TENORS TO THE POWER OF TEN AUSTRALIAN SINGERS BRING SOMETHING - AND SOMEONE - FOR EVERYONE.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

Lock up your mom! The Ten Tenors are coming to town.

Australia's biggest musical export in decades is packing in females -- mostly 30 and older -- with a dynamic mix of vocal power, a flashy stage show and an egalitarian range of material from arias to ABBA.

It doesn't hurt that the package is headlined by 10 perfectly groomed young males with passionate singing voices and an ample supply of attractive smiles.

``We do what we call `stage tuning' -- when we single someone out in the audience and smile at them,'' says tenor Drew Graham, who took up with the ensemble in 1998, after pursuing university opera studies. ``Coming to one of our shows with a girlfriend may not be the best date experience for a guy, I'd guess.''

How many tenors?

The multiple-tenors concept kicked off in 1990 with the Three Tenors -- Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti -- which hit it big by extending their operatic repertoire to Broadway numbers and pop hits. The formula led to such imitations as the Irish Tenors, Tenor Australis, Three Canadian Tenors, Three Tenors and a Soprano, Three Sopranos, Three Chinese Tenors and, most recently, Three Mo' Tenors.

``People have an almost innate relationship with the tenor voice,'' Graham says. ``But conventional musical groupings don't deal exclusively with tenors -- so what we do with arrangements and compositions is focus on exploring that voice.''

On Tuesday, the Ten Tenors bring their lavish show and on-stage camaraderie to the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for 16 performances through Nov. 5. Expect everything from ``Che Gelida Manina'' from Puccini's ``La Boheme'' to Simon & Garfunkel's ``The Boxer'' and the showstopper ``Bohemian Rhapsody'' by Queen.

The Ten Tenors have been together in one form or another since 1995, meeting for the most part at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where Graham was studying saxophone.

``I knew a lot of the guys that were studying singing at the time, and we hung out together,'' Graham said. ``Singing seemed like it was more fun and interesting than playing the saxophone. So, I went into voice studies for the next three years. We have a long history together, and it shows on stage. We love the material, but we don't take ourselves too seriously.''

For their current album, ``Here's to the Heroes'' (WB/Rhino), the classically trained Tenors -- whose ages range from 21 to 35 -- worked with the London Philharmonic and Oscar- winning composer John Barry (``Dances With Wolves,'' ``Goldfinger,'' ``Out of Africa'') at London's Abbey Road Studios.

10-part harmony

After an opening night in Tucson last week, the Arizona Daily Star raved that the 10 crystalline voices were breathtakingly harmonious. ``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.''

Tuesday's opening night at the Pantages will benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles. One of the Tenors, Dion Molinas, is known as ``the gay tenor.''

All 10, though, are well-versed in the art of stage tuning, Graham said.

``I met my fiancee that way,'' he revealed. ``She came to our first international show in Berlin five years ago, and I gave her a few smiles from the stage. After the show, we had a few drinks -- and now we're about to be married.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

[e-mail]

THE TEN TENORS

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 5.

Tickets: $25 to $58. [phone].

ticketmaster.com.

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Photo:

The Ten Tenors make a point of doing what they call ``stage tuning,'' whereby they look into the eyes of various, potentially smitten audience members while performing in concert, which they will do for 16 performances at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.