Star tenors to highlight soccer final match

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