Tenors Step Out to Be Seen, Not Heard

Through a miracle of modern-day opera-star logistics, it proved possible to assemble Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti (in alphabetical order), along with conductor, Zubin Mehta, to meet the press and the paparazzi Friday in Manhattan’s most glamorous meeting place, the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center. The Three Tenors are back.

They startled the classical music world with untold riches in unprecedented worldwide sales of audio and video documents with their first meeting in Rome, in conjunction with the World Cup in soccer four years ago. Now they hope to repeat that success with an encore in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium on July 16.

“Encore: The Three Tenors,” which will be given the day before this year’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl, has already been advertised; and the less expensive seats, those ranging from $15 to $150, are sold out. But tickets for $300, $500 and $1,000 are still available, so now it was time to announce the details of the upcoming concert.

In fact, the details of the event are the glamour, which was in strong supply, as still and video photographers jockeyed for position. Actual facts, less so. No program yet, and the concluding medley--which, in Rome, included everything from “Maria” to “Memory” to “O Sole Mio”--will remain a secret until the performance. “I think most of the people will enjoy being surprised,” Domingo suggested Friday.

What is known is that there will be two medleys this time, and Lalo Schifrin will arrange them, as he did the one in Rome. There will be no intermission, but rather a 15- minute, mid-point tribute to Gene Kelly, with the dancer, himself, overseeing a re-creation of his famous routine to Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” The Los Angeles Philharmonic will be on hand, as will the Music Center Opera Chorus.

The concert will, of course, be recorded live for distribution on home audio and video formats; and it will be broadcast to every corner of the known world. “We were considering putting the video in a space capsule and shooting it to outer space,” joked Mehta, “but we were ruled out.”

There will also be a “Making of . . .” documentary. A new record label, Atlantic, will the release the album and video in the United States. This is a pop and jazz label, unlike, the classical London Records, which put out the first concert.

But from that point on things start to get vague. Tibor Rudas, the flamboyant presenter, boasts a state-of-the-art sound system, which will supposedly operate without amplification. The press release promises that every member of the 56,000-seat stadium will experience the event as if it were held in an intimate concert hall.

When asked exactly what that meant, Rudas replied that a bevy of engineers were already at work on the system, noting that Dodger Stadium is the best possible arena for the concert and “a heck of a lot better than a football stadium.” No one, however, suggested that Dodger Stadium could compete with the historic splendor of the Baths of Caracalla, where the Rome concert was held.

Why an encore, beyond the expectation of making buckets of money? All three tenors seemed to indicate that soccer had something to do with it. “During these four years, we have had unbelievable offers around the world,” Domingo said. “Anybody would be tempted by the amounts. But we kept the possibility for the right moment. We love soccer, love it deeply from our childhood.”

Charity, on the part of the tenors, does not, this time, seem to play the role it had in the first concert, where all three tenors made sizable humanitarian contributions (Carreras, who made a recovery from leukemia a few years ago, gave to his leukemia fund; Pavarotti, to a hospital in his hometown of Modena, Italy; and Domingo, to earthquake relief in Mexico City). “We are performing as professionals,” is how Carreras puts it now, saying how the money will be spent is a personal decision for each one.

The following are other tidbits learned about the lives of the three tenors from a press conference that drew little music press (too low-brow for the classical music side, too classical for pop) but rather celebrity journalists and foreign correspondents.

When the three tenors get together (which is clearly seldom) what do they talk about? Music, a little; politics; society; sport; the ladies. Would Pavarotti like to sing with Barbra Streisand? You bet.

What soccer teams are they rooting for? The obvious ones. Domingo is from Spain, but he is loyal, too, to Mexico, since he grew up in Mexico City. Carreras is from Barcelona, but could support Brazil if it were in the championship. Pavarotti is for Italy all the way.

That leaves the Bombay-born Mehta. “In my country they play cricket,” he said.

And then there are the two towering waterfalls with bountiful greenery that will be part of the elaborate neoclassical stage setup (along with 20 columns). Won’t the waterfalls make noise?

“A good question,” said Pavarotti, confident that the engineers know what they are doing. “You will see water fall without water,” Rudas explained, calling a halt to the proceeding--and generating another rush of photographers--before he would have to get any deeper into that .

* Tickets to the Three Tenors concert: (213) 224-1448.