Opera superstars Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti make the most of a barnlike setting

Like it or not, the big three are back. Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti -- opera's answer to the Backstreet Boys -- landed at the San Jose Arena on Wednesday night for the latest edition of the Three Tenors in Concert.

It was, well, big.

It was also heartwarming and often very beautiful. And to hear the unique blend of these three voices in their over-the- top encore of ``Torna a Surriento'' as the crowd roared is to feel the immensely sensual power of music. It is a lucky universe that boasts these stars.

BIG BUSINESS

What began in 1990 as a lark for three friends to celebrate World Cup soccer has become a triumph of commerce: On Wednesday, the best seats went for $600 and $1,000, although arena officials said only 14,268 tickets out of 17,000 available seats were sold.

Those who did shell out big bucks for Wednesday night got cheesy projections, thick and sappy orchestrations and distorting over- amplification. Then again, they also got Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti.

Each of the three singers is blessed with a voice that sounds like no one else's, and each has done things with that voice that has placed his name securely in history. The vocal longevity of Pavarotti, 64, and Domingo, 58, are sources of wonder, the former's due to careful nurturing of a lyric voice within its limits over the years, the latter by exploiting the simple fact that his golden tenor seems to have no limits.

CARRERAS' RECOVERY

The youngest of the three, Carreras, 51, has faced the cruelest odds: He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1987. His recovery after a difficult series of bone-marrow replacements was an unexpected gift; his return in glorious voice was a miracle. The handsome Catalan is perhaps the most beloved of the three, the most touching interpreter of Verdi's Alfredo or Puccini's Rodolfo we are likely to experience. At his best, which was in evidence often in San Jose, he still has the sweetest voice to be heard anywhere.

Carreras tripped over a speaker on the way downstage in Act 2, but when he sang Federico's Lament from ``L'Arlesiana,'' he made time stand still: Here was the Joselito of old -- fervent, passionate, unforgettable. His portamento was subtle, his emotions raw, his phrasing of a piece with the music's sublime intentions.

Pavarotti's honeyed sound has changed little since he began partnering Joan Sutherland in the 1960s. Despite reduced breath control, what was a wonder then remains so today, just as the well-known drawbacks of his hefty figure and light acting talent matter little to fans of ravishing vocals. He scored the biggest audience ovations with two cannily chosen numbers, the ``Love Theme From the Three Tenors'' -- formerly known as Puccini's ``Nessun dorma'' -- and Lucio Dalla's searing ``Caruso,'' a bona fide pop hit that had Pavarotti on the Italian charts for weeks.

Domingo, who is also artistic director of the Washington Opera, has slowly and masterfully taken over every corner of the repertory and made it his own. No one could have predicted from hearing his ideal Donizetti and Verdi singing in the 1970s that he would become the most satisfying Wagner heldentenor of the '90s -- and a pretty hot Mozart tenor as well! He needed no warming up Wednesday, beginning with a perfect rendition of Massenet's ``O Souverain'' and effortlessly spanning the repertory with unsurpassed elegance, from Lehar's ``Dein ist mein ganzes Herz'' to a version of Mancini's ``Moon River'' that went ``Three tenors/ off to see the world/ there's such a lot of world/ to see.''

New names come up often enough, but the opera world is in a tenor crisis. With the waning of the careers of the likes of Montserrat Caballe and Renata Scotto, of Marilyn Horne, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Ruggero Raimondi, there are young singers from Cheryl Studer and Cecilia Bartoli to Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Wolfgang Holzmair ready to take up the mantle.

BIG SHOES TO FILL

But there are no new tenors promising anything near the excitement and vocal splendor of Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti.

Many opera lovers complain that a sports arena is no place to appreciate these rare talents, that the sound in such a barn is closer to that of a big car radio than to an actual human voice, that watching huge television screens is no substitute for experiencing a singer singing live close enough to be seen.

Then again, all three tenors continue to offer that very real sort of musical experience elsewhere. So why quibble when all three show up for a party? The century is almost over, and we still have these three.

That's reason enough to cheer and cheer again...

Copyright © 1999 San Francisco Chronicle