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The Ten Tenors

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The Ten Tenors rocked the Tucson Music Hall Tuesday night.

No, wait, did you say rocked?

Yes, rocked.

Aren't they 10 guys who sing opera?

Yes — and no. They made the hairs on your arms stand at attention when they sang the aria "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's opera "Turandot." It's breathtaking listening to these 10 crystalline voices come together as if they were emanating from one source. Their voices are lilting and sublime, nuanced one minute, exclamatory the next, in perfect harmony and united, and yet you can make out separate voices if you listen closely.

Throughout opening night Tuesday, you could hear David Kidd's tenor rise above the room and strike the air like a dart hitting a balloon. And he did it with little fanfare, almost as an afterthought like when he took up the harmony on John Barry's pop ballad "Here's to the Heroes"; there were times when it looked like his lips weren't moving.

The Ten Tenors, making a first-ever Arizona appearance in their six-day, eight-show Music Hall run, made a good argument for blurring the lines between pop and opera. In between operatic gems like "Largo al factotum" (aka "Figaro!"), the famous aria from Puccini's "The Comic Opera," the ensemble performed wonderfully melodic pop songs, including several from their cheerleader, the famous cinematic songwriter Barry.

Actually, it was just the opposite. Try to imagine this: 10 soft tenors fleshing out the harmonies in Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's classic song "The Boxer." The musical accompaniment from the quartet was subdued enough to allow the 10 vocalists to fill in the blanks. It was like Simon & Garfunkel's perfect harmonies times five.

And speaking of that quartet, they were inspiring: a pianist, a keyboard player who also dabbled in stand-up bass, an electric guitar player who dabbled in cello and a drummer who was just as comfortable playing the skins rock-star loud or classically subtle.

There really wasn't a need for anyone beyond the quartet. An orchestra would have stolen the attention from the Ten Tenors, and those guys deserved all the attention Tuesday's nearly soldout crowd could throw at them.

Is it true they sang Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"?

They didn't just sing "Bohemian Rhapsody"; they owned it. If Freddy Mercury were alive and in that audience, he would have been the first to bolt to his feet when they sang that duck-duck-goose of a transition, "I see a little silhouetto of a man / Scaramouche, scaramouche will you do the fandango."

And when the song breaks off and goes on a rock tangent — "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye" — Kidd and Shannon Brown, the tall, slightly balding Tenor who gave us a lesson in how to identify opera countries of origin, started jerking and jolting like they were Queen. And the rest of the guys, standing side by side in a line that stretched the length of the stage, started jerking their heads back as if they had long hair to whip about like rock stars. It was quite a sight.