Three Tenors: Encore (1992)

The classical-music business tasted red meat last year, thanks to Carreras Domingo Pavarotti: Three Tenors in Concert, the best-selling video and CD of opera's three top tenors singing a joint concert for charity. Hence this follow-up, disingenuously titled to make you think it's another concert when really it's just a modest making-of documentary. Still, it's fun: You see the three stars backstage, as tense as any anxious amateurs. Conductor Zubin Mehta, all savoir faire and wary eyes, could just as well be a corporate titan who had survived years of bloody boardroom wars. Pavarotti dominates rehearsals, annexing Mehta with an enveloping arm while he himself signals his colleagues when it's their turn to sing. All three tenors vocalize lightly, saving their strength. Yet even when they're coasting there's no doubt who sounds best: Carreras has a voice, Domingo a voice, and Pavarotti a VOICE, with ice cream on top. Drollest moment in Three Tenore: Encore: Domingo upstaging Carreras as they emerge from the wings, then turning in surprise when Pavarotti upstages him. Who says opera stars don't act like Axl Rose? B+

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