who is the three tenors

The Three Tenors is a name given to collaborative concerts of the three operatic tenors Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. The trio began their collaboration with a debut concert at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome held on the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup final in Italy, on July 7, 1990, with Zubin Mehta conducting the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. The idea of the concert was originally conceived by the Italian manager/producer Mario Dradi. The first concert was held to raise money for Carreras's foundation and also as a way for his contemporaries, Domingo and Pavarotti, to welcome their friend and colleague back to the world of opera after his successful treatment for leukemia.

The three subsequently sang together, in concerts produced by Hungarian Tibor Rudas and others, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for the 1994 World Cup finals, at the Champs de Mars, below the Eiffel Tower in Paris during France '98 and in Yokohama during the 2002 tournament. They have also played in other cities around the world, usually performing in stadiums or other large outdoor venues.

The concerts were a great commercial success, and have been accompanied by a series of best-selling recordings including Carreras - Domingo - Pavarotti: the Three Tenors in Concert (which holds the Guinness World Record for the best selling classical album), The Three Tenors In Concert 1994, The Three Tenors: Paris 1998, The Three Tenors Christmas and The Best of the Three Tenors. Zubin Mehta conducted the performances in 1990 and 1994. The Paris concert was conducted by James Levine.

The Three Tenors' repertoire extends beyond opera to Broadway numbers and even pop hits. Their signature tunes include Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot and the Italian ballad standard O Sole Mio.

The Three Tenors phenomenon is applauded by some for introducing opera to a wider public, but some opera purists scorn it, regarding it (in their words) not so much as music for the millions as music for millions in view of the large payments (in excess of USD 1 million each) that the three singers and conductor Zubin Mehta received. Some critics contest that performing opera arias in sports stadiums such as Wembley, with heavy amplification, contributes little to the understanding and appreciation of opera as a Gesamtkunstwerk (whole art work) as Wagner conceived it. "I understand the complaints of purists," Domingo told an interviewer in 1998. "But I don't want the purists to go to the Three Tenors".

The success of the Three Tenors also led to antitrust action by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against Warner Bros. and Vivendi Universal. It found that they had conspired not to advertise or discount the albums of the Rome concert (released by PolyGram, later taken over by Vivendi) and of the Los Angeles concert (released by Warner Bros.) in order to protect sales of the jointly released album of the Paris concert.

A Three Tenors concert was scheduled as the inaugural event for the Universal Forum of Cultures, to take place in Monterrey, Mexico. Pavarotti was unable to attend because of an illness, and so the concert took place without him on June 4, 2005.

The success of the Three Tenors formula has led to various imitations, such as the Irish Tenors, Tenor Australis, the Three Canadian Tenors, the Ten Tenors, Three Tenors and a Soprano, the Three Sopranos, Three Mo' Tenors, and the 3 Chinese Tenors. In 2000, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton and Danny Aiello starred in the motion picture comedy OFF-KEY, loosely inspired by the Three Tenors.