By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The sentimentality was twice as strong at the Aronoff Center Thursday night, when the Irish Tenors combined a repertoire heavy on tear-jerking ballads with songs in the spirit of the most sentimental holiday of them all, Christmas.

The Tenors - Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright - are Ireland's answer to Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras, and like those Three Tenors in whose image they were fashioned, the Irish Tenors are an international hit. Procter and Gamble Hall looked to be filled to near capacity, and the crowd reveled in every tune, be it happy or sad.

Accompanied by a 47-piece orchestra led by Dublin conductor James Cavanaugh, the Irish Tenors performed two one-hour sets that included everything from predictable Irish material ("Danny Boy") to esoteric Christmas carols ("Happy Christmas/War is Over"), from songs sung in Gaelic and Italian to American patriotic anthems.

Each set began and ended with the trio singing together, and in between each member took a solo turn. Perhaps Mr. Wright's solo performances were the strongest of the night. Perhaps each audience member had his or her favorite. But whatever the case, the difference in ability between each of the three wasn't very big, and when they sang together in full voice, as for example in the resounding ending to "O Holy Night," the results were powerful.

Their stage presence added to the show. Mr. Tynan, standing a head taller than each of the other two, was endearingly goofy, constantly fiddling with his tuxedo vest and waving his arms as if he would have lost his voice had someone tied his hands behind his back. His irreverence perfectly played against his partners' combined straight-man act.

Highlights of the Irish-themed material included Mr. Kearns' solo rendering of "Grace," a neo-traditional tune about a prisoner who gets married only hours before his execution; and Mr. Wright's "The Isle of Innisfree," from the 1952 John Wayne movie The Quiet Man.

"When Hollywood started coming to Ireland, Hollywood has never left Ireland," Mr. Wright quipped.

The crowd's two favorite songs were about the new country. "America the Beautiful," which closed the first set, received the night's first standing ovation, and the show-ending "God Bless America" had the crowd on its feet by the end of the first verse.

E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com