Boyd Owen, a member of the Ten Tenors, uses one word to describe the
brand of fun that the singing studs bring to the stage:
“Australian.”
“What do you expect? We come straight from the beach,” he says. “We
like to mess around and have fun, and we bring that into our
shows.”
These Aussies in matching suits have gained international acclaim
not only for their synchronized pipes, but for their ability to merge
rock, pop, jazz and classical music, says Marc Viscardi of Broadway in
Tucson, the organization that’s bringing the Ten Tenors to Tucson.
“These are a bunch of extremely talented guys. … They’ve got a
personable stage presence and beautiful voices,” says Viscardi. “For
me, their real charm is in their humor. Audiences are very receptive to
that, and they feed off of each other.”
Of course, as Owen says, it doesn’t hurt that all of the performers
look great in a suit.
Tucsonans can be the judge of that when the Ten Tenors make their
way to the Sonoran Desert for eight shows at the Fox Tucson Theatre as
part of their Nostalgica World Tour 2009.
The group has been on three different continents during the tour; it
may sound more like a vacation than a job, but it’s not all fun and
games. Owen says that being a Ten Tenor takes discipline—they
often perform six nights a week, and tour 10 months out of the year.
The boys average 250 annual international concerts.
Considering all of that time together (not to mention a pool of
testosterone and flowing creative juices), these guys must butt heads
once in a while. Right?
“There is the occasional smack-down,” says Owen. “We literally spend
all day together. Sometimes, you’ve got to put two of us in the
ring.”
But the friends usually move past any tiffs quickly; in fact, Owen
says the group is like his second family.
The Ten Tenors lineup has evolved since the ensemble formed in the
mid-1990s. Former mates have grown up, had kids and left their Tenor
days behind. The original 10 were a group of students from the
Queensland Conservatorium of Music who joined forces to put on a couple
of small gigs.
Owen says they came on the scene just as “classical music moved from
the opera house into people’s CD collections,” thanks to the likes of
Andrea Bocelli and the Three Tenors.
This tour is reflective of their latest album, Nostalgica.
The album had some big names behind it, including Grammy Award-winning
producer Simon Franglen. Nostalgica, both the tour and the CD,
is romantically themed, with renditions of “Over the Rainbow” and “What
a Wonderful World.” Owen calls them ballads “that people have their
first kiss to.”
In their quirky Down Under style, the Ten Tenors will mix up their
Tucson shows with holiday favorites. The second half will include a
tribute to Queen, which is usually their most popular segment.
“We’ll have guys in the audience that are dragged there by their
girlfriends, but by the end of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ they’re on their
feet singing along like we’re in a bar,” says Owen.
This sounds like quite a departure from the quiet, buttoned up
opera-goers that you might expect to attend a Ten Tenors concert; it
goes to show how the Ten Tenors have garnered fame for their ability to
deliver quality classical sounds without the stuffy vibe.
After a recent show in Peru, Owen says, fans of all ages were lined
up outside the guys’ hotel rooms at 2 a.m.
The coordinator of the Tucson show has been bitten by the Ten Tenors
bug, too.
“I do have an autographed picture in my office, because they are
cutie-patooties,” says Kate Calhoun, the sales and marketing director
at the Tucson Convention Center. Calhoun coordinated the event as part
of a partnership between the Fox and the TCC.
Viscardi says that this will be the Ten Tenors’ third appearance in
Tucson, and the decision to bring them back for a romantic holiday
hurrah was a no-brainer.
“The audiences in Tucson love them,” he says. “All of the music is
really familiar to everyone … not to mention they are a good-looking
bunch.”
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2009.