By Janelle Gelfand
Enquirer staff writer

Some say classical crossover started with the Three Tenors (Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti), those lovable multi-millionaire belters, whose golden operatic throats crossed over into pop in the name of soccer at the World Cup in 1990.

Today it's everywhere. Opera diva Renee Fleming recently warbled "Your Song" at New York's Radio City Music Hall with Elton John. Pop-opera superstar Andrea Bocelli has made his first recording of a complete Verdi opera - Il Trovatore. Amici Forever, a five member group of classically trained singers, recorded an operatic version of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" for their debut, released earlier this year. The latest pop-classical singing sensation since Sarah Brightman and Charlotte Church is 17-year-old New Zealander Hayley Westenra - the fastest-selling classical artist in United Kingdom history.

And jazz label Verve Records has just released Your Love, My Home, the debut from Joshua Payne, a singer already being hailed as the next Josh Groban.

It may be a phenomenon. But it's not easy to make it big as a crossover artist, a musician who is equally at home in classical or pop.

'It's very difficult'

"It's very difficult, to be perfectly honest," says Terrell Finney, head of the division of opera, musical theater, drama and arts administration at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. "Look at Michael Buble, the new Frank Sinatra (who sang) at the Aronoff this summer. He's been singing a long time, and has finally made it."

Yet, the phenomenon has inspired the public to go beyond mere fan worshipping. Platinum-selling albums by Groban and shows like American Idol have caused scores of average Joes, who may sound great in the shower, to say, "I can do that, too."

"American Idol has made our lives much more difficult," says Finney, who auditions 500 to 600 hopefuls annually for 20 spots as musical theater majors. "Truthfully, we are seeing more and more of that kind of approach to performing when we audition kids. It's just painful."

So what distinguishes a "classically trained" from a pop voice?

"We pride ourselves in providing legit classical training to the singer, that then gets adopted stylistically to the needs of the musical theater repertoire," Finney says. "We are training them how to produce healthy tones and how to breathe and stand properly. That should be of use to them, whether they're singing a motet by Monteverdi or something by Burt Bacharach."

Musicians may be pigeonholed as "classical crossover," but it's really not that easy to pin down, says classical-pop star Groban, whose influences are far-flung.

"I really have always been interested in world music," Groban says. "One of the influences when I was really young was Paul Simon, especially the Graceland album. That, in turn, got me interested in African music. That got me interested in (singer/songwriter) Peter Gabriel (formerly of Genesis).

"So it was a big mix of the theater singers and more eclectic pop rockers who were not afraid to go beyond the boundaries of their genre."

Crossover music applies equally to instrumental music. The Boston Pops was one of the first symphony orchestras to play "lighter" classical hits. The Cincinnati Pops' Erich Kunzel is described as "the most popular Billboard Classical Crossover artist in history."

"Some of this work is really quite brilliant," Finney says, mentioning cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma's seamless foray into Brazilian sambas in Obrigado Brazil. Or Bela Fleck, the phenom banjo player, who can play Bach and bluegrass with equal flair.

As crossover increasingly becomes the golden egg of the floundering recording industry - for instance, Groban's latest disc, Closer, has sold close to 4 million copies - more musicians and songwriters are trying to hitch onto its magic.

More songs being written

"More and more new material that's being written seems to fit that category," Finney says. "The writing is a bit more demanding musically. It requires a voice that's a little better trained, and the kind of stamina that we would more associate with the opera world than with musical theater."

For listeners, it's a good introduction to classical music, and somehow not as daunting.

"It doesn't demand quite as much from the listener in terms of musical knowledge, but it's good music," Finney says.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.