THE BASICS

The Three Tenors perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Stadium, Michigan and Trumbull. Tickets are $50-$750. Call 248-645-6666 anytime.

IN THE BEGINNING

The Three Tenors got together for the first time during the 1990 World Cup soccer championship in Rome. The tenors had previously turned down offers to sing together but agreed this time as a way of celebrating the World Cup -- they're all huge soccer fans -- and Jose Carreras' miraculous recovery from leukemia.

All three donated their cut of the ticket revenues to charity, but according to a report in the New York Times, they also decided to take a flat fee for the recording and broadcast rights. When the CD and video sold millions, the tenors stewed over lost royalties.

Subsequent concerts have been a different story, with the Times reporting that during their 1996 tour, the tenors each made about $1 million per concert in fees and licensing income. They also get royalties from the sale of CDs and videos.

SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES

The initial Three Tenors album recorded in Rome in 1990 is the all-time best-selling classical recording with worldwide sales of more than 12 million CDs, cassettes and videos combined. Audio and video sales of the first two Three Tenors albums combined have topped 23 million. These are the official Three Tenors recordings/videos:

TENORS CONCERT CHRONOLOGY

The Detroit concert marks the only North American performance of the Three Tenors in 1999 and their first appearance in the Midwest. These are the previous 19 concerts.

• Rome, July 7, 1990
  
• Monte Carlo, June 9, 1994
  
• Los Angeles, July 16, 1994
  
• Tokyo, June 29, 1996
  
• London, July 6, 1996
  
• Vienna, July 16, 1996
  
• New York (Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ), July 20, 1996
  
• Gothenburg, Sweden, July 26, 1996
  
• Munich, August 23, 1996
  
• Dusseldorf, August 24, 1996
  
• Vancouver, Dec. 31, 1996
  
• Toronto, Jan. 4, 1997
  
• Melbourne, Australia, March 1, 1997
  
• Miami, March 8, 1997
  
• Modena, Italy, June 17, 1997
  
• Barcelona, July 13, 1997
  
• Paris, July 10, 1998
  
• Tokyo, Jan. 9, 1999
  
• Pretoria, South Africa, April 18, 1999
  

OPERA AT THE BALLPARK?

No question that the Three Tenors at Tiger Stadium is an odd match. Here's why:

1. An opera house smells of pressed suits and perfume. Tiger Stadium smells of stale beer and hot dogs.
2. Men's rooms at an opera house feature private urinals. Some men's rooms at Tiger Stadium feature community troughs.
3. The stars at Tiger Stadium are typically lean and athletic -- though former Tiger Mickey Lolich's waistline wins the Pavarotti lookalike contest.
4. "Take Me Out To the Ballgame" isn't part of the standard operatic literature.
5. Pavarotti-to-Domingo-to-Carreras isn't nearly as effective a double-play combination as Trammell-to-Whitaker-to-Fielder.

ON THE PODIUM

Conductor James Levine is a latecomer to the Three Tenors extravaganza, having joined the trio for their 1996 world tour, replacing conductor Zubin Mehta. Levine, 56, is one of the world foremost opera conductors, most closely associated with the Metropolitan Opera since the early '70s. He became principal conductor in 1973, music director in 1976 and artistic director in 1986. He was also recently appointed principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.

IT'S WHO YOU KNOW

How, you may ask, did Detroit become the home of the Three Tenors' only North American concert in 1999? Simple: Frank Stella, business tycoon, philanthropist, Michigan Opera Theatre board member and, most importantly, best buddy of Luciano Pavarotti.

Stella, 80, chairman and CEO of F.D. Stella Products Co., has been tight with the Big P. since they met overseas in the late '70s. Stella, who is also a compadre of Three Tenors promoter Tibor Rudas, has been massaging a concert in Detroit for years, with an eye toward the city's tricentennial in 2001.

But with MOT saddled with millions of dollars of debt on the Detroit Opera House and eager to get started building its Educational Resource Center, Stella pushed up his timetable.

"I said, 'MOT needs money -- let's get 'em here as soon as possible,' " Stella says.

The concert, with Ford Motor Co. as the title sponsor, will launch MOT's New Century Fund, a $25-million capital campaign -- $15 million to retire the debt on the opera house, $6 million to build educational facilities and the rest to fund an endowment. MOT officials say the concert will help generate leadership gifts totalling as much as $15 million.

THE FOURTH TENOR?

Here are eight gifted contemporary tenors of varying vocal type who haven't achieved the popularity of the Three Tenors but could grow into the role: