Star tenors to highlight soccer final match
JAKARTA (JP): In the world of opera, the most exotic of all music, sopranos once ruled supreme. From Francesca Cuzzoni (Handel's time - 18th century) to... let's say today's Frederika von Stade or Montserrat Caballe, their movements and theatrics on, as well as (perhaps even more) off stage, have been followed avidly.
Male singers have had somewhat dull existences when compared to, say, the "absolutely last performance" Nellie Melba gave over and over again, not to mention the famous Maria Callas - Renata Tebaldi feud.
The final half of the 20th century has seen a change. Today is the day of the tenor, and none so famous as the three that have dominated opera for at least the past 20 years: Italian Luciano Pavarotti, Spanish Jose Carreras and Spanish-Mexican Placido Domingo... not that nationality is all that important -- they belong to the world.
Though their home-grounds are such august theaters like Milan's La Scala and New York's Metropolitan Opera, the three have also taken part in all that is available in today's state-of-the-art means of musical communication, and in all types of music, including appearances with the likes of Diana Ross and John Denver, as well as in The Muppet Show.
The three opera-musical-television-radio stars will feature in an extravaganza as part of Sunday's closing ceremony of soccer's supreme event, the quadrennial World Cup competition, held in the last country in the world where the sport hasn't a following worthy of mention: the U.S. or so it was thought -- news reports have confounded predictions of, to the American public, World Cup USA 1994 would be something akin to a non-event.
Nothing could have been more wrong. In ticket sales alone, the U.S. has surpassed some previous World Cup events held in European countries, so the grip the sport has taken on the Americans appears to be firmer now than in the past.
A grand event, precedes the final of the World Cup, deserves an equally spectacular finale, and bringing together the three singing stars -- soccer enthusiasts all -- more than fills the bill. And it isn't only audiences in the U.S. who will have the opportunity to enjoy the concert.
It is to be televised and broadcast around the world, on television and radio, to an anticipated audience of more than a billion people. In Indonesia, the concert will be broadcast live on Sunday on SCTV at 10 a.m.
Together
This is not the first time that Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras have performed together. They have appeared before in New York and Rome and received wildly enthusiastic response from audiences, as well as rave reviews from the press. As in previous shows, their World Cup closing concert will feature them singing separately as well as together and will be accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta.
The program covers a wide assortment of songs, including arias from well known operas to excerpts from the American musical stage. Next to Una Furtiva Lagrima (from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore) there will be the Rodgers & Hart evergreen, With A Song In My Heart.
Besides Vesti La Giubba (from Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci), Placido Domingo will also sing Some Enchanted Evening from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Pulitzer-prize winning musical, South Pacific. The program also includes a section of popular songs from around the world, orchestrated by Lalo Schifrin, known here as the composer of the music for the popular TV series, Mission Impossible.
The venue for the concert is the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, which has undergone a thorough transformation, including additions such as two towering waterfalls, 20 gigantic columns and exotic greenery everywhere.
And of course there will be the latest in sound systems and highest quality equipment for recording and broadcasting to bring the event right into our living rooms.
-- Gus Kairupan