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Luciano Pavarotti Music
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Luciano Pavarotti Bio
In the late 20th century, it seems like nobody
typifies Opera more than Pavarotti. Audiences the
world over know him as one of the "Three Tenors"
who've done PBS specials, albums, and concerts
everywhere, Italian restaurants play his records to
"set the mood," and 500,000 people turned out in
New York's Central Park to see a 1993 live
performance by the man known as "The King of High
C."
Luciano Pavarotti hails from Modena, Italy, known
for the Ferrari, the Maserati,and balsamic vinegar.
He was born in 1935, the son of a baker. His mother
also worked, in a cigar factory, but the family was
very poor. As a youngster, Pavarotti was
enthusiastic about soccer and was a star member of
the Modena soccer team (he still follows soccer
avidly). Although he was fond of singing along to
opera records as a child, he realized he had to
earn a living. He became a teacher, and by age 19,
was teaching elementary school for 8 dollars a
month. But he also sang in the Rossini Male Chorus
of Modena which his opera-loving father sang in and
had introduced him to. When the Chorus won first
prize in an international competition, young
Luciano knew he'd found his true calling.
The road to operatic success was a long one for
Luciano Pavarotti. He obtained free singing lessons
from a local tenor who saw his potential and knew
he couldn't afford to pay. Pavarotti quit teaching
to sell insurance but decided the sales pitches he
had to make were tiring his vocal chords which had
to be kept vital for singing. In 1961, as the
result of winning a singing contest, he finally
succeeded in landing a role, that of Rodolpho in
"La Boheme" in a production in Reggio Emilia. After
that, he got roles in operas throughout Italy and
Europe.
In 1963,28 year old Pavarotti was singing in
London's Covent Garden where he was heard by famed
Australian soprano Joan Sutherland and her husband
, conductor Richard Bonynge. Their excitement about
the young tenor's voice led to their arranging two
years in advance for him to make his American
debut. This came in Miami in 1965 as Pavarotti sang
in "Lucia Di Lammermore" with Sutherland.
Pavarotti, like all opera singers, looked forward
to appearing at New York's Metropolitan Opera. He
was supposed to do "La Boheme" there in 1968, but
he came down with a bad case of the Hong Kong flu
and had to cancel out of the production. Four years
later, his day came--on February 17th, 1972. In a
production at the Met of "La Fille du Regiment,"
Pavarotti gave the audience the operatic equivalent
of a grand-slam home run--he managed to hit high C
9 times!
Since that time, Pavarotti has thrilled worldwide
audiences at opera houses, concert halls, on
record, on television, and in unusual musical
settings, such as the duets he has done with
popular music artists like Bono and Sting. He has
probably raised mainstream America's operatic
consciousness with his participation in the
performances of the "Three Tenors" with Jose
Carreras and Placido Domingo.
He says his favorite roles include "La Boheme's"
Rodolfo, the part that got him started, and that of
Nemorino, the nerdy love-struck hero of Donizetti's
"The Elixir of Love." Some of his personal
passions, in addition to soccer, are food of
course(he likes to cook), cigars, wine, and(to the
dismay of some) beautiful young women. Married
shortly after his 1961 operatic debut to Adua
Veroni with whom he had three children, he left her
in 1996 for his twenty-something secretary,
Nicoletta Mantovani. The Italian press has been
critical but Pavarotti is philosophical about the
human tendency to be driven by the power of
love--something that operas revolve around.
Pavarotti has contributed to charity peformances
such as the recorded duet with Bono, "Miss
Sarajevo,"proceeds from which were to benefit
refugees in the Balkans. He teaches master classes
at conservatories to help aspiring singers and
musicians. His ambition now, he says, is to perform
until 2001, in orde to have experienced a 40-year
career. He certainly seems to have fulfilled his
earlier statement:"I want to be famous everywhere."
http://music.ela.cc/bio_-Luciano_Pavarotti_-Classical.html |
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