letters. It's not like there's no variation, just not much.

Unlike some others here, the lack of English language songs doesn't bother me much. I'm usually more interested in the music. On the other hand, a huge, well-funded percentage of the world's population speaks English. It's almost like Il Divo has slapped that market in the face. Why? I'm certainly not suggesting the whole album should be sung in English--not even half. But one song? Come on!

Frankly, I bought The Promise because I had always wondered what Il Divo could do with an ABBA song. I have to say that "The Winner Takes it All" is beautiful. It's not supposed to be beautiful. It's a woman (Okay, we can change it to a man) having her heart ripped out of her. And for goodness sake, where's Benny Andersson's grand piano, driving the song like a bullwhip, not letting the hearer up for an emotional breath until he's released, gasping, as the music finally dies away? I could forgive the rest; but, really, what did Il Divo hope to accomplish by leaving out the very foundation of the piece? Their version is a beautifully embroidered, silken, wet, limp dishrag.

All right. Enough. I'm disappointed.

This was my first time hearing Il Divo, and I dove into "The Promise" CD headfirst, and with great expectations. Perhaps I set the bar too high, because I was sorely disappointed. The music is beautiful, but alarmingly soporific and tedious. The singers have wonderfully clear and resonant voices and take great care and precision in delivering every note perfectly, to the effect that the passion is never allowed to seep through. One of the few bright spots in this album was L'Alba del Mondo, an Italian adaptation of Ennio Morricone's "I Knew I Loved You (Deborah's Theme)." The addition of some more familiar renditions, such as "Hallelujah" and "Amazing Grace" make it more bearable but are not enough to overcome the dreary, one-note atmosphere that plagues the album. I will check out Il Divo's previous works with optimism, but sadly, this is one promise that is never delivered.

I am a fan of Il Divo and was anticipating this new release but was disappointed in the music selections. I enjoyed the album, found it relaxing and agree that it makes very nice background music. I felt this was a waste of Il Divo's considerable talent..

Virtually every song on this album follows a variation of the same boring musical arrangement: a few softly-sung choruses, then a musical bridge leading to a blaring chorus with the same virtually-screaming singer, and a return to a final soft chorus.

If it weren't for the song "Amazing Grace", which is the only song in which this arrangement seems to work well, I would have trashed this CD.

I used to be their fan but no more. Their CD getting shorter and NOT original. They just sing with pretty good voices but no emotion. It can be a good background music I guess.