The Three Tenors


The Three Tenors were a popular operatic singing group during the 1990s and early 2000s, consisting of Spaniards Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, and Italian Luciano Pavarotti. The trio began their collaboration with a performance at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy on 7 July 1990, the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final, watched by a global television audience of around 800 million. The image of three tenors in formal evening dress singing in a World Cup concert captivated the global audience. The recording of this debut concert became the best-selling classical album of all time and led to additional performances and live albums. They performed to a global television audience at three further World Cup Finals, 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama. They also toured other cities around the world, usually performing in stadiums or similar large arenas to huge audiences. They last performed together at an arena in Columbus, Ohio, on 28 September 2003.
The Three Tenors repertoire ranged from opera to Broadway to Neapolitan songs and pop hits. The group's signature songs included "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's opera Turandot, usually sung by Pavarotti, and the ballad "O Sole Mio", which all three tenors typically sang together.

History

Italian producer Mario Dradi, along with German producer Elmar Kruse and British composer and producer Herbert Chappell, conceived the idea of the first concert in 1990 in Rome. It was held to raise money for Carreras's foundation, the José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation. It was also a way for his friends Domingo and Pavarotti to welcome Carreras back into the world of opera after undergoing successful treatment for leukemia. The Three Tenors first performed in a concert for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Zubin Mehta conducted the orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the orchestra of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. The performance captivated the global audience. A filmed version of the concert was produced by Herbert Chappell and Gian Carlo Bertelli for Decca and became the highest selling classical disc in history.
The three subsequently sang together in concerts produced by Hungarian Tibor Rudas and other producers, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to coincide the final match of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, at the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower during the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and in Yokohama for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Nearly 50,000 people attended their 1994 concert at Dodger Stadium and Around 1.3 billion viewers worldwide watched it.
Following the big success of the 1990 and 1994 concerts, The Three Tenors opened a world tour of concerts during 1996–1997. In 1996 they performed at Kasumigaoka Stadium in Tokyo, at Wembley Stadium in London, at Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna, at Giants Stadium outside of New York City, at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, at Olympic Stadium in Munich, at Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf and at BC Place in Vancouver on New Year's Eve. In 1997 concerts followed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, at Skydome in Toronto, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami and at Camp Nou in Barcelona. The tour was scheduled to end in Houston with a final concert which was eventually canceled due to very low ticket sales. Outside of their 1996–1997 world tour, The Three Tenors also performed two benefit concerts – one in Pavarotti's hometown Modena in the summer of 1997 and one in Domingo's home town Madrid in the following winters – in order to raise money for the rebuilding of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and for the Queen Sofia Foundation.
A second series of concerts outside of the FIFA World cup events held again in 1999 including cities like Tokyo, Pretoria and Detroit followed by a Christmas concert in Vienna in December the same year. In 2000 the Three Tenors toured again performing live in San Jose, California, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Cleveland and São Paulo. However, the production had to cancel two planned concerts for this tour; one in Hamburg on 16 June due to difficulties in finding a suitable orchestra and conductor, and another one in Albany, New York on 22 July due to poor ticket sales. The later one was replaced by the Brazilian concert in São Paulo. One more benefit concert was given by The Three Tenors in December 2000 in Chicago to donate the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. In 2001 two more concerts was given in Asia one in Seoul and one in Beijing inside the walls of the Forbidden City. Finally in 2003 they performed in Bath at the Royal Crescent and later in September the same year they gave their last Three Tenors' concert, which took place at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio. A Three Tenors reunion concert was scheduled to take place on 4 June 2005 at the Parque Fundidora in Monterrey, Mexico, but because of Pavarotti's health problems, he was replaced by Mexican pop singer Alejandro Fernández.

Recordings

The concerts were a huge commercial success, and were accompanied by a series of best-selling recordings, including the original Carreras-Domingo-Pavarotti in Concert, subsequently reissued as The Three Tenors In Concert, 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.
Carreras and Domingo have appeared together on a number of other albums including Gala Lirica, Christmas In Vienna, and Christmas in Moscow.

Controversies

Royalties

For their initial appearance together in Rome in 1990, Carreras, Domingo, and Pavarotti agreed to accept relatively small flat fees for the recording rights to their concert, which they then donated to charity. Their album unexpectedly reaped millions in profits for Decca Records, causing some resentment on the part of the tenors who officially received no royalty payments. As reported in the press, Domingo suspected that the record company paid Pavarotti on the side, in order to keep one of their top contracted artists content. Pavarotti denied this, insisting: "We got nothing." Years later his former agent and manager Herbert Breslin wrote that Pavarotti had indeed secretly received $1.5 million that the other two tenors, who were not under contract to Decca, did not receive. For subsequent concerts and recordings, the singers were much more careful in assuring financially advantageous contractual terms for themselves.

Criticism

The Three Tenors phenomenon was applauded by many for introducing opera to a wider audience, but some opera purists rebuked them. Domingo responded to critics in a 1998 interview: "The purists, they say this is not opera. Of course it's not opera, it doesn't pretend to be an opera. It's a concert in which we sing some opera, we sing some songs, we do some zarzuela, then we do a medley of songs... We respect very much when people criticise it. That's fine. They shouldn't come... But they should leave the people who are coming and are happy."
Other critics such as Martin Bernheimer complained that the tenors performed for excessive financial remuneration, rather than art. On their first worldwide tour, each tenor received around one million dollars per concert – unheard of for classical musicians. In a joint interview with his colleagues, Pavarotti responded to complaints about their incomes: "We make the money we deserve. We're not forcing someone to pay us." Domingo added about the world of opera: "I am giving 17 performances in 25 days. Ask me how much I get for that... For 30 years we have given in blood the best of our lives and our careers. You think we don't deserve money?" Carreras, for his part, stressed how little they made compared to many athletes, pop singers, and movie stars.

Legal issues

The success of the Three Tenors 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 and of the Los Angeles concert in order to protect sales of the jointly released album of the 1998 Paris concert.
The Three Tenors also encountered trouble with the German government. In 1999, two of the three singers paid an undisclosed fine to the German government as part of an out-of-court settlement for tax evasion. In addition, the German government accused the tenors of owing large back-taxes. Their concert organizer and promoter, Matthias Hoffmann, who was in charge of their taxes at the time, was sentenced to jail time for his role in the alleged tax evasion.

In popular culture

Nr.City, CountryVenueEventConductorDate
1Rome, ItalyBaths of Caracalla1990 FIFA World CupZubin Mehta7 July 1990
2Monte Carlo, MonacoOpéra de Monte-CarloBenefit concertZubin Mehta9 June 1994
3Los Angeles, United StatesDodger Stadium1994 FIFA World CupZubin Mehta16 July 1994
4Tokyo, JapanNational StadiumWorld TourJames Levine29 June 1996
5London, United KingdomWembley StadiumWorld TourJames Levine6 July 1996
6Vienna, AustriaErnst Happel StadionWorld TourJames Levine13 July 1996
7East Rutherford, United StatesGiants StadiumWorld TourJames Levine20 July 1996
8Gothenburg, SwedenUllevi StadiumWorld TourJames Levine26 July 1996
9Munich, GermanyOlympiastadionWorld TourJames Levine3 August 1996
10Düsseldorf, GermanyRheinstadionWorld TourJames Levine24 August 1996
11Vancouver, CanadaBC PlaceWorld TourJames Levine31 December 1996
12Toronto, CanadaSkyDomeWorld TourJames Levine4 January 1997
13Melbourne, AustraliaMelbourne Cricket GroundWorld TourMarco Armiliato1 March 1997
14Miami, United StatesPro Player StadiumWorld TourJames Levine8 March 1997
15Modena, ItalyStadio Alberto BragliaBenefit concertJames Levine17 June 1997
16Barcelona, SpainCamp NouWorld TourJames Levine13 July 1997
17Madrid, SpainTeatro RealBenefit concertMarco Armiliato8 January 1998
18Paris, FranceChamp de Mars1998 FIFA World CupJames Levine10 July 1998
19Tokyo, JapanTokyo DomeWorld TourJames Levine9 January 1999
20Pretoria, South AfricaUnion BuildingsWorld TourMarco Armiliato18 April 1999
21Detroit, United StatesTiger StadiumWorld TourJames Levine17 July 1999
22Vienna, AustriaKonzerthausChristmas concertSteven Mercurio23 December 1999
23San Jose, United StatesSan Jose ArenaWorld TourMarco Armiliato29 December 1999
24Las Vegas, United StatesMandalay Bay Events CenterWorld TourMarco Armiliato22 April 2000
25Washington, D.C., United StatesMCI CenterWorld TourJames Levine7 May 2000
26Cleveland, United StatesBrowns StadiumWorld TourMarco Armiliato25 June 2000
27São Paulo, BrazilEstádio do MorumbiWorld TourMarco Armiliato22 July 2000
28Chicago, United StatesUnited CenterBenefit concertJános Ács17 December 2000
29Seoul, KoreaJamsil Olympic StadiumWorld TourJános Ács22 June 2001
30Beijing, ChinaForbidden CityWorld TourJános Ács23 June 2001
31Yokohama, JapanYokohama Arena2002 FIFA World CupJános Ács27 June 2002
32Saint Paul, United StatesXcel Energy CenterWorld TourJános Ács16 December 2002
33Bath, United KingdomRoyal CrescentWorld TourJános Ács7 August 2003
34Columbus, United StatesSchottenstein CenterWorld TourJános Ács28 September 2003

Discography

Live concert albums

TitleAlbum detailsConductor,
Ensemble,
Performance information		Certifications
Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert
  • Released: 1990
  • Label: Decca
  • Grammy Award and nominations
  • Brit Award
Zubin MehtaMaggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra
Orchestra del Teatro Municipal di Roma
US: 3× Platinum
UK: 5× Platinum
CAN: 3× Platinum
GER: Platinum
AUT: 2× Platinum
MEX: Gold
BRA: 2× Platinum
The Three Tenors in Concert 1994
  • Released: 1994
  • Label: Atlantic / WEA / MV
  • 2 Grammy nominations
  • Gramophone Award
Zubin MehtaLos Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
US: Platinum
UK: 2× Platinum
CAN: 2× Platinum
GER: 3× Gold
CHE: Platinum
FRA: Platinum
AUT: 2× Platinum

  • Released: 1998
  • Label: Atlantic / Wea
James Levine US: Gold
UK: Silver
FRA: Gold
AUT: Gold
CHE: Gold
The 3 Tenors Christmas
  • Released: 2000
  • Label: Sony
Steven MercurioVienna Symphony Orchestra
US: Gold
UK: Silver
GER: Gold

Filmography

TitleAlbum detailsConductor,
Ensemble,
Performance information		Certifications
Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert
  • Released: 1990
  • Format: VHS / DVD
Zubin MehtaMaggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra
Orchestra del Teatro Municipal di Roma
US: 5× Platinum
CAN: 4× Platinum
GER: Platinum
The Three Tenors in Concert 1994
  • Released: 1994
  • Label: Warner Music
  • Format: VHS / DVD
Zubin MehtaLos Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
US: 5× Platinum
UK: 2× Platinum
The Vision: The Making of the 'Three Tenors in Concert
  • Released: 1995
  • Label: Warner Music / Kultur
  • Format: VHS / DVD
'
  • Released: 1998
  • Label: Universal Music / Decca
  • Format: VHS / DVD
    		• James Levine US: Gold
    UK: Gold
    FRA: Platinum
    The 3 Tenors Christmas''
    • Released: 2000
    • Format: VHS / DVD
    		Steven MercurioVienna Symphony Orchestra