Where the name began
The 1990 Three Tenors concert in Rome
The first Three Tenors concert took place in Rome on 7 July 1990. Here is who sang, why it was held and how it connects to the concert at St Paul's today.
Reserve seats for the tenors ↗Quick answer
The first Three Tenors concert was held on 7 July 1990 at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, on the eve of the football World Cup final. Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras sang, with Zubin Mehta conducting. It was held to raise money for a leukaemia foundation. The concert at St Paul's Within the Walls is inspired by those shows.
The night in Rome
On 7 July 1990 Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras stood together on a stage at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. It was the eve of the 1990 World Cup final. Zubin Mehta conducted the orchestras of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. About 800 million people watched on television, according to the account on Wikipedia. Within a few years the three men were singing together at the finals of later World Cups.
Why it was held
Mario Dradi, Elmar Kruse and Herbert Chappell conceived the concert to raise money for José Carreras's leukaemia foundation. It also welcomed Carreras back to opera after he completed successful treatment for the disease. The occasion therefore combined three singers with different careers, one of them returning after serious illness, appearing together for a charitable purpose on the eve of the football final.
The place: the Baths of Caracalla
The baths were probably built between about AD 212 and 216 or 217 and were inaugurated in AD 216. Emperor Septimius Severus likely started the work, and his son Caracalla completed it, and they formed the second-largest public bath complex in Rome after the Baths of Diocletian. Today the baths are ruins and a major tourist attraction, in southern Rome. The central caldarium was the summer home of the Rome Opera from 1937 to 1993, and opera returned in 2001, using a temporary movable stage outside the main structure to reduce stress on the ruins.
The recording and the repertoire
The 1990 recording, Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert, became the best-selling classical album of all time, and its reissue, The Three Tenors in Concert, holds the Guinness World Record for best-selling classical album. Pavarotti usually sang Nessun dorma from Puccini's Turandot, and the trio typically sang 'O sole mio together. Pavarotti's performance for the 1990 World Cup took Nessun dorma far beyond opera audiences, and many people now know it far outside opera.
The later concerts
The trio went on to sing at several World Cup finals. They performed in Los Angeles in 1994, where about 1.3 billion viewers watched, at the Champ de Mars in Paris in July 1998 with James Levine conducting, and in Yokohama in June 2002. Their last concert together took place in Columbus, Ohio, on 28 September 2003. The format of three tenors, one orchestra and a mix of arias and popular songs became a template that other singers and organisers have borrowed ever since.
How it connects to the concert today
The Three Tenors concert at St Paul's Within the Walls is a different event. The organiser, Opera e Lirica, describes it as inspired by the Three Tenors shows and gives the stage to its own singers. What the two have in common is the repertoire: tenor arias that audiences know, and songs of Naples to finish. If you came for the sound of 1990, you will recognise the shape of the programme. If you came for a night in a historic church, the setting is a different one from a Roman ruin.
Who this isn't for
This guide covers history and is no route to booking the 1990 singers, who no longer perform together. Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras do not sing at St Paul's, and nothing in the concert on offer pretends otherwise. If you want a ticket to opera at the Baths of Caracalla, the Rome Opera's own programme is the place to look, because the stage there has changed over the years. For a church concert in the centre of Rome, the home page lists the dates.
Frequently asked questions
When was the first Three Tenors concert?
On 7 July 1990, at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, on the eve of the World Cup final.
Do the original Three Tenors sing at St Paul's?
No. The concert there is inspired by their shows and uses the organiser's own tenors.
Sources