Performance: Edinburgh, Scotland
03-Aug-06
GET YOUR OPERA STARS, THREE FOR A PENNY
By Liam Rudden, Arts and Entertainment Editor
WHO needs Pavarotti when Three Mo’ Tenors can sing everything from classical to disco
THERE was a time, not that long ago, when no right-thinking opera singer would have dreamed of performing at the Fringe. Opera was, after all, solely the domain of the Edinburgh International Festival.
Thankfully attitudes have changed, or the 2006 Fringe might have been without one of its most exciting musical shows Three Mo’ Tenors, which opens at St George’s West in Shandwick Place tomorrow. It was Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti who started the trend that broke down the barriers to allow classically trained singers to stray into other musical territories.
Billed as The Three Tenors, they did for opera what Jamie Cullum and Joss Stone have done for jazz, introducing their artform to a whole new audience.
And three, it seems, was a lucky number. Today tenors everywhere are joining together to harness the power of the male voice and entertain – Scotland even has its own operatic trio in the shape of Caledon.
New York-based Three Mo’ Tenors, however, take the concept one step further. Their 75-minute show might begin in the world of classical opera with a spine- tingling rendition of Nessun Dorma, but it quickly diversifies into a myriad of different styles that celebrate more than 400 years of popular music.
From Ray Charles’ Hit The Road Jack to Cab Calloway’s Minnie The Moocher and This Is The Moment from Jekyll And Hide: The Musical, they’re all there. There’s even a groovy Three Mo’ Tenors take on the O’Jays disco classic, Love Train.
It is a formula that has proved a big hit in the States where the Boston Herald described the show as: “A joyous celebration of Broadway, opera, blues, soul and gospel that blows the roof off the house.” The Chicago Tribune was similarly impressed and reported that: “The audience cheered and stomped in delight”.
Sitting in New York’s 59th Street Theatre, where Phumzile Sojola, Ramone Diggs and Kenneth D Alston Jr have just lived up to their publicist’s promise that they would: “Hit the high Cs in opera, belt out Broadway, deliver the gospel, bend the blues, sass the jazz, stir your soul and lift spirituals right off the ground”, it is easy to understand why the critics love these classically trained African- American tenors.
Sojola, Diggs and Alston Jr make up one of the two casts that will perform the show during its three- week run in Edinburgh. Labelled Cast 1, they will appear on alterative nights as the extraordinary vocal demands of the show make it impossible for one cast to perform every night.
Consequently there are another Three Mo’ Tenors: Cast A – Duane Moody, Victor Robertson and James Berger.
Producer Willette Murphy Klausner explains: “The vocal demands of the show are very strenuous on the tenors’ voices, it’s very demanding when you sing opera and then go into other styles.”
Technically, a tenor is a male singer with a high voice (although not as high as a counter tenor) that lies above the bass and below the soprano and alto with a typical range extending from the C below middle C to the C above middle C – as such it is unusual to find tenors singing in harmony.
“The tenor voice is not intended to be grouped in a trio,” continues Klausner. “The fact that our tenors, who all have very different voices and personalities, can blend together in a trio is extraordinary, because when you look at what Domingo, Carreras and Pavarotti did, they basically shared a stage. They did not form a trio.”
What makes the Three Mo’ Tenors’ sound even more distinctive is the fact that the African-American tenor voice is rarely heard in classical opera and almost never features in leading roles of productions mounted by major opera companies.
The Three Mo’ Tenors are the brainchild of veteran Broadway performer, choreographer and director Marion J Caffey. Klausner explains: “Marion was listening to The Three Tenors when he thought: ‘These are very famous tenors, but I know that there are African-American tenors who no- one knows about, even though they can sing more styles authentically than the original group, who sang nothing but opera’. ”
That was in 2001 and over the years, as tenors have come and gone, Caffey’s concept has taken shape. Of the current line-up, Texas-born Ramone Diggs is the longest serving member of Cast 1, having been with the group for more than two-and-a-half years.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music the 30-year-old admits that, at first, he had to be convinced that the show was for him. “Initially I didn’t think too much of singing different styles as my training and background is in opera. For me you learn to sing a certain way. I like to compare it to an Olympic athlete, like a runner for example. You don’t always see someone who runs the mile running the 100 metres because the technique is a little different.
“Originally I think I made some of the switches because growing up around country and musical theatre I’d heard some of the styles many times. Other styles I had to research, but the biggest challenge is trying to make all those styles all happen within one show. Especially as they happen so quickly, and are often very drastic.
“You go from opera to Broadway and then back to opera. That definitely takes you outside of your operatic technique, and that training is very much what holds the voice strong.”
However, it is not just different styles of singing that the Three Mo’ Tenors must master. Each number in the show is accompanied by a choreographed routine.
Phumzile Sojola, who was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, laughs when asked about his footwork.
The 36-year-old, who studied at the University of Kentucky and Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music reveals, much to the delight of his colleagues: “I guess if you were to ask me what my fantasies are then I always wanted to be a dancer, probably a ballet dancer.”
Having reduced Diggs and Alston to tears of laughter he continues: “I did do ballroom dancing as a kid and I did actually use that in Die Fledermaus, in which I had to do a waltz while singing. That was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done because, not only was I out of breath from the dancing, I was trying to sing all the right notes at the right time.
“But I’m just having a blast on this show because I’m not having to do anything as formal as a waltz. I think my enjoyment of that over-rides the difficulty.”
Kenneth D Alston Jr is the group’s only counter tenor. A native of the Bronx, the 28-year-old graduated from the La Guardia High School Of Music And Performing Arts, and as a member of the world-renowned Morgan State University Choir, he has performed for audiences in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Czech Republic and Martinique. For him, being a member of the Three Mo’ Tenors is a dream come true.
He says: “My father was a baritone and I always wanted to do music. Somewhere along the line my passion changed from listening to things around the house like Billie Holiday and jazz to classical, and I took the road less travelled by the rest of my family.
“When I got to audition for the Three Mo’ Tenors it was like the answer to a prayer and a chance gift from God. Then I auditioned and the rest is history.”
A new chapter in that history will be written tomorrow when the Three Mo’ Tenors make their European debut in Edinburgh. Klausner reckons audiences are in for a treat.
“Many of the people who come to see our shows have never seen an opera before,” she says. “After they have seen Three Mo’ Tenors, they understand that opera was the popular music of its time just as the other styles were of their time. In this show that becomes very evident. But what is more, all the styles work together.”
The fact that there are two casts performing in Edinburgh will also give audiences the chance to compare the very different harmonies created by each trio, adds Klausner, promising it is not just a clever ploy to sell more tickets.
“Although you are seeing the same show, each tenor sings their own aria, so all the solos are different. And although the group numbers are the same, they sound very different because of each singer’s very distinctive voice.”
Having seen both casts, one thing is certain, whether you see Cast 1 or Cast A or for that matter both, Three Mo’ Tenors are sure to hit the right note.
Get your tickets now . . . don’t leave it till the fat lady sings or you might be too late.
Three Mo’ Tenors, Assembly at St George’s West, Shandwick Place, tomorrow-August 27 (not Tuesdays), ?7-?14, 0131-226-2428