By Elliott West
“I want to reach as many people as possible with the message of music, of marvellous opera”.
Luciano Pavarotti
Introduction
A memory that is etched into the memory banks of every one of a certain age has to be Italia 1990, a year where football and opera fused perfectly together, bringing the devoted and disinterested together for the duration of the World Cup. It elevated the standing of those that played and opera royalty of those that performed. The star of the moment was a certain tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, an opera singer who was an Italian seismic charge and whose voice could make grown men cry and women throw flowers at his feet.
Pavarotti’s working of Giacomo Puccini’s Nessun Dorma (Let no one sleep) aria from the opera Turandot is a classic. He puts his own stamp on what was already one of his signature pieces. However, in 1990 this aria transcended into the realms of popular music, filling the shelves of record stores, supermarkets and airport duty-free shops. A piece of music that pulls at your heartstrings and brings tears to your eyes. So who was this man with olive skin, a distinctive beard and someone who never performed without a long white handkerchief to wipe away the energetic perspiration of his labours?
The Maestro
Born in Modena Italy in 1935, Luciano Pavarotti came from a poor background but one where lack of wealth was compensated with parental love. He came from a working-class background, his father was a baker and his mother worked in a cigar factory. His father who also loved to sing but abandoned his passion due to nervousness tried to steer his son from becoming an opera singer and football goalkeeper, saying he should find a stable profession but thanks to his mother’s support, who recognised this voice of pure gold, their son followed in the steps of the great Caruso and Gigli, although he initially trained to become a teacher. Nature blessed this acclaimed tenor with one of the most individual and beautiful voices there has been and he would become one of the richest opera singers in history in his singing career that spanned between 1955 and 2006, selling over one hundred million records.
Deeply influenced by Mario Lanza, Luciano accredited his hero, saying:
“In my teens, I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror”.
Luciano Pavarotti
Ironically Pavarotti never learned how to read music but perfected his craft with one of the most respected teachers in Modena, Arrigo Pola. Someone who instantly spotted his talent and was so impressed didn’t charge him for lessons. To supplement his singing career, Pavarotti had to work, first as an elementary school teacher and then as an insurance salesman. Thanks to an uplifting experience when he was part of the Corale Rossini male choir with his father in 1955 at the International Eisteddfod in Wales, a competition where they won first prize, Luciano would later cite this as his early springboard to not only sealing his confidence as a singer and performer but propelled him into working in the Italian classic operas.
The Pavarotti Legacy
In a glittering career that would span the globe, Luciano Pavarotti would acquire a legion of fans in traditional opera and when he made opera populist in his later career. A man who loved women, and food and who was a diva in his creature comfort requests before a performance and worked tirelessly for his chosen charities. someone who found love twice in his life, the second time being with someone considerably younger than himself, his personal assistant, Nicoletta Matovani, thirty-five years his junior. He would go on to have a daughter with her in his sixties.
Pancreatic cancer stalled his career but after a successful operation in 2005, he decided to try to come back after initially holding a farewell tour after his diagnosis. However, it was short-lived despite releasing an album of sacred songs and opening the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He passed away in 2007 with his much fought-over fortune being worth an estimated estate of $474 million. His legacy lives on in the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation which was set up to help support concerts and exhibitions across the world in aid of charity.
