In the 1990s, everybody loved tenors. In fact, the more the merrier.
That was because opera star Luciano Pavarotti, one of the most beloved singers on the planet, joined two other famous tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, in a series of concerts that exploded into a phenomenon called the Three Tenors.
These tenors were not the first to do popular songs. But Pavarotti, especially, was known to partner with rockers, such as Bono, and singers in other genres to do awareness-raising for many causes as well as just for fun.
The Three Tenors eventually moved on with their solo careers with and without pop, and Pavarotti died in 2007. But in their wake, one tenor suddenly was not enough for the public. And “popera,” combining the opera voice with pop and or pop singers, became fashionable, marketable, and profitable.
Read more at Toledo Blade by Heather Denniss.