When to cancel on the Met

There are some things in life for which you just can't plan. The all-male operatic-pop vocal group Il Divo was manufactured by Simon Cowell in 2004.

The four – American tenor David Miller, Swiss tenor Urs Buhler, Spanish baritone Carlos Marin and French pop singer Sébastien Izambard – have sold more than 26 million albums since their self-titled debut No 1 album . “As an opera singer you live a bohemian lifestyle,” says Miller, the youngest member at 40. “They told us that it was going to be very lucrative because they were basically going to turn us into the opera version of a pop star and we had to cancel all our engagements. I was going to make my Met Opera debut in New York. The risk was if it had flopped. You don't cancel on the Met easily.”

IL Divo 'The Greatest Hits' is out 26 November (www.ildivo.com)