Luciano Pavarotti[a] (12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for his tone and the nickname "King of the High Cs".
Luciano Pavarotti was born on 12 October 1935 in a public housing block on the outskirts of Modena in Northern Italy, the son of Fernando Pavarotti, a baker and amateur tenor, and Adele Venturi, a cigar factory worker.[3][4] Although he spoke fondly of his childhood, the family had little money; its four members were crowded into a two-room apartment. According to Pavarotti, his father had a fine tenor voice but rejected the possibility of a singing career because of nervousness. World War II forced the family out of the city in 1943. For the following year, they rented a single room from a farmer in the neighbouring countryside, where the young Pavarotti developed an interest in farming.
After abandoning the dream of becoming a footballgoalkeeper, Pavarotti spent seven years in vocal training. Pavarotti's earliest musical influences were his father's records, most of them featuring the popular tenors of the day—Beniamino Gigli, Giovanni Martinelli, Tito Schipa, and Enrico Caruso.[3] Pavarotti's favourite tenor and idol was Giuseppe Di Stefano.[3] He was also deeply influenced by Mario Lanza, saying: "In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror". At around the age of nine, he began singing with his father in a small local church choir.[3]
In addition to music, as a child, Pavarotti enjoyed playing football. When he graduated from the Scuola Magistrale he was interested in pursuing a career as a professional football goalkeeper, but his mother convinced him to train as a teacher. He subsequently taught in an elementary school for two years but finally decided to pursue a music career. His father, recognising the risk involved, only reluctantly gave his consent. Pavarotti began the serious study of music in 1954 at the age of 19 with Arrigo Pola, a respected teacher and professional tenor in Modena who offered to teach him without remuneration. According to conductor Richard Bonynge, Pavarotti never learned to read music.[5]
In 1955, he experienced his first singing success when he was a member of the Corale Rossini, a male voice choir from Modena that also included his father, which won first prize at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales. He later said that this was the most important experience of his life, and that it inspired him to become a professional singer.[6]
When his teacher, Arrigo Pola, moved to Japan, Pavarotti became a student of Ettore Campogalliani, who at that time was also teaching Pavarotti's childhood friend, Mirella Freni, whose mother worked with Luciano's mother in the cigar factory. Like Pavarotti, Freni went on to become a successful opera singer; they collaborated in various stage performances and recordings together.[3]
During his years of musical study, Pavarotti held part-time jobs to sustain himself—first as an elementary school teacher and then as an insurance salesman. The first six years of study resulted in only a few recitals, all in small towns and without pay. When a nodule developed on his vocal cords, causing a "disastrous" concert in Ferrara, he decided to give up singing. Pavarotti attributed his immediate improvement to the psychological release connected with this decision. Whatever the reason, the nodule not only disappeared but, as he related in his autobiography: "Everything I had learned came together with my natural voice to make the sound I had been struggling so hard to achieve".
In December 1961, Pavarotti made his first international appearance in La traviata in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.[8][9] On 23 February 1963, he debuted at the Vienna State Opera in the same role. In March and April 1963, Pavarotti performed again in Vienna as Rodolfo and as Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto. The same year, he performed his first solo non-opera concert outside Italy when he sang in Dundalk, Ireland, for the St Cecilia's Gramophone Society.[10] He was engaged by the Dublin Grand Opera Society to sing The Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto in May and June,[10] and his Royal Opera House debut, where he replaced an indisposed Giuseppe Di Stefano as Rodolfo.[11][12] In September 1963, he made his debut at Covent Garden in La Boheme, which gave his career a boost.[13]
In 1964, Pavarotti appeared as Idamante in Idomeneo at Glyndebourne[14] and was engaged by the Dublin Grand Opera Society to sing Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. Reviewers favourably comment on his singing.
Pavarotti sang with Joan Sutherland when he made his American début with the Greater Miami Opera in February 1965, singing in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor on the stage of the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami. The tenor that was scheduled to perform that night became ill with no understudy. Sutherland recommended Pavarotti as he was acquainted with the role. On 28 April, Pavarotti made his La Scala debut in the revival of the Franco Zeffirelli production of La bohème, with his childhood friend Mirella Freni singing Mimi and Herbert von Karajan conducting. Karajan had requested the singer's engagement.[3]
Joan Sutherland and her conductor husband, Richard Bonynge sought a tall tenor to take along on their 1965 tour to Australia.[3][11] During the Australia tour in summer 1965, Sutherland and Pavarotti sang forty performances over two months. Pavarotti later credited Sutherland for the breathing and diaphragm technique that sustained him through his career.[3]
After the extended Australian tour, he returned to La Scala, where he added Tebaldo from I Capuleti e i Montecchi to his repertoire on 26 March 1966, with Giacomo Aragall as Romeo.
His first appearance as Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 2 June 1966. In this performance, he was the first tenor to deliver nine natural high Cs in the aria "Ah! mes amis".[3]
He scored another major triumph in Rome on 20 November 1969 when he sang in I Lombardi opposite Renata Scotto. This was recorded on a private label and widely distributed, as were various recordings of his I Capuleti e i Montecchi, usually with Aragall. Early commercial recordings included a recital of Donizetti (the aria from Don Sebastiano were particularly highly regarded) and Verdiarias, as well as a complete L'elisir d'amore with Sutherland.
His breakthrough in the United States came on 17 February 1972, in a production of La fille du régiment at New York's Metropolitan Opera, in which he hit nine high Cs in the signature aria and had seventeen curtain calls.[15] This earned him the nickname "King of the High Cs".[16]
Pavarotti sang his international recital début at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, on 1 February 1973, as part of the college's Fine Arts Program, now known as the Harriman–Jewell Series.[17] According to his manager at the time, Pavarotti clutched a handkerchief throughout this recital because he had a lingering cold.[18] Pavarotti himself explained that he needed the handkerchief, since he didn't know what to do with his hands.[17] The prop became a signature part of his solo performances.[19] He began to give frequent television performances, starting with his performances as Rodolfo (La bohème) in the first Live from the Met telecast in March 1977, which attracted one of the largest audiences ever for a televised opera.[20] He won Grammy awards and platinum and gold discs for his performances.[citation needed]
In 1976, Pavarotti debuted at the Salzburg Festival, appearing in a solo recital on 31 July, accompanied by pianist Leone Magiera. Pavarotti returned to the festival in 1978 with a recital and as the Italian singer in Der Rosenkavalier in 1983 with Idomeneo, and both in 1985 and 1988 with solo recitals. In 1979, he was profiled in a cover story in the weekly magazine Time.[21] That same year saw Pavarotti's return to the Vienna State Opera after an absence of fourteen years. With Herbert von Karajan conducting, Pavarotti sang Manrico in Il trovatore. In 1978, he appeared in a solo recital on Live from Lincoln Center.
Luciano Pavarotti in 1972With Joan Sutherland in I puritani (1976)
Career: 1980s–1990s
At the beginning of the 1980s, he set up The Pavarotti International Voice Competition for young singers, performing with the winners in 1982 in excerpts of La bohème and L'elisir d'amore. The second competition, in 1986, staged excerpts of La bohème and Un ballo in maschera. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of his career, he brought the winners of the competition to Italy for gala performances of La bohème in Modena and Genoa, and then to China where they staged performances of La bohème in Beijing (Peking). To conclude the visit, Pavarotti performed the inaugural concert in the Great Hall of the People before 10,000 people, receiving a standing ovation for nine high Cs.[22][23] The third competition in 1989 again staged performances of L'elisir d'amore and Un ballo in maschera. The winners of the fifth competition accompanied Pavarotti in performances in Philadelphia in 1997.[citation needed]
In the mid-1980s, Pavarotti returned to two opera houses that had provided him with important breakthroughs, the Vienna State Opera and La Scala. Vienna saw Pavarotti as Rodolfo in La bohème with Carlos Kleiber conducting and again Mirella Freni was Mimi; as Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore; as Radames in Aida conducted by Lorin Maazel; as Rodolfo in Luisa Miller; and as Gustavo in Un ballo in maschera conducted by Claudio Abbado. In 1996, Pavarotti appeared for the last time at the Staatsoper in Andrea Chénier. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, promoters Tibor Rudas and Harvey Goldsmith booked Pavarotti into increasingly larger venues.[citation needed]
In 1985, Pavarotti sang Radames at La Scala opposite Maria Chiara in a Luca Ronconi production conducted by Maazel, recorded on video. His performance of the aria "Celeste Aida" received a two-minute ovation on the opening night.[citation needed] He was reunited with Mirella Freni for the San Francisco Opera production of La bohème in 1988, also recorded on video. In 1992, La Scala saw Pavarotti in a new Zeffirelli production of Don Carlos, conducted by Riccardo Muti.[24]
Pavarotti became even better known throughout the world in 1990 when his rendition of the aria "Nessun dorma" from Giacomo Puccini's Turandot was taken as the theme song of BBC's coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. The aria achieved pop status, became the World Cup soundtrack, and it remained his trademark song.[25] This was followed by the first Three Tenors concert, held on the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome with fellow tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and conductor Zubin Mehta. The performance for the World Cup closing concert captivated a global audience, and it became the biggest-selling classical record of all time.[26] A highlight of the concert, in which Pavarotti sang the opening verses using extended vocal runs for di Capua's "'O sole mio" and which was in turn perfectly repeated note-for-note by Domingo and Carreras. The recorded album sold millions of copies,[27] and the first Three Tenors recording became the best-selling classical album of all time.[28] Throughout the 1990s, Pavarotti appeared in outdoor concerts, including his televised concert in London's Hyde Park, which drew a record attendance of 150,000. In June 1993, more than 500,000 listeners gathered for his free performance on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park, while millions more around the world watched on television.[29] The following September, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, he sang for an estimated crowd of 300,000.[30] Following on from the original 1990 concert, the Three Tenors concerts were held during the three subsequent FIFA World Cup Finals, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama.[31]
In 1995, Pavarotti's friends, Lara Saint Paul (as Lara Cariaggi) and her husband showman Pier Quinto Cariaggi, who had produced and organised Pavarotti's 1990 FIFA World Cup Celebration Concert at the PalaTrussardi in Milan, produced and wrote the television documentary The Best is Yet to Come, an extensive biography about the life of Pavarotti. Lara Saint Paul was the interviewer for the documentary with Pavarotti, who spoke candidly about his life and career.[33]
Pavarotti earned a reputation as "The King of Cancellations" by frequently backing out of performances, and his unreliable nature led to poor relationships with some opera houses.[34] This was brought into focus in 1989 when Ardis Krainik of the Lyric Opera of Chicago severed the house's 15-year relationship with the tenor.[35] Over an eight-year period, Pavarotti had cancelled 26 out of 41 scheduled appearances at the Lyric, and the decisive move by Krainik to ban him for life was well noted throughout the opera world,[36] after the performer walked away from a season premiere less than two weeks before rehearsals began, saying pain from a sciatic nerve required two months of treatment.[37] On 12 December 1998, he became the first (and, to date, only) opera singer to perform on Saturday Night Live, singing alongside Vanessa L. Williams. He also sang with U2 in the band's 1995 song "Miss Sarajevo" and with Mercedes Sosa in a big concert at the Boca Juniors arena La Bombonera in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1999. In 1998, Pavarotti was presented with the Grammy Legend Award.[38]
In September 2003, he released his final compilation—and his first and only "crossover" album, Ti Adoro. Most of the 13 songs were written and produced by Michele Centonze, who had already helped produce the "Pavarotti & Friends" concerts between 1998 and 2000.[39] The tenor described the album as a wedding gift to Nicoletta Mantovani.
In 2004, one of Pavarotti's former managers, Herbert Breslin, published a book, The King & I.[35] Seen by critics as bitter and sensationalistic[citation needed], it is critical of the singer's acting (in opera), his inability to read music well and learn parts, and his personal conduct, although acknowledging their success together. In an interview in 2005 with Jeremy Paxman on the BBC, Pavarotti rejected the allegation that he could not read music, although he acknowledged he did not read orchestral scores.[40]
On 13 March 2004, Pavarotti gave his last performance in an opera at the New York Metropolitan Opera, for which he received a long standing ovation for his role as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca.
On 1 December 2004, he announced a 40-city farewell tour, produced by Harvey Goldsmith. His last full-scale performance was in Taiwan in December 2005.[43]
On 10 February 2006, Pavarotti performed "Nessun dorma" as the last act of the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy, his final performance. However, as he was unsure of the strength of his voice due to health issues, he prerecorded the song and lip synced the performance, with approval from the International Olympic Committee.[44] His performance received the longest and loudest ovation of the night.[45]
Personal life
Relationships
In the 1950s, Pavarotti met Adua Veroni. They married in 1961 and had three daughters: Lorenza, Cristina, and Giuliana. They separated in the early 1990s and divorced in 2002.[46][47]
On 13 December 2003, he married his second wife and former personal assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani (born 1969, 34 years younger than Pavarotti), with whom he already had another daughter, Alice (born in January 2003), when Pavarotti was 67. Her twin brother, Riccardo, was stillborn.[48]
Tax evasion charges
Pavarotti long claimed Monte Carlo in the tax haven of Monaco as his tax residence, but, in 1999, an Italian court rejected that claim by ruling that his Monaco address could not accommodate his entire family and accused him of tax evasion. In 2000, Pavarotti agreed to pay the Italian government 24 million Italian lire, and in 2001, he was acquitted in an Italian court of tax evasion charges.[49]
Health issues and death
Pavarotti had long struggled with his weight and was 350 pounds (160 kg) at his heaviest. In 1998, he had double hip replacement surgery and knee surgery.[50]
In March 2005, Pavarotti underwent neck surgery to repair two vertebrae. In early 2006, he underwent back surgery and contracted an infection while in the hospital in New York, forcing cancellation of concerts in the US, Canada, and the UK.[51]
In July 2006, after suffering from abdominal discomfort and weight loss, Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has a very low survival rate. He cancelled the remainder of his concerts and underwent successful surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to remove the tumor. However, the cancer had already undergone metastasis.[52] Pavarotti died at his home in Modena on 6 September 2007. His manager noted that "he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness".[53][54]
Pavarotti's funeral was held at Modena Cathedral. Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Kofi Annan attended.[55] The Frecce Tricolori, the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force, flew overhead, leaving green-white-red smoke trails. After a funeral procession through the centre of Modena, Pavarotti's coffin was taken the final ten kilometres (6 miles) to Montale Rangone, a village part of Castelnuovo Rangone, and was interred in the Pavarotti family crypt. The funeral, in its entirety, was also telecast live on CNN. The Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival hall flew black flags in mourning.[56] Tributes were published by many opera houses, such as London's Royal Opera House.[56]
At the time of his death in September 2007, he was survived by his wife, his four daughters, and one granddaughter.[46][57][58]
Estate
Pavarotti's estate was valued at as much as €300 million before deducting debts and mortgages of €18 million. It included a villa in Pesaro, a home in Modena (now a museum), a high-profile co-op apartment in New York City, an apartment in Monte Carlo, international royalties, stage costumes, and art collections.[59][60]
Pavarotti had three wills: one, under Italian law, for his Italian assets, one, under US law, for his US assets, and a third handwritten will that reduced his wife's share.[61][62]
His Italian will gave half of his estate to his second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and half to his four daughters, split equally amongst them; the second will gave his all his U.S. holdings to Mantovani. Pavarotti's daughters felt shortchanged and contested the will and a Pesaropublic prosecutor, Massimo di Patria, investigated allegations that Pavarotti was not of sound mind when he signed the will. As part of a compromise confirmed by a judge in July 2008, the daughters were given the house in Pesaro.[60][63][64]
Pavarotti's one venture into film was Yes, Giorgio (1982), a romantic comedy movie directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, in which he starred as the main character Giorgio Fini. The film was a critical and commercial failure, although it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Song.
He can be seen to better advantage in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's movie Rigoletto, an adaptation of the opera of the same name also released in 1982, or in his more than 20 live opera performances taped for television between 1978 and 1994, most of them with the Metropolitan Opera, and most available on DVD.
He received two Primetime Emmy Awards for his PBS variety specials Pavarotti in Philadelphia: La Boheme and Duke of Mantua, Rigoletto Great Performances.[65]
Pavarotti, a 2019 documentary film about him, was directed by Ron Howard and produced with the cooperation of Pavarotti's estate using family archives, interviews and live music footage.[66]
In 1999, he also hosted a charity benefit concert to build a school in Guatemala, for Guatemalan civil war orphans. It was named after him Centro Educativo Pavarotti. Now the foundation of Nobel prize winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum is running the school.
Humanitarian honours
Handprint of Luciano Pavarotti. Atlantic City Boardwalk New Jersey USA 2006
In 2001, Pavarotti received the Nansen Medal from the UN High Commission for Refugees for his efforts in raising money on behalf of refugees worldwide. Through benefit concerts and volunteer work, he has raised more than any other individual.[72]
Also in 2001, Pavarotti was chosen one of that year's five recipients by the President and First Lady as an honoree for their lifetime achievements in the arts at the White House, followed by the Kennedy Center; the Kennedy Center Honors, He was surprised by the appearance of Secretary-General of the United Nations and that year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Kofi Annan, who lauded him for his contribution to humankind. Six months prior, Pavarotti had held a large charity concert for Afghan refugees, particularly children in his home town of Modena, Italy.[73][74]
In addition to his very large discography of opera performances, Pavarotti also made many classical crossover and pop recordings, the Pavarotti & Friends series of concerts and, for Decca, a series of studio recital albums: first six albums of opera arias and then, from 1979, six albums of Italian song.
1980 – Grand Marshal at the New York City's Columbus Day Parade on 12 October. He decided to lead the parade riding a horse and wearing a cloak with stripes, stars and the colours of the US flag[80]
^ abHerbert H. Breslin, The King and I: The Uncensored Tale of Luciano Pavarotti's Rise to Fame by His Manager, Friend and Sometime Adversary, New York: Doubleday Publishing, 2004 ISBN978-0-385-50972-5ISBN0-385-50972-3
^Harlow, Anne (14 September 2007). "Luciano Pavarotti, 1935–2007". Temple University Libraries News. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
^Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton (2008), "'The Decca Studio Albums' Disc 1 (1968): Arias by (with VPO, Downes) The Verdi and Donizetti collection was one of Pavarotti's earliest recital discs" in The Penguin Guide to Recorded Music, London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2003 ISBN0-14-101384-2. p. 1544.
3rd Class / Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco
