'I think a life spent in music is a life beautifully spent and this is what I devoted my life to.' Luciano Pavarotti 1935 - 2007
I am not a particularly sentimental person and I certainly have no respect for the cult of celebrity, but I will not deny that I shed a small tear of sadness this morning when I heard the news that Pavarotti had lost his battle against cancer.
I am sure that over the course of the next few days we will be overdosed with phrases like 'larger than life', 'enormous talent' and any others that our overpaid tabloid editors can come up with to link his incredible talent with the size of his waistline. But for me, Pavarotti's shape was never in my mind, to watch him sing with the emotion and passion that he did and whether he was an incredible actor or it was entirely genuine there is a expression in his face of total gratitude and sincerity at the inevitable applause following a performance, this is what made him stand out. His famous tours as the 3 tenors together with Domingo and Carreras, equally as famous in classical
circles but not to the wider audience, and whilst Carreras may, arguably have had the better voice, Pavarotti was always the more dominant character due to his stage presence and his ability to draw people into his music, not, of course, that the others were lacking in these attributes.
For a great many people Pavarotti was an unknown opera singer prior to the Italian World Cup in 1990, where his performance of Nessun Dorma was the theme for the event. Although I was aware of him prior to that, I think this for me was the first time I really paid attention. Part of the character of Pavarotti, is his sense of humour, I recall a television interview at the time where he was interview by a British TV station, he ended the interview with the usual niceties then said in his gorgeous Italian accent, 'Best of luck with the competition, I hope England win' then with a chuckle 'I am lying!'
There was also an air of arrogance about him, that made him no less endearing I saw an interview with Russell Watson, who was due to be performing with Pavarotti and Charlotte Church (before she went odd) they had been waiting around all day waiting to rehearse with him, the concert was getting closer, then eventually about half an hour before they were due to go on they finally met with him expecting a small rehearsal. However he looked at Russell and said 'When I point at you, you sing', then to Charlotte 'and when I point at you, you sing' then he left to get ready.
Whilst I am writing this I am listening to him singing La donne e mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto, the colour and different emotions that he can put into the voice is what makes him one of the true greats. Whilst looking through various websites about him this morning I came across a biography, that said that he had made the decision after several years training to give up music as he was experiencing problems with his voice and was unable to achieve the sound he wanted. This release from the pressure of having to perform, solved the problem and the voice that we have all come to know came through, this is something every wannabe musician is familiar with, the more you try to force a certain sound or performance, the less likely it is to come. Relax and lose yourself in the music and that is something I was always able to do in his music.
For most people buying a whole Pavarotti album because it is opera is not going to be an option, so as this is a consumer site, despite this being a café category I thought I'd recommend some of his more popular recordings should you feel the desire to download one or two to remember this wonderful voice:
Nesun Dorma: The obvious and most famous choice, it will be interesting to see where it is in the download charts by the end of today.
O sole Mio (just one Cornetto)
Ave Maria. Maria Callas's version was probably better, but this is still truly beautiful
La Donne e Mobile: I think this was a ragu advert at one point, something like that anyway.
No matter what: The thing about Opera is it crosses nationalities, opera singers are experienced in singing in a variety of European languages, and this Boyzone hit sounds great sung in Italian.
O Soave Fanciulla: I love this one, but it is probably not for everyone, it is from Puccini's La Boheme, which was one of Pavarotti's favourite roles.
Today is a sad day for music, and for any of you who voted for Paul Potts in the Britains got talent contest, I seriously suggest you download the version from the master, as there is no contest.
Good-bye Luciano Pavarotti, may you rest in peace.
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Sep 6th, 2007
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