Chicago hasn't exactly been first on the Three Tenors' list.

It's been 10 years since Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, swept up in 1990 World Cup fever, decided to give a little musicale as part of the soccer championship festivities in Rome. Some 8,000 people saw that concert in the Baths of Caracalla, but millions more bought the recording.

The trio reprised its act two years later in Monte Carlo and at the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles. In 1996, with a world tour that included eight cities from Tokyo to Vancouver, the Three Tenors juggernaut was officially launched.

After selling 23 million recordings, earning tens of millions of dollars and singing more than two dozen live renditions of "Granada" and "La donna e mobile" in settings ranging from the Eiffel Tower to Dodgers Stadium, the Three Tenors land in Chicago. At 7 p.m. Sunday in the United Center, Chicago will have a chance to judge for itself one of the world's most highly hyped entertainment events.

(Note to the wary: Yes, Pavarotti has canceled innumerable solo and opera performances in Chicago. When the Three Tenors sing, however, Luciano shows up.)

In the best pop music tradition, the three will be plugging their newest album, "Three Tenors Christmas," recorded in Vienna last year. The concert's second half will be seasonal music ranging from "O Holy Night" to "White Christmas."

Following are catch-up glimpses of the three singers.

Luciano Pavarotti

Pavarotti, 65, has been rejuvenated by knee and hip surgery done in 1998.

"The surgery was divinely successful," said Pavarotti, in a recent phone conversation from New York. "I should have done it 10 years ago."

When Pavarotti last performed in Chicago, in a February 1998 recital with a pickup orchestra including Chicago Symphony Orchestra members at the United Center, his hip surgury was still six months away. That instantly recognizable, ringing Pavarotti voice was still capable of great things, especially considering his age. But his performance was often tense.

Getting around onstage had been difficult for the tenor for years, and his voice sometimes betrayed the strain. Sciatica problems were the ostensible reason why he backed out of Lyric performances in 1989, a move that caused an exasperated Ardis Krainik, then Lyric's general director, to vow never to work with him again. Medication complicated the situation, occasionally leaving him dizzy and fatigued.

The surgery has improved both his mobility and his voice. Moving isn't as painful, and critics have noticed a new ease and freedom in his performances. He dropped more than 50 pounds and has less trouble making his characters believable in full-length operas.

"The voice has more support from the body," Pavarotti said. "We do physical therapy every day."

With the surgery successfully behind him, Pavarotti quickly marked an important career milestone. In November 1998, he celebrated the 30th anniversary of his Metropolitan Opera debut with an extravaganza that featured him in one act from three of his signature operas, Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love," Puccini's "La boheme" and Verdi's "Aida."

In May, he did something similar for the Met's Millennium Celebration. For its own version of the Three Tenors, the Met asked Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras to star in a single act from Bizet's "Carmen," Puccini's "Turandot" or Giordano's "Andrea Chenier." Pavarotti sang opposite Jane Eaglen's Turandot.

The messy personal problems that prompted scandal-sheet headlines since the mid-1990s have also settled down. He has worked out his tax problems in Germany and Italy, and he and his wife, Adua, finally divorced last year. Married for 35 years, they split up in 1996 when photos of Pavarotti and his young mistress Nicoletta Mantovani were splashed around the world. He and Mantovani are living together now.

At 65, Pavarotti is reducing his schedule. The coming months include a concert performance of "Aida" in Detroit on Dec. 21 and five performances of the full-length opera at the Metropolitan in January. He has solo stadium concerts in March in Denver; April in Rochester, N.Y., and June in San Diego. Some more "Pavarotti and Friends" events, benefits for a London children's charity that paired the tenor with pop stars such as Tracy Chapman and the Eurythmics, may be in the works.

The opera world is in a frenzy to find the so-called Fourth Tenor, the kind of young singer who can galvanize fans the way Pavarotti has done for 30 years. Pavarotti is intensely involved with new talent. His Pavarotti Vocal Competition, established in 1980, isn't simply one more device to get his name in front of the public. He sits in on its sessions and coaches promising competitors. One of the winners, Roberto Alagna, was hailed as a potential Fourth Tenor when he first appeared.

Pavarotti will have none of it, however.

"Young tenors must be themselves. If they do have quality, they come out as themselves. They don't need to be the Fourth or the Fifth Tenor. Alagna is a great tenor. He doesn't need to be second or third to anybody."

Placido Domingo

If a newly energized Pavarotti is pacing himself, the ever-energetic Domingo appears to be speeding up. At age 59, Domingo is one of the busiest, most in-demand opera singers in the world. Like his close friend, Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Daniel Barenboim, Domingo has an ravenous appetite for all things musical.

As a singer, he has covered an astounding range of repertoire, more than 100 roles stretching from Mozart to Benjamin Britten. For his 30th anniversary celebration at the Met in January 1999, he starred in one act each from Gounod's "Faust" and Verdi's "Stiffelio," plus two acts of "Carmen." That following September he sang his 18th Metropolitan Opera season opener, breaking a house record set by Enrico Caruso who was the Metropolitan's star of choice for 17 opening nights through 1920.

At a time when many singers are thinking about retirement, Domingo is still adding some of opera's most challenging roles to his repertoire. He is singing more and more Wagner and last season made his debut in Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades." He released his first Mahler recording in January, and with Barenboim at the piano, he gave his first-ever solo vocal recitals that same month in Chicago and New York.

Domingo doesn't just sing opera. He is artistic director of two American opera companies: the Los Angeles Opera, which he helped found in 1986, and the Washington Opera. He will succeed Peter Hemmings in Los Angeles in July and, as an opera luminary capable of attracting Hollywood luminaries, he has big plans. In coming years, Los Angeles Opera audiences will be seeing a Wagner "Ring" with special effects by George Lucas and operas directed by William Friedkin, Maximillian Schell and John Schlesinger.

Domingo is also a conductor, appearing regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducting operas at the Royal Opera House in London, the Vienna State Opera and in Los Angeles.

He is an avid sports fan who asks stagehands for scores when he comes offstage during crucial games. He was thrilled to have predicted the Derek Jeter home run that helped the Yankees win the final game of the 2000 World Series. According to Sports Illustrated, Domingo trotted alongside Jeter after the game, happy as a kid after shagging a fly ball. "I said, `Derek's going to hit a home run!' I did! I called it!"

And, lest we forget, on Dec. 3 Domingo was named one of this year's Kennedy Center honorees, sharing the stage with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Clint Eastwood, Chuck Berry and Angela Lansbury. The event will be telecast Dec. 27 on CBS.

"What can I tell you?" Domingo said last spring before conducting dates with the CSO. "There are some things that certain artists have the capacity to do, and we do them."

Jose Carreras

Carreras battled his way back from a near-fatal bout with leukemia in the late 1980s; the first Three Tenors concert was as much a celebration of that fact as a World Cup extravaganza. But his voice, already showing wear, didn't really recover. He has given solo recitals and returned to the American opera stage in March 1999 at the Washington Opera (where Domingo is artistic director). But outside of the carefully controlled Three Tenors outings, he keeps a low profile.

***

The Three Tenors

* 7 p.m. Sunday

* United Center,

1901 W. Madison

* Tickets, $50-$385;

$600 Gold Circle

* (312) 559-1212

Copyright © 2000 Digital Chicago Inc.