The streets around the United Center were jammed, and traffic was crawling 45 minutes before the first downbeat Sunday night.

A woman in a chic black evening suit huddled inside a United Center doorway pulling off her clunky snow boots. The rhinestone-trimmed velvet stiletto heels she was putting on never would have survived the trip from the icy parking lot.

A tuxedo-clad gentleman on the main floor had a full cardboard tub of popcorn in one hand and a soft drink in the other.

Welcome to the Three Tenors, Chicago edition.

Ten years after their first concert at the 1990 World Cup games in Rome, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti finally brought their multimillion-dollar songfest to Chicago. Their 26th outing as the world's most highly paid tenors drew a sold-out house to the United Center on Sunday night.

Ushers ran out of programs and there were scattered complaints of bad sightlines and poor sound, but the majority of the extremely attentive audience seemed more than thrilled with the performance. It was vintage Three Tenors--hokey, over-the-top and overwrought. But it was also a rare example of truth in advertising. Fans who were enthralled with Three Tenor broadcasts from Los Angeles in 1994 and Paris in 1998 and those who bought Three Tenor CDs had little to complain about Sunday night.

True, Pavarotti seemed to be phoning it in. He was all but immobile during his first selections, though he did warm to the crowd by the end of the evening. (Who wouldn't have responded to the audience seated behind the stage that cheered like a student section at a home football game every time Pavarotti turned their way to take a bow?)

And Carreras' singing is an act of the will these days. He often seemed to be hurling himself at the music, most notably trying to match Domingo's ardor in "Maria" from Bernstein's "West Side Story" in the American medley that closed the concert. Keeping up with Domingo, the only one of the three whose voice is still a completely reliable, expressive instrument, was a lost cause.

The format was typical Three Tenors. The hardworking conductor, Janos Acs, led the orchestra, which included a few Chicago Symphony Orchestra members, in two surprisingly sprightly orchestral selections, Berlioz's "Roman Carnival" Overture and the "Bacchanale" from Saint-Saens's "Samson et Dalila."

Each of the tenors, programmed in strictly alphabetical order, offered solos, ending with Pavarotti's "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot" which sent the audience into frenzies of delight as they reached for their flash cameras. The concert ended with six encores, including selections from the trio's new Christmas album.

Pavarotti and Domingo have both done solo concerts at the United Center and closed off one end of the stadium to build lavishly appointed stages. But the United Center was sold out to the rafters Sunday night. Better to sacrifice a few potted palms than cut off views from high seats behind the stage.

A note to the United Center management: The next time you book an ostensibly classy music event with a $600 top ticket price, you might want to have a few cabs available after the concert, especially when the wind chill is below zero. The handful of CTA shuttle buses was a nice thought, but standing on a crowded bus waiting for a dispatcher to send it on its way is hardly a lovely way to end a gala evening.

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