Livewires sex up the classics

ANYONE who follows reality singing competitions on television will know how harsh Simon Cowell can be, so you can expect some quality assurance when it comes to a musical group that he manages. Hence, it's no surprise that Il Divo, the "popera" quartet of hunks with angelic voices that he put together 10 years ago, has gone on to become one of the world's top-selling classical crossover vocal acts.

Returning to Singapore to play to a capacity crowd of 4,500 at The Star Theatre on Monday evening as part of their 10th anniversary celebration and A Musical Affair world tour (named after their latest album), the multi-national operatic group comprising Swiss tenor Urs Buhler, Spanish baritone Carlos Marin, French pop star Sébastien Izambard and American tenor David Miller, also proved they're more than just four finely-tuned human jukeboxes.

Contractually, they may be obliged only to sing a string of popular West End show tunes but that's too stuffy for a faux classical event like this. So it was the cheeky - and sometimes cheesy - stage banter that proved to be even more entertaining than the evening's main event.