Another Pittsburgh First Made for a Wonderful Afternoon

 

        This Sunday afternoon, Pittsburgh scored yet another first event of its kind. An the credit goes to Pittsburgh Festival Opera.          

Thank opera star and Pittsburgh area native, Marianne Cornetti, for organizing the town’s very first Three Tenors Concert, and what a wonderful idea it was. On stage at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland, three world renowned tenors – Victor Cardamone, Gregory Kunde and John Osborn riveted the audience with a repertoire of opera arias, classic songs like O Solo Mio, Be My Love (made popular by Mario Lanza) and Funiculi, Funicula, and American musical theater selections including Maria from West Side Story.’

One special selection, My Way was dedicated to James Agras, a close friend of Cornetti’s, who passed in April of this year. What made the tribute even more meaningful was the fact that Agras’ wife and daughter were present in the audience.

Cornetti, dazzling in her colorful evening dress and red and dark brown coiffure, introduced the song, which the trio sang with valiant passion.

The tenors sang both solos and tutti (together), their robust voices filling the concert hall with sublime music under the baton of conductor Christopher Franklin, principal conductor of the Minneapolis Opera. The 56-member Opera Orchestra also had their moments to shine, opening the concert with Verdi’s Un Giorno di Regno as well as the second half opener with Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana.

In celebration of the nation’s 250^th anniversary this July 4, the program spotlit three songs guaranteed to stir patriotic sentiments America The Beautiful, American Service Songs and God Bless America. Each of the armed forces branches, the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy, were featured in American Service Songs, which gave the audience a chance to cheer the favorite branch of service.

Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot got the biggest response from the audience, first when sung by Kunde, then, to close the concert, sung together as a trio. With the orchestra adding much to the emotional charge, the popular aria brought the audience to its feet in a well-deserved standing ovation.

At the end of the concert, my companion remarked that it was “the best thing” she saw so far this year. I’d have to agree and put it up on a par with the Pittsburgh Symphony’s recent collaboration with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in a Heinz Hall concert that featured Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

The Three Tenors Concert is the first Pittsburgh Festival Opera event of its 2026 season. To peruse upcoming concerts and events, go to pittsburghfestivalopera.org for more information.