Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti is a Italian Ténor , born with Modena on October 12th, 1935 and died in the same city on September 6th, 2007. Often quoted like largest and the most popular singer of opera since Enrico Caruso, it sang more the traditional great outdoors, in particular those of Verdi and Puccini, and also collaborated with artists come from various musical universes, like U2, Sting, Elton John, Céline Dion, Sepultura or the Spice Girls.

In addition to forty years of career, it contributed to popularize the classical music during many televised concerts, particularly at the time of the series of representations of the Three Tenors (with Plácido Domingo and Jose Carreras). The full number of its sold albums is estimated at approximately hundred million.

Pavarotti also used of its popularity for the success of actions of charity, at the time of concerts at the conclusion which funds are collected (assistance with the refugees and the Croix-Rouge).

Biography

Wire of Fernando Pavarotti, a baker singer at his hours, and of Adele Venturini, employed of factory, Luciano Pavarotti has a sister, Gabriella.

It leaves four children: of his first wife, Adua Veroni, it has three girls (born in 1962,1964 and 1976); from his second wife Nicoletta Mantovani, first assistant and secretary whom he marries at the end of 2003, a girl is born, on January 14th, 2003, Alice. He also became grandfather in April 2002.

These last years, the singer had had to take into account a health become more fragile.
Already operated of a tumor in July 2006, again hospitalized on August 9th, 2007, he dies in the night from September 5th to 6th of a Cancer of the pancreas in his villa of Modena where he wanted to return.

Its funerals are celebrated the September 8th in the cathedral of Modena in the presence of 800 people close to the family and of many official, whose president of the council Romano Prodi, vice-president Francesco Rutelli, ministers Ricardo Franco Levi, Arturo Parisi, Giulio Santagata and Serafino Zucchelli, mayor of Modena George Pighi and chair it area Emilie-Romagna, Vasco Errani, the ambassador of the the United States Ronald Déshabilles, the ambassador of Monaco Philippe Blanchi, the former secretary-general of UNO Kofi Annan, the director-general of FAO Jacques Diouf, the Secretary of State of the the Vatican, the cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and of the singers to the number of its friends, Bono, Caterina Caselli, Jovanotti, Luciano Ligabue, Gianni Morandi and Zucchero, the tenor Andrea Bocelli, the soprano Mirella Freni, for which it is necessary to add the realizer Franco Zeffirelli, the dancer Carla Fracci and the director of the Metropolitan Opera of New York Joe Volpe.

Several personalities whose prince Albert II de Monaco and soprano Montserrat Cabal, sent crowns of flowers deposited in the cathedral. The ceremony was chaired by the archbishop Benito Cocchi, who in particular read a message of the pope. The Bulgarian soprano Grooved Kabaivanska, obviously moved, interpreted the Ave Maria . At the end of the office, Andrea Bocelli entonné the Ave Verum Corpus .

Career

Years 1960-1970

Its career with the opera concretely begins on April 29th, 1961 with the role from Rodolfo in Bohemian the , in Emilie-Romagna. As of this triumph, Luciano Pavarotti starts to be made a name in all Europe. The things evolve/move very quickly when, a certain evening of 1963, one proposes to him to replace with the foot raised the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano: the public of the Royal Opera House with Covent Garden (London) is under the shock. Luciano Pavarotti took up the challenge with hand of Master. The Scala of Milan opens to him its doors in 1965 thanks to the Leader Herbert von Karajan with which it says all to have.

It makes its beginnings in the in February 1965 United States with Great Miami Opera at the sides of Joan Sutherland. Little time after, on April 28th, it makes its beginnings in Scala of Milan in Bohemian the , but also in Rigoletto an opera where it camps the “duke of Mantoue”, large seducer of women, role which it will take again with many recoveries during his career. After a round widened as far as Australia, it turns over to Scala where it adds “Tebaldo” to its repertory, on March 26th, 1966, with Giacomo Aragall in “Romeo”. Its first “Tonio” takes seat in Covent Garden, on June 2nd, 1966. November 20th, 1969, he triumphs in I Lombardi went PRIMA crociata to Rome: it is also its first recorded and put opera on sale thereafter; it includes/understands also airs of Donizetti and Verdi. Its notoriety bursts in the United States on February 17th, 1972, with the Girl of the regiment , with the Metropolitan Opera New York. The Maestro manages to connect with an disconcerting ease the nine top Cs of the air “Ah! my friends, what a feastday! ”. This interpretation was worth seventeen recalls to him, which is exceptional in the lyric world. Consequently, this success in Metropolitan Opera is a reference in the career of Luciano Pavarotti and the opera is many times retransmis by television. Thus its diffusion, in March 1977, in Live from the Met telecat create the greatest audience ever obtained for a televised opera. Pavarotti gains, parallel to this success, of many Grammy Award gold S and discs.

Years 1980-1990

With the beginning of the year 1980, it creates “ The Pavarotti International Voice Competition ” for the young people Chanteur S, and, at the conclusion of each contest, it gives a recital where it sings with gaining. Thus, in 1982, he sings on extracts of Bohemian the and '' a ballo in Maschera ''. To celebrate its twenty-five years of career, it invites gaining them of the contests in Italy for a recital where it interprets airs drawn from Bohemian the , in Modena and Genoa and then, in China; it off finishes this round with the Great Hall the people with Beijing in front of: 10000 people and receives a standing ovation for the nine top Cs carried out with ease. The third contest, in 1989, is carried out on airs of Elisir d' Amore and a ballo in will maschera . The winner of the fifth contest accompanies Pavarotti in a recital with Philadelphia in 1997.

For Luciano Pavarotti, the year 1990 represents a turning of its international recognition; that begins at the time of the football world cup in 1990 in Italy, the air “'' Nessun dorma ''” of the opera Turandot of Puccini becomes the official air of the world championship. Throughout the years 1990, Pavarotti occurs in many concerts “in the open air”; thus, the concert of Hyde Park in London attracts an audience record of: 150000 spectators. In June 1993, more: 500000 spectators and more than one million televiewers attend the spectacle of maestro on line of Central Park in New York.

However, the rise of Luciano Pavarotti towards the celebrity is not without difficulties. It gains very quickly in the world of the opera, the nickname of “king of cancellations”: indeed, from its relatively fragile health, Luciano Pavarotti is brought has to countermand certain operas. That causes problems with certain houses of opera, like Lyric Opéra off Chicago with which it maintains very bad relations.

Years 2000

In 2002, Pavarotti separates from that which was its manager during 36 years, Herbert Breslin. Separation, virulent, is followed, in 2004, of the publication of a book of Breslin entitled the King and Me , seen by several like a mainly criticizable work. Its skill to read the Music and to learn the roles, its personal control are called in question. September 12th, 2005, into an interview in 2005 with Jeremy Paxman on the BBC, Luciano Pavarotti rejects the idea according to which it could not “decipher” the music, although it recognizes that it has sometimes difficulties in follow the Orchestre S when it interprets roles.

It receives the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001 and currently holds two Guinness records: to have received the most recalls (that is to say 165) and the second, for the best world sales of album S traditional S (concert of the three tenors/record divided with Placido Domingo and Jose Will square).

Pavarotti begins its round of good-bye in 2004, at the 69 years age, while singing, for the last time throughout the world, the most known and invaluable airs of the opera. Pavarotti gives its last concert to the opera in Metropolitan Opera on March 13rd, 2004: it receives twelve minutes of ovation in the role of the painter “Mario Cavaradossi” ( Tosca of Puccini). December 1st, 2004, it chooses the forty cities in which it will carry out its round of good-bye, produced by Harvey Goldsmith.

February 10th, 2006, Pavarotti interprets Nessun Dorma with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics of 2006 with Turin in Italy; it is its last public appearance on a scene. The final act of the opening ceremony is reserved to him, its performance receives thus longest and the most important ovation of the night, by a public come from the whole world. However, let us note that the air had had to be transposed a lower semitone, considering its age (71 years).

Collaborations

Three Tenors

It is on July 7th, 1990 that Pavarotti joined the Spanish tenors Plácido Domingo and Jose Carreras to form the Three Tenors. Thus, to celebrate the Football world cup which proceeds in Italy, the three tenors interpret, in front of old the Thermes of Caracalla to Rome, the most known operatic arias of the repertory, under the direction of the leader Zubin Mehta.

In 1994, the three tenors meet again, always for the Football world cup, this time at Los Angeles, owe more than one million spectators and televiewers, always under the rod of the leader Zubin Mehta.

And then in 1998, year when the Football world cup proceeded in France, the three tenors choose the Eiffel Tower for their concert, in a decoration signed by the producer Tibor Rudas, under the direction of the pianist and leader James Levine. They are on line in front of a public hundred times more important than that of Rome, are two billion televiewers divided in the whole world.

Pavarotti and Friends

Its activities do not stop with the concerts of the three tenors. Luciano Pavarotti dedicates most of its time to the concerts of charity and the humanitarian actions. Thus, of 1992 to 2002, one can count up to seven called concerts with humane range Pavarotti and Friends , on line of the Piazza Grande of his birthplace, Modena.

These last concerts do not have that a caritative range, they as make it possible Pavarotti to be expressed in another field as it his: the variety; he sang with the most recognized artists, Bono, Elton John, Céline Dion, Joe Cocker, Sting, to quote only them: in all, more than 100 singers, of all horizons (Jazz, Gospel, Rap, variety, and of course, opera). By the means of these concerts, Pavarotti made it possible million people to hear for the first time some of the more great outdoors of opera. One thus admits the merit to him, of the first, to have succeeded in one popularizing the opera near the general public.

These concerts are also for Pavarotti an invitation with the outside world to come in its birthplace, transformed, according to its expression, in “Italian Hollywood”.

Some anecdotes on its life

Although many people allot the success of Pavarotti to its lucky star, one can as notice as its life was often marked out obstacles. As of the twelve years age, Luciano Pavarotti came very close to death: it had caught the Tétanos and was in the Coma. When he tells this anecdote, he says that when he took again conscience, he intended people to discuss around his bed. They said that it had already received the last Sacrement S with three recoveries, that the priest would return the following day, but that, according to the doctors, it would not spend the night.

There were then all its problems of weights which frequently complexed it. It is since age the thirty years victim of overweight, which obliges it to constantly make modes containing mineral water and of fruits. These conditions often pose problems to him. Thus, it had on several occasions to undergo operations with the knees and the back.

Luciano Pavarotti was famous to be a very good cook and when one speaks to him about food, he says that he owes all that with his childhood and in particular with his called mother “ Mamma ”. Also, for the anecdote, when Luciano Pavarotti went in hotels, he asked remballer food that he had not consumed. When it was pointed out to him, it usually qualified this reaction “the poor”.

The Superstition is also a belief which occupied part of the life of Luciano Pavarotti; thus, when he saw a black cat crossing the street, he tried to convince himself that he was white. Its close relations often entrusted to the media that, when Pavarotti arrived on scene, it had a nail twisted out of pocket which it had beforehand unearthed on the scene or near the machinists.

The “Master of the top Cs” would never have known to decipher partitions of music although it managed to follow the orchestras. He was justified by saying that, without the partitions, he did nothing but listen to the other services (often by Enrico Caruso he always admired the exceptional voice) and could thus have a greater freedom of interpretation on scene and vocally.

He had another passion: horses and horsemanship. Rider until he considers too large, he created a deprived equestrian school, the Club Europa . Moreover, it organized an important contest of jump of high level obstacles international, the international Pavarotti CSIO San Marino , which was held during more than ten years (1991 to 2001) in its property of Modena.

Lastly, an element impossible to circumvent: its scarf. It is certainly about “the work tools” to which he held more because, for him, this scarf belonged to its life since the beginning of its career. It thus accompanied maestro with all the representations.

Carlos Kleiber, leader, said of him: When Luciano Pavarotti sings, the sun rises on the world.

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