Opera Men

Microphones be damned! The male voices you are about to hear are the finest and most robust on the planet. Each set of lungs behind these golden tonsils has the capacity to power a blast furnace, the by-product of which is pure, molten delight. Start with superstars the Three Tenors, with their fabulous encore from "Nessun dorma."

No one owns the role of tenor quite like the Italians: Naples-born Enrico Caruso, one of the greatest tenors who ever lived, was a household name in the first two decades of the 20th century. The Hollywood version of his life, The Great Caruso (1951), features Italian-American Mario Lanza, another tenor legend, in the title role.

Argentina's José Cura was the first operatic tenor to sing and conduct at the same time, and he's a performer whose passion for singing is equaled by the intensity of his acting. Here, he gives us a blast from Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. The United States' leading baritone, Thomas Hampson shows his quality on Giovanna d'arco.

There's nothing in the world of music quite as moving as the soaring tenor of a broken-hearted Pavarotti. All the gentlemen on our Opera Men playlist manage to harness the force of a volcano and channel it into full-blown, note-perfect ecstasy. It's no wonder that the Three Tenors Concert, performed at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome on the eve of the soccer World Cup final in 1990, became the all-time biggest-selling classical record.