IT was 25 years ago today that a global phenomenon was launched with a concert on the eve of the 1990 World Cup Final in Rome.

On a warm night at the Baths of Caracalla in the Italian capital, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras sang for the first time as The Three Tenors.

Pavarotti from Modena in northern Italy was the most famous tenor of his age, and his rendition of Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s opera Turandot had become the BBC’s theme tune for that World Cup. Domingo from Madrid was reckoned to be a finer actor than Pavarotti and he was particularly well known in the USA where he is even now in the fifth decade of a relationship with the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

Carreras from Barcelona was the youngest of the trio, and all three were football fans, with Pavarotti being a gifted goalkeeper who had trials for his local professional club. That Carreras was a keen Barcelona fan while Domingo wrote songs for his club Real Madrid must have made for interesting times between the two whenever the El Clasico match was taking place between the two Spanish giants.

All three were at the peak of their musical powers and the first concert was truly memorable, introducing opera to a vast new audience – at peak viewing, 800 million watched on television worldwide – and spawning many imitators but as yet no equals.


HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

IN 1987, Carreras was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and was given a 10 per cent chance of survival. He came through the disease and gradually returned to the stage, as well as founding the Jose Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation which raises funds for research and care of patients – it has raised in excess of £50 million over the years.

The Three Tenors was the brainchild of Italian producer Mario Dradi and was staged to raise money for the Carreras Foundation. Pavarotti and Domingo were only too happy to join with the man they called their “little brother” in a salute to his return to health.


WHAT DID THEY SING?

CONDUCTOR Zubin Mehta had charge of two of Italy’s best orchestras, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, but it was the tenors who led from the front, mixing operatic arias with standards from Broadway musicals and arrangements of folk songs plus a quartet of popular hits – Mario Lanza’s Be My Love, Mary Hopkins’ Those Were The Days, Moon River, most associated with Andy Williams, and a version of My Way sung by all three which Frank Sinatra adored.

The crowd of 6,500 in front of the Baths of Caracalla knew their music and their performers – they often applauded as soon as the first notes of their favourite songs were sounded.

The highlights were numerous – Pavarotti’s soaring solo rendition of Nessun Dorma, Carreras’ passionate rendition of Granada, Domingo starting the final melody with Memory from Cats, then all three in a joyous and jokey performance of O Sole Mio before a final encore of Nessun Dorma that had the audience on their feet roaring for more.


SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

THE live album of the concert released shortly afterwards became the biggest-selling classical album of all time with 14 million sales and counting. Having triumphed in Rome, the Three Tenors did it all over again in Los Angeles in 1994 on the eve of that year’s World Cup final. A star-studded audience included Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, who were visibly affected when the trio sang Singin in the Rain and My Way for them. This time the television audience was over a billion.

Perhaps realising they were onto a good thing, the Three Tenors began a lucrative world tour of concerts, before heading to Paris in 1998 for a third World Cup finals concert, which they repeated in Yokohama in Japan in 2002.

All sorts of “Three Tenors” and similar acts began to appear, everywhere from Ireland to China and even a Yiddish-singing trio called the Three Cantors. And trust Simon Cowell to get in on the crossover act with his hugely successful international quartet Il Divo.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

LUCIANO Pavarotti was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas in 2006. Unlike his friend Carreras, there would be no surviving the disease and he died on Thursday, September 6, 2007.

Placido Domingo is still performing at 74, but like all tenors, age affects the performance of high notes, and a recent attempt to sing a baritone role at the New York Met was roundly criticised.

Though he has scaled down the number of his performances and prefers to give recitals rather than play operatic roles, Jose Carreras is also still performing at the age of 68, and is still tirelessly raising money for his foundation.