Three, they say, is a crowd. But some things always arrive in threes: musketeers; leaves on a shamrock; and, since Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras first strutted their stuff at the Caracalla Baths outside Rome in 1990, creating the genre that was to become known as classical crossover, tenors. You think I'm kidding? OK, try this simple test. Read the following phrases aloud. "The Two Tenors". "The Four Tenors".
See what I mean? If it's tenors, it has to be three. Unless, of course, you're talking about "Irish Tenors". At the time of writing, Irish tenors appear to be multiplying at a rate that would make rabbits blench. There are CDs and concerts and TV shows and tours, and if it isn't "The Irish Tenors", it's "The Three Irish Tenors", or "The Young Irish Tenors". Confused? Don't worry. So is everybody else. But with three quite separate bands of Irish tenors roaming the country, it's time to sort out just who is actually who in the Irish tenor stakes.
First past the recording post were The Irish Tenors - Irish in the repertoire sense, at least, even though one of the group's founding members, John McDermott, is in fact Canadian. However, he has recently been replaced by Finbar Wright, who joins Ronan Tynan and Anthony Kearns for a group which does exactly what it says on the tin - and sells zillions of CDs in the process, mainly to an adoring American public. Their 1998 eponymous debut CD was followed by 1999's Home for Christmas and last year's Live in Belfast, propelling them into the Amazon.Com bestseller league and out of reach, alas, of The Irish Times. We did manage to speak to their manager's secretary, who explained The Irish Tenors were far too busy and famous to be disturbed this week. "We'll call you when we're ready to talk to you," she added, kindly.
And so to The Celtic Tenors - James Nelson, Niall Morris and Matthew Gilsenan - who like to present themselves for interview as a unit. If "interview" is the correct word to describe a process which involves quickfire dialogue, off-the-wall opera anecdotes, snatches of a cappella and startlingly accurate impersonations of George Harrison and Marilyn Monroe. Small wonder the people at EMI Classics (which signed the tenors up earlier this year and is about to issue their eponymous debut album) have chosen to emphasise the tenors' individual personalities in a spate of glossy promotional material. Nelson, they agree, has been cast as "earnest", Morris as mischievous. "And I'm," adds Gilsenan with a dazzling grin, "the ditzy one."
Naturally, it takes more than an eponymous debut album and a set of matching black polonecks to become a fully-fledged Irish tenor. Impeccable classical credentials are also a help - and the one topic about which The Celtic Tenors are totally serious is singing. They have, they explain, taken the traditional three-tenor formula of "belt-canto", and adapted it to produce what they describe as a contemporary tenor sound, making subtle use of harmony - and sharing out the high Cs between them. "For us the whole thing is about voices," says Nelson. "People seem surprised by the idea that one of us is prepared to sing the lower line at any given time; what would be the bass line, really. It's apparently something a lot of tenors wouldn't want to do." "Ego-maniacs, you know, tenors," Morris chips in helpfully.
Which reminds me: don't most Irish tenors have day jobs, as fully-fledged opera-persons? "Hmm. Shelved for the moment, unfortunately," says Nelson. With the aforementioned album - a blend of traditional and contemporary Scottish and Irish songs, with sleeve notes (oh, yes) by this writer, on the shelves shortly, and a US tour on the horizon, there'll be precious little time for jetting off to do a Madame Butterfly.
It's a worry familiar to all working tenors who, in the days before "popera", used to make a living out of opera and do the odd concert by way of icing on the cake. But with pitifully few new opera recordings being made these days, for many young singers "popera" is pretty much the only route to the big time. Is it possible to combine the two? Not when you're just starting out, that's for sure, says Ciaran Nagle, who, with Anthony Norton and Tom Cregan, forms the newest Irish-based tenor trio on the scene. They call themselves simply The Tenors, he says, because they want to appeal to as broad a market as possible.
"We all trained at colleges of music, and what you're trained for is opera, and the concert platform - but I was lucky enough to work with Riverdance for a year, and it gave me a very different view of how the music industry works. What Riverdance did was take Irish music and make it sexy. You can't push that too far, but the tenor thing is extremely sexy anyhow; tenor music has massive appeal. So why not use it?"
The Tenors got together to do four concerts in April of this year, and have been working ever since. They have just made a demo CD, and are headed Stateside next month. It's work, it's fun, it's making their names - but still, says Nagle, he misses opera. "My wife is a singer and when I go to see her at Glyndebourne or Welsh National Opera, I just want to be up there. I'd love to be up there!"
The Tenors' programme combines music theatre with Irish songs and popular tenor repertoire. "We locked ourselves away for a couple of weeks with loads of music and came up with stuff that we would never ever have imagined doing," says Nagle. Such as? "Well, I arrived at rehearsal one afternoon to find the atmosphere a little bit . . . tense. Tony and Tom were himming and hawing. I said, `what's wrong?', and they said, `well, there's pop songs being brought into this whole equation here, and where do we draw the line?' " The problem had been caused by the Rod Stewart song, Sailing. "I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous. But it's a well-written song - honestly. When we tried it out, it worked really well, and now it's one of the best numbers on our programme."
The Celtic Tenors are also aware of the dangers that lie in wait for unwary opera types who stray into the middle of the musical road. But they see no reason why, with fusions happening on all musical fronts, from jazz to traditional, they can't push the concept of "the tenor" into slightly more - well, unusual territory, both in concert and on record. "We have a terrific backing band for the HQ gigs," says Morris. "They're three musicians who play with Mary Black, and they've created a fantastic sound for us. We do a version of The Star of the County Down with bongos, which is absolutely mad." "Funky," corrects a fellow-Celt sternly.
"Sorry - funky. Now, what other aspects of fame and fortune can we talk about? Designer clothes, maybe?" An impressively unison groan from the others. Fame, it seems, has its down side.
The Celtic Tenors are currently Live at HQ in Dublin's Abbey Street, with special guests The Vards. The Celtic Tenors will be released on October 23rd on EMI Classics.
The Tenors will play at Ennis Arts Festival tomorrow
