Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...
who during the late part of his career crossed over into
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
s and individual
aria
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
s, gaining worldwide fame for his tone, and gaining the
nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
"King of the
High C
C or Do is the first note and semitone of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequ ...
s".
As one of
the Three Tenors
The Three Tenors were an operatic singing trio, active during the 1990s and early 2000s, and termed as a supergroup (a title normally reserved for rock and pop groups) consisting of Italian Luciano Pavarotti and Spaniards Plácido Domingo and ...
, who performed their first concert during the
1990 FIFA World Cup before a global audience, Pavarotti became well known for his televised concerts and media appearances. From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of "
Nessun dorma
"" (; English: "Let no one sleep") is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' (text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni) and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, (the unknown prince), ...
" at the
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...
in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
, Pavarotti was at his best in
bel canto operas, pre-''
Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...
''
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
roles, and
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
works such as ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
'', ''
Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...
'', ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
'' and ''
Madama Butterfly''. He sold over 100 million records, and the
first Three Tenors recording became the best-selling classical album of all time. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of
refugees and the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
, amongst others. He died from
pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.
Biography
Early life and musical training
Luciano Pavarotti was born in 1935 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. 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
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
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
football goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
, 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
Giovanni Martinelli (22 October 1885 – 2 February 1969) was an Italian operatic tenor. He was associated with the Italian lyric-dramatic repertory, although he performed French operatic roles to great acclaim as well. Martinelli was one of t ...
,
Tito Schipa
Tito Schipa (; born Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa; 2 January 1889 in Lecce16 December 1965) was an Italian lyric tenor, considered the greatest tenore di grazia and one of the most popular tenors of the century.
Biography
Schipa was born as ...
, and
Enrico Caruso. Pavarotti's favourite tenor and idol was
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano (24 July 19213 March 2008) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. Called Pippo by both fans and friends, he was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voic ...
and he was also deeply influenced by
Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at ...
, 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.
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
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
, 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
Arrigo Pola (5 July 1919 – 3 November 1999) was an Italian tenor who had an active international performance career during the 1940s through the 1960s. After, he embarked on a second career, as a celebrated voice teacher in both Italy and Jap ...
, 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.
In 1955, he experienced his first singing success when he was a member of the Corale Rossini, a
male voice choir
A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...
from Modena that also included his father, which won first prize at the
International Eisteddfod
The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is a music festival which takes place every year during the second week of July in Llangollen, North Wales. It is one of several large annual Eisteddfodau in Wales. Singers and dancers from around ...
in
Llangollen
Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Bea ...
, Wales. He later said that this was the most important experience of his life, and that it inspired him to become a professional singer. At about this time Pavarotti first met Adua Veroni. They married in 1961. When his teacher Arrigo Pola moved to Japan, Pavarotti became a student of
Ettore Campogalliani
Ettore Campogalliani (30 September 1903 – 3 June 1992) was an Italian composer, musician and teacher.
Campogalliani studied piano in 1921, graduating from the Conservatory of Bologna. He then studied composition at the Conservatory of Parma in ...
, who at that time was also teaching Pavarotti's childhood friend,
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, OMRI (, born Mirella Fregni, 27 February 1935 – 9 February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Gl ...
, whose mother worked with Luciano's mother in the cigar factory. Like Pavarotti, Freni went on to become a successful opera singer; they would go on to collaborate in various stage performances and recordings together.
During his years of musical study, Pavarotti held part-time jobs in order 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
In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speec ...
, 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".
Career: 1960s–1970s
Pavarotti began his career as a tenor in smaller regional Italian opera houses, making his debut as Rodolfo in ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
'' at the
Teatro Municipale in
Reggio Emilia in April 1961. His first known recording of "
Che gelida manina
"Che gelida manina" ("What a frozen little hand") is a tenor aria from the first act of Giacomo Puccini's opera, ''La bohème''. The aria is sung by Rodolfo to Mimì when they first meet. In the aria he tells her of his life as a poet, and ends by ...
" was recorded during this performance. Pavarotti's first of two marriages was to his first wife Adua Veroni which lasted from 1961 to 2000 and they had three daughters: Lorenza, Cristina, and Giuliana.
![Luciano Pavarotti 72](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Luciano_Pavarotti_72.jpg)
He made his first international appearance in ''
La traviata'' in
Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
. Very early in his career, on 23 February 1963, he debuted at the
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...
in the same role. In March and April 1963 Vienna saw Pavarotti again as Rodolfo and as Duca di Mantova in ''
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...
''. The same year saw his first concert outside Italy when he sang in
Dundalk
Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...
, Ireland for the St Cecilia's Gramophone Society, he was engaged by the Dublin Grand Opera Society to sing The Duke of Mantua in Verdi's
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...
in May and June, and his
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...
debut, where he replaced an indisposed
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano (24 July 19213 March 2008) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. Called Pippo by both fans and friends, he was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voic ...
as Rodolfo.
There exist on archive.org three complete performances from Pavarotti's early career in 1964, when he was engaged by the Dublin Grand Opera Society to sing Rudolfo in
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
's ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
'' (Audio recording of
LA BOHEME
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
Presented on May 19, 21, 27, Jun 1 1964 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season) and Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's ''
La Traviata'' (Audio recording of
LA TRAVIATA Presented on Jun 8 1964 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society's Spring Season, Audio recording of
LA TRAVIATA Presented on May 25, 1964 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society's Spring Season). Also available are reviews of those performances in which the reviewers favorably comment on his singing (from the reviews for "La Boheme"): "sang sweetly and appealingly," "rich promise," "outstanding," "fit for the big heroic roles," and "robust;" his voice: "pure tone", "arresting quality," "unforced strength and range," "well sustained," and "lovely;" and his acting: "looked and moved well," "sang with musically-directed intelligence," "used the voice to reinforce his acting," and "chief delight of the evening."
While generally successful, Pavarotti's early roles did not immediately propel him into the stardom that he would later enjoy. An early coup involved his connection with
Joan Sutherland (and her conductor husband,
Richard Bonynge), who in 1963 was seeking a tenor taller than herself to take along on her 1965 tour to Australia. With his commanding physical presence, Pavarotti proved ideal. However, before the summer 1965 Australia tour Pavarotti sang with Joan Sutherland when he made his American début with the
Greater Miami Opera in February 1965, singing in
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style duri ...
's ''
Lucia di Lammermoor
''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...
'' on the stage of the
Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami. The tenor scheduled to perform that night became ill with no understudy. As Sutherland had plans to travel with him on the Australia tour that summer, she recommended the young Pavarotti as he was acquainted with the role. Shortly after, on 28 April, Pavarotti made his
La Scala debut in the revival of the
Franco Zeffirelli
Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post-World War II era, ...
production of ''La bohème,'' with his childhood friend
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, OMRI (, born Mirella Fregni, 27 February 1935 – 9 February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Gl ...
singing Mimi and
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...
conducting. Karajan had requested the singer's engagement.
![Pavarotti - Sutherland 1976](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Pavarotti_-_Sutherland_1976.jpg)
During the Australia tour in summer 1965 Sutherland and Pavarotti sang some forty performances over two months, and Pavarotti later credited Sutherland for the breathing technique that would sustain him over his career. After the extended Australian tour, he returned to La Scala, where he added Tebaldo from ''
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
''I Capuleti e i Montecchi'' (''The Capulets and the Montagues'') is an Italian opera (''Tragedia lirica'') in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of ''Romeo and Juliet'' for an opera by Nicol ...
'' to his repertoire on 26 March 1966, with
Giacomo Aragall as Romeo. His first appearance as Tonio in Donizetti's ''
La fille du régiment
' (''The Daughter of the Regiment'') is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard. It was first performed on 11 February 1840 by the Paris Opéra ...
'' took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 2 June of that year. It was his performances of this role that would earn him the title of "King of the High Cs". He scored another major triumph in Rome on 20 November 1969 when he sang in ''
I Lombardi
''I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata'' (''The Lombards on the First Crusade'') is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, which was "very much ...
'' opposite
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director.
Recognized for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation.
Since ...
. 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
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
'' were particularly highly regarded) and
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
aria
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
s, as well as a complete ''
L'elisir d'amore'' with Sutherland.
His major breakthrough in the United States came on 17 February 1972, in a production of ''La fille du régiment'' at New York's
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
, in which he drove the crowd into a frenzy with his nine effortless
high Cs in the signature
aria
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
. He achieved a record seventeen curtain calls. Pavarotti sang his international
recital
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety ...
début at
William Jewell College
William Jewell College is a private liberal arts college in Liberty, Missouri. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and endowed with $10,000 by William Jewell. It was associated with the Missouri Baptist Conventi ...
in
Liberty, Missouri, on 1 February 1973, as part of the college's Fine Arts Program, now known as th
Harriman–Jewell Series Perspiring due to nerves and a lingering cold, the tenor clutched a handkerchief throughout the début. The prop became a signature part of his solo performances. He began to give frequent television performances, starting with his performances as Rodolfo (''La bohème'') in the first
Live from the Met
''Live from the Metropolitan Opera'' (or: ''Live from the Met'') was an American television program that presented performances of complete operas from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network.
Th ...
telecast in March 1977, which attracted one of the largest audiences ever for a televised opera. He won many
Grammy awards and
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
and
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
s for his performances. In addition to the previously listed titles, his ''
La favorite
''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le com ...
'' with
Fiorenza Cossotto
Fiorenza Cossotto (born 22 April 1935) is an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano.
Life and career
Born on 22 April 1935, in Crescentino, Province of Vercelli, Italy, Cossotto attended the Turin Academy of Music and studied with Mercedes Llopart. Sh ...
and his ''
I puritani
' (''The Puritans'') is an 1835 opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto ...
'' (1975) with Sutherland stand out.
In 1976, Pavarotti debuted at the
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...
, 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
(''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...
'' in 1983 with ''
Idomeneo
' (Italian for '' Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', K. 366) is an Italian language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a Frenc ...
,'' and both in 1985 and 1988 with solo recitals. In 1979, he was profiled in a cover story in the weekly magazine ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''. That same year saw Pavarotti's return to the
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...
after an absence of fourteen years. With Herbert von Karajan conducting, Pavarotti sang Manrico in ''
Il trovatore
''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...
.'' In 1978, he appeared in a solo recital on ''
Live from Lincoln Center
''Live from Lincoln Center'' is a seventeen-time Emmy Award-winning series that has broadcast notable performances from the Lincoln Center in New York City on PBS since 1976. The program airs between six and nine times per season. Episodes of '' ...
.''
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
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, and then to China where they staged performances of ''La bohème'' in Beijing (
Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
). To conclude the visit, Pavarotti performed the inaugural concert in the
Great Hall of the People before 10,000 people, receiving a
standing ovation
A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim. In Ancient Rome returning military commanders (such as Marcus Licinius Crassus a ...
for nine effortless high Cs. 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
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
in 1997.
In the mid-1980s, Pavarotti returned to two opera houses that had provided him with important breakthroughs, the
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...
and
La Scala. Vienna saw Pavarotti as Rodolfo in ''La bohème'' with
Carlos Kleiber
Carlos Luis Bonifacio Kleiber (3 July 1930 – 13 July 2004) was an Austrian conductor who is widely regarded as among the greatest conductors of all time.
Early life
Kleiber was born as Karl Ludwig Bonifacius Kleiber in Berlin in 1930, the ...
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 Tibor Rudas (6 February 1920 – 8 September 2014), was a Hungarian-born American entrepreneur, known for conceptualising Luciano Pavarotti performances in sports arena settings and later signing the "Three Tenors" José Carreras, Plácido Dom ...
and
Harvey Goldsmith
Harvey Goldsmith (born 4 March 1946 in Edgware, Middlesex) is an English performing arts promoter. He is best known as a promoter of rock concerts, charity concerts, television broadcasts for the Prince's Trust and more recently the Teenag ...
booked Pavarotti into increasingly larger venues.
![Lucio Dalla, Pavarotti e Zucchero al Pavarotti e friends 1992](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Lucio_Dalla%2C_Pavarotti_e_Zucchero_al_Pavarotti_e_friends_1992.jpg)
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. 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. Pavarotti's performance was heavily criticised by some observers and booed by parts of the audience.
Pavarotti became even better known throughout the world in 1990 when his rendition of the aria "
Nessun dorma
"" (; English: "Let no one sleep") is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' (text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni) and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, (the unknown prince), ...
" from
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
's ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
'' was taken as the theme song of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in Italy. The aria achieved pop status, became the World Cup soundtrack, and it remained his trademark song. This was followed by the first
. The performance for the World Cup closing concert captivated a global audience, and it became the biggest selling classical record of all time. A highlight of the concert, in which Pavarotti sang the opening verses using extended vocal runs for di Capua's "
" and which was in turn perfectly repeated note-for-note by Domingo and Carreras to the delight of the audience. The recorded album sold millions of copies, and the
became the best-selling classical album of all time.
Throughout the 1990s, Pavarotti appeared in many well-attended outdoor concerts,
, 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
, while millions more around the world watched on television. The following September, in the shadow of the
in Paris, he sang for an estimated crowd of 300,000. Following on from the original 1990 concert, the Three Tenors concerts were held during the three subsequent
, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama.
, who attended the live performance, told O'Riordan that the song brought her to tears. In 1995, Pavarotti's friends, the singer
(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
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.
Pavarotti's rise to stardom was not without occasional difficulties, however. He 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. This was brought into focus in 1989 when
severed the house's 15-year relationship with the tenor.
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, 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. On 12 December 1998, he became the first (and, to date, only) opera singer to perform on ''
. He also sang with
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1999. In 1998, Pavarotti was presented with the
.
In 2001, Pavarotti was acquitted in Italian court of a long standing dispute concerning his official country of residency and taxable earnings. Pavarotti long claimed
as his official residence, but an Italian court in 1999 had rejected that claim by ruling that his Monaco address could not accommodate his entire family. In 2000 Pavarotti agreed to pay the Italian government more than $7.6 million in back taxes and penalties as a result of tax evasion charges that dated from 1989 to 1995. Pavarotti was subsequently fully acquitted by an Italian court of filing false tax returns in 2001.
On 13 December 2003, he married his second wife and former personal assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani (born 1969), with whom he already had another daughter, Alice. Alice's twin brother, Riccardo, was
after complications in January 2003. At the time of his death in September 2007, he was survived by his wife, his four daughters, and one granddaughter.
In late 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. The tenor described the album as a wedding gift to Nicoletta Mantovani. That same year he was made a Commander of Monaco's
, published a book, ''The King & I''.
Seen by critics as bitter and sensationalistic, 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
...