K-pop levels up with popera Forte di Quattro

The competition was named The Phantom Singer. It was the massive search for the four talented young men who will make up Korea’s first-ever classical crossover quartet. South Korea has already successfully infected the world with its own brand of pop music. And when I say the world, that includes the formidable pop charts of the US of A. Note that the winner of the Top Social Artist award at the recent Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas was the Korean boy group BTS, that also had the most number of excited fans on the red carpet. And so Korea has decided it is now time to take on popera.

This is a major step for Korean music. Pop has already long ago shed its racial and physical limitations. Pop is pop no matter where you are, R&B, Euro, Latin, Caribbean, J-pop in Japan, K-pop in Korea. Popera though is something else. Although the music is classified as pop and can be the usual ballad or rock or disco, the vocals must adhere to the accepted Western ruIes regarding classical singing. This is a rule that holds true everywhere.

Foremost examples of popera are the recordings by the legendary Three Tenors of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, the multi-racial quartet of Il Divo and the ballads of Josh Groban. These recordings could have been merely classical but proved to be so appealing to the public that they crossed over into the pop market and sold big worldwide.

And so with the same doggedness, careful planning and dedication to fine quality with which it made itself a leader in today’s global entertainment scene, South Korea now enters the realm of popera. The first salvo is the release of the self-titled album of the all-male group Forte di Quattro. This is made up of four discoveries from The Phantom Singer contest. The name Forte di Quattro means “force of four” and it looks like this is indeed a forceful foursome.

The members of Forte di Quattro are the following: Actor Ko Hoon Jeong, who majored in music at the Kyung Hee University. Tenor Kim Hyun Soo, who is now majoring in music at the Seoul National University, was a member of the national choir and the winner of One Dream One Korea of Ministry of Unification. Bass TJ Son is also majoring in music at Seoul National University following a year spent at the Donizetti Academy. Lee Byori, on the other hand, is a would-be preacher who majored in Theology at the Sahmyook University.  But he joined the Seoul National Orchestra Music Competition and won the grand prize. He then switched to singing. If you want more information about these Asian popera hearthrobs, go to www.fortediquattro.com.

The Forte di Quattro sings four Korean compositions in the album, Tuo Per Sempre, Today With You, The Last Don Quixote and Love Ballad. Tuo Per Sempre is a collaboration by Swedish composer Fredrik Kempe and Korean lyricist Kim Eana. Today With You is a composition by Korean singer-songwriter Yoon Jong Shin. Last Don Quixote is by Jo Kyu Chan and Love Ballad is a song by the famous K-pop band Brown Eyed Soul. Korean songwriting has taken on popera and also made a success of it.

The entire album is a well-produced package that can easily set itself among popera releases from other countries. The melodies and the arrangements are so cosmopolitan that these songs will be at home anywhere else in the world. So would the singing. These guys sound great and not a hint of a Korean accent when singing in English or Italian. Forte di Quattro has attained its goal. It is a young Il Divo but of the exciting, hip, Asian variety.

Included in Forte di Quattro the album are Odissea, Il Libro Dell’Amore, Today With You, Bred Dina Vida Vingar, Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso, Nicola Piovani La Vita e Bella or Life Is Beautiful, Fantasma D’Amore, Senza Parole, Destino, the Coldplay hit Viva La Vida, The Last Don Quixote, Love Ballad and singles Stella Lontana also by Kempe and Tuo Per Sempre.

I admit that I felt envious listening to Forte di Quattro. Very envious. In a country like ours where O Sole Mio gets loud applause in barrio amateur contests and young boys dream of singing like Josh Groban, something like Forte di Quattro is always within easy reach. I am sure it took a lot of time and expense for Korea to come up with Forte di Quattro, but they did it.