By Glen Creason
It might seem odd that a group of singers from Australia would kick off the holiday festivities at the Performing Arts but there was nothing ordinary about the very big and very good Christmas songfest by the Ten Tenors at the Performing Arts Center Sunday evening. This is a polished group with harmony and dance moves as tight as the tuxedos the handsome gents wore for the action-packed show before a full house. For the most part the ten Aussie blokes made some old Christmas chestnuts shine up nicely with the strength of ten shades of tenor voice. There were the standards like “Joy to the World,” “Adeste Fidelis,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” “the Christmas Song” and “Sleigh Ride,” that put the place in a merry state of the season. Just to mix it up the Ten men threw in some “Four Seasons” songs from “the Jersey Boys” and native pop like “Down Under,” the Men at Work evergreen alongside a sweet “Waltzing Matilda.” They even finished the first set with a Michael Jackson medley complete with a spirited “Billy Jean.”
The second half of the show returned to a more sacred side with some secular exceptions. The Christmas tunes sounded excellent as done by the assorted tenors, sometimes in solo but mostly in perfect ten part harmony. While the young men’s appearance pleased the ladies in attendance they could all sing beautifully. While the theme was Christmas there were some lesser known treats such as “Thousand Candles,” “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that worked very well times ten. In the season, there were old favorites like “Little Drummer Boy,” “White Christmas,” and a rousing “O’ Holy Night.” However there were two non-yule show-stoppers in “I Would Do Anything for Love” which never sounded better and Queen’s “Somebody to Love” that got some gray Cerritos heads to nodding in rhythm. The show ended with a trio of encores, highlighted by a wonderfully pure “Amazing Grace” but even then the crowd cheered for more from the lads from down under.
