Pavarotti - Class Act with the Common Touch

Pavarotti

We pay tribute to the great tenor who died last week from Pancreatic Cancer.

With his 20-stone frame and ebullient personality, Luciano Pavarotti may have epitomised the stereotype of the huge, bearded, pasta-eating tenor.
But he was a man who combined real class with real popularity and that must never be forgotten.
 
Real class in that he graced the world’s great opera stages and was undoubtedly one of the greatest and most proficient tenors that ever sang.

Real popularity because he collaborated with Bono and Mariah Carey, formed the Three Tenors with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo and introduced opera to the masses when he sang  'Nessun Dorma' for the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.
 
Born in Modena, in northern Italy, his father, Fernando, was a baker with a vast record collection who sang in his spare time while his mother worked in a tobacco factory.
Pavarotti, who was often minded by his grandmother, was known later in life to cancel major performances for family reasons, usually his parents’ illness.
 
His own private and romantic life may have had troubles of their own.
But it was his voice that will survive long in the memory and which imprinted itself on the world of opera ever since he  made his debut at the Teatro Municipale, Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy, on April 29 1961, rising to even greater heights of fame 11 years later, on February 17 1972, when he sang Tonio in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment at the New York Met to widespread acclaim.
 
Later in life he attracted accusations that his handerchief-waving on stage was dumbing down opera as the caricatural "one more cornetto" kind as he sang middle-of-the-road, popular stuff time and time again.
 
But can you really argue with the thousands of people went to see Turandot after hearing Nessun Dorma?
 
The point about Pavarotti is that he achieved both musical respect and mass impact of a kind that had not really been equalled.
His voice was unique in timbre and power - a sweet Italian voice that could sing late-19th-century music with lyricism and beauty and showed above all a man with a natural feeling for music.
 
In fact he ended up completely dominating the world of classical music so much that many a record shop labelled its classical music section was labelled "Pavarotti etc".
 
But he was a real tenor, a class act who had brilliant projection and perfect enunciation and yes, a ravishing beauty. Just go and listen to him again to remind yourself.
 
Luciano Pavarotti, born October 12 1935; died September 6 2007

Ben Dowell
 

 


 

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