Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

MUSIC

Adieu, Tenorissimos: In what they claim will be their final concert appearance together, the Three Tenors--Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras--will perform at the Houston Astrodome on March 16, with James Levine conducting. Billed as “one last opportunity to indulge in the grace and charm of three of the most talented tenors of all time,” tickets for “The Grand Finale!” go on sale Friday morning through Ticketmaster outlets in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. A spokeswoman could not say why the tenors have opted to put an end to the lucrative concerts, other than “because the producers are ready to stop.”

TELEVISION

Taking On Late-Night: Former “Saturday Night Live” and “In Living Color” regular Chris Rock is getting his own late-night talk show on HBO. “The Chris Rock Show”--the cable network’s first talk show--is slated to launch in February with an initial five-episode order. The show will be taped live in New York and feature guests from entertainment, publishing and other fields. Meanwhile, Rock, who just signed a deal with DreamWorks to release an upcoming comedy album and plans to publish a book next year, is also scheduled to host the upcoming Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, to be seen Dec. 4 on Fox TV.

Darden Series Negotiations: Former O.J. Simpson prosector Christopher Darden may soon have his own TV show. Darden, who has appeared on “Touched by an Angel” and other shows since leaving the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, is negotiating with a network to host a series about fact-based court cases. A spokesman at the William Morris Agency, which represents Darden, said he could not be more specific about the network in question. Several of Darden’s Simpson criminal case opponents, including Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Robert Shapiro, have recently signed their own television deals. Darden is currently making occasional appearances with former Simpson defender Alan Dershowitz on Geraldo Rivera’s nightly CNBC show.

ART

Fall Sales Start Strong: Sotheby’s opened the fall auction season Tuesday night by drawing record auction bids for an Edgar Degas sculpture ($11.9 million for “Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans”), a Degas drawing ($8.7 million for “Danseuse Jaune”) and an Edouard Manet drawing ($6.05 million for “Portrait de Mademoiselle Suzette Lemaire,” bought by casino owner Steven Wynn for display in his Bellagio hotel). All three pieces were from the collection of Vermont’s Shelburne Museum, which sold a total of five works to reap more than $28 million to establish an endowment to care for its remaining collections and make new acquisitions. Sotheby’s also took in an additional $61 million in its sale of non-Shelburne Collection Impressionist Art, topped by Paul Cezanne’s “La Cote Du Galet, A Pontoise,” which garnered an impressive $11 million. Nevertheless, 29 works--or 38% of the sale’s offerings--failed to find buyers, prompting a Sotheby’s spokesman to dub the market “still selective.”

MOVIES

Stallone’s Baby Out of Surgery: Sylvester Stallone’s 2 1/2-month-old daughter, Sophia Rose, remained hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center on Wednesday, after undergoing successful surgery Tuesday to close a hole in her heart. She was scheduled to stay in the hospital for several days for observation. “I have been blessed with two miracles within the past nine weeks,” Stallone said in a statement. “That of my daughter being born and that of my daughter being reborn.”

POP/ROCK

TAFKATAFKAP . . . Oh, Forget It: “The Artist”--formerly known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince--previewed three new songs from his upcoming “Emancipation” album on Tuesday at his Paisley Park Studios near Minneapolis in a half-hour set that was aired live on MTV, VH1 and BET. After the cameras were turned off, he treated the attendees to another hour of tunes from the album and such old material as “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and “The Cross.” During a 20-minute press conference after the telecast, the normally media-shy musician was asked why he was meeting with the press and opening up his secluded complex. “I have product to sell,” he deadpanned. “Emancipation,” a three-disc set that will be released Tuesday through EMI Records, is his first album since ending his nearly two-decade relationship with Warner Bros. Records.

QUICK TAKES

Brad Pitt has signed to star in “Meet Joe Black,” a Universal Pictures film about an “otherworldly presence” who assumes human form and falls in love. Martin Brest (“Scent of a Woman”) will direct and produce the picture, which is slated to begin production in May. . . . CBS has pulled the new Scott Bakula drama “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” from its Friday night lineup. The “Dallas” reunion movie airs in its 9 p.m. time period this week, and CBS will play various specials in the slot until “JAG”--the military drama that ran last season on NBC--moves in on Jan. 3. . . . ABC’s “Roseanne” scored its lowest rating ever with an original episode Tuesday, attracting just 14% of the audience. The show finished well behind the heavily promoted 100th episode of NBC’s “Mad About You,” at 23%, and even barely trailed CBS’ “Promised Land.” In other bad news for ABC Tuesday, NBC’s “Caroline in the City” beat the new Michael J. Fox comedy “Spin City” for the first time.