Pope-approved Il Volo flies into the Rosemont Theatre Saturday on their world tour
If Pope Leo XIV says he’s a fan, you’re doing OK.
“He’s the best pope,” said Piero Barone, who joins fellow tenor Ignazio Boschetto and baritone Gianluca Ginoble in Il Volo, a vocal group in the bel canto tradition of Italian multipart singing.
Formed while in their teens, the trio, now in their early 30s, has realized great success applying their vocal chops to standards and the classical songbook in the style of their heroes — Andrea Bocelli, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
Il Volo (translated as “the flight”) last summer played for the pope, Chicago-born Robert Prevost, in Rome during the Italian cultural event Giubileo dei Giovani. He is not the only pope for whom Il Volo has performed.
“Singing for two popes (Francis and Leo), actually,” Boschetto said over Zoom from New York City, before Il Volo began a spring tour that culminates Saturday, May 2, at the Rosemont Theatre.
“These are two very important highlights to our career,” Boschetto said. “But let me tell you, also touring with Barbra Streisand and winning a very important festival in Italy (2015 Sanremo Music Festival) with our signature song, ‘Grande amore,’ it’s one of the most important highlights.”
Meeting Pope Leo after the performance in Rome, he told them he’d listened to Il Volo for 15 years. That would place him among their earliest fans.
In 2009, Barone came from Sicily, Boschetto from Bologna and Ginoble from Abruzzo to sing in the Italian television vocal competition “Ti Lascio una Canzone” (“Leaving You With a Song”).
“We participated as individual singers, and then the producer of this program decided to put our voices together because we were the only three kids that were singing the same genre, the Italian bel canto,” Barone said.
“He remembered The Three Tenors — Pavarotti, Domingo, (José) Carreras — so he tried to get back the young three tenors.”
They sang together on “’O Sole Mio” and the rest has been Il Volo history.
The first Italian artists to sign with an American label, Geffen Records, under parental guidance they then moved to Los Angeles, and in late 2010 released the first of Il Volo’s 13 albums.
Those include “Il Volo Sings Morricone” (2021), for which Barone said the group received handwritten permission from the late Italian composer’s wife to write lyrics for “The Ecstasy of Gold,” and their first album of original compositions, “Ad Astra” (2024).
Immediately snatched up by Quincy Jones for the 2010 humanitarian effort, “We Are the World for Haiti,” that international cast included Streisand, who had Il Volo as special guests for 12 concerts on her 2012 North American tour.
Il Volo has performed at Pompei and sold out Radio City Music Hall, won pop artist of the year at the 2014 Latin Billboard Awards, and earned the most call-in votes at 2015 Eurovision.
In 2016 the arc came full circle when Domingo served as conductor for the trio’s “Notte Magica — A Tribute to The Three Tenors” concert in Florence, recorded for an album.
While slightly younger Italian contemporaries such as Måneskin went the rock ’n’ roll route, that was never a consideration for Il Volo.
“I like to think it was music that chose us,” Boschetto said. “At a very young age we started listening to Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, and we kept singing and listening to that. Our focus was on this kind of music. Lucky to meet, the three of us, following the same artists, and the same kind of music.”
“It’s something that you can’t just hide to yourself,” Ginoble said.
“It’s like when you’re asked, What do you want from life?’ It’s not what do you want from life, it’s what life wants from you.”
Commenting on actor Timothée Chalamet’s remark earlier this year that “no one cares” about some fine arts, Ginoble shrugged it off.
He suggested Il Volo’s approach to Italian and American standards is “not as easy” to accept as pop music or rap, a slice of culture akin to visiting a museum, requiring focus.
“You have to sit, take away your phone, look at the three guys with the big orchestra singing and harmonizing beautiful melodies … no distractions,” Ginoble said.
“When you go to a museum, you have to enjoy every single detail about it, and, of course, not everyone is open to that, to that sensibility.”
Plenty are open to Il Volo.
The group claims 3.2 million likes on TikTok, 2.1 million subscribers on YouTube, and more than 2 million followers on Instagram.
Barone said Il Volo’s initial audience was older because “they know this kind of music,” but now their concerts attract up to four generations of fans. A goal is to spread the bel canto to a younger generation.
“It can (affect) every single person,” Barone said, “because it gives you emotion that you cannot express, you cannot describe. This is why we trust in the power of this melody, in the power of this music.”
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Il Volo World Tour
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2
Where: Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Road, Rosemont
Tickets: $57-$242 at ticketmaster.com
Parking: Available near the theater for $15-$25 (cash only)