Luciano Pavarotti è among the ten greatest opera singers of all time. Born in Modena on 12 October 1935, he would turn 83 this year, but unfortunately an illness took him away on 6 September 2007, at the age of 71. His father Fernando Pavarotti was the architect of his approach to opera: he involved him in the Choral Rossini, where she sang at the amateur level and together they won an award at the Llangollen Festival in Wales. This first success convinced the young Luciano to become one of the greatest international tenors.
1: the preferred role
Pavarotti received the first recognition in 1961 at the international competition Achille Peri, who consecrated it to the general public. On April 29 of the same year he made his debut at the Municipal Theater of Reggio Emilia with Rodolfo's role in Bohemian by Puccini. It will be a "fetish" role that will accompany him over the years and will inaugurate all the greatest stages of his career. It will also be Rodolfo in his first international release in 1963 in Vienna, where he will successfully replace the Sicilian tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, indisposed for a sudden illness. In 1965 it will be the debut year at the Teatro alla Scala, With the 'Elixir of Love by Donizetti and then with the Bohemian. He will also play the role of Rodolfo at the San Francisco Opera in 1967, at the Arena di Verona in 1972 and in 1977 at the Metropolitan in New York.
17: the record of calls on stage
It was 1972, Pavarotti performed at the Metripolitan Opera House in New York with the very difficult piece of La Fille of Régiment by Donizetti, performing 9 high C and winning a standing ovation from the American public. After the curtain fell, he was called back on stage 17 times, perhaps a record still unbeaten today.
1991: the concert of the 30 years of career in Hyde Park
In 1991 in Hyde Park, London, Luciano performed in a concert for his parents 30 years of career. Among the hundreds of thousands of people present, there were also the royals Carlo and Lady Diana. Luciano will establish a great friendship with the First Lady, which will last until the premature death of the Princess. Pavarotti was asked to sing during Lady Diana's funeral, but he refused because he was unable to perform "with pain in the throat". After the Hyde Park concert, Pavarotti continued the outdoor performances: alla Eiffel Tower and Central Park in New York.
1992-2003: the years of Pavarotti & Friends
Pavarotti was also a generous and selfless person. For several years he organized and ran it charity show Pavarotti & Friends, calling Italian and international artists to perform with him on stage. Magical duets that remain over time and testimonies of a social commitment aimed at helping the poorest areas of the planet. According to some critics, the passage of the tenor to pop music, with the consequent simplification of the technique, meant the end of his opera career. Pavarotti also decided to support other causes, including an association of fight against cancer, a disease that will take him away in 2007.
2: the headquarters of the Foundation
After the death of the great tenor, his second wife Nicoletta Mantovani decided to create the Pavarotti foundation to keep Big Luciano's memory alive, but also to continue his training activities for new talents. Before being an internationally successful tenor, Luciano was a teacher of physical education. There vocation to teaching he always remained with him and in the last years of his life he dedicated himself to the students, whom he welcomed into his home in Modena, sometimes even for free. The Foundation, also present in New York since 2011, wants to give young opera singers the opportunity to make themselves known and heard. An example is the soprano Eleonora Buratto, a former student of great conductor.
2004: the year of farewell to the Opera
Pavarotti chose the Metropolitan Opera House for his farewell to the opera scene. Big Luciano was in fact very attached to New York and in particular he performed 380 times at the Metropolitan, from 1967 to 2004, when he played his own last Tosca, receiving a 35-second ovation from the audience in the hall. Only his friend sugar convinced him to sing one last time at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The reason of abandonment it was due to the "bad company" of pancreatic cancer, which was removed urgently in July 2006.
And while in Italy as abroad Pavarotti is still today theopera icon, we all also remember it as a father, husband and teacher with a prodigious talent.
