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In the early morning hours of this day, September 6, 2007, the "King of high C's", Luciano Pavarotti has died, aged 71.........
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In the early morning hours of this day, September 6, 2007, the "King of high C's", Luciano Pavarotti has died, aged 71. Pavarotti did more to popularize opera than anyone else in its 400 year lifespan. He surpassed previous successful efforts achieved by Enrico Caruso and Mario Lanza, both extending opera's reach in earlier decades of the 20th century. As artist, showman, humanitarian activist, dare devil and man of great charm and personal warmth, Luciano Pavarotti rescued opera from a descent into obscurity,popularizing the noble form to millions of new listeners around the world. Prior to Pavarotti's presence on stage opera was narrowly confined to an audience of mostly well healed, privileged patrons whose numbers were radically decreasing throughout the 20th century. Opera had become to be regarded as a dead music form reserved by a small elite, typed snobs of arcane culture.
A son of Moderna, Italy, born in 1935, child of a tenor range singing baker, Luciano grew up in modest conditions aiming to be a professional soccer player. Throughout his youth he gave a listen to and sang arias along with his father and neighbors, a popular custom common to many Italians of the middle classes and proletarians. He sang in church choirs and the local opera company, delivering notes in Latin and Italian, two languages seemingly invented for the celebration of the human voice.
Birthed in Florence at the end of the 16th century, opera is a gift of the Renaissance. It is a musical score for symphony and voice used to tell a story, frequently in spoken tones as well as song. Opera succeeded well in telling tales of power, rivalry,romance, tragedy and comedy to populations intrigued with these dilemmas, much as modern folks appreciate the same topics in pop music today. Contrary to popular misconceptions, many operas were and are written about the lives of common people, Madam Butterfly being a supreme example; a tale of romance between an American navy officer and a local woman in post W.W. II Japan.
Credit opera as progenitor of musical comedy,influential upon performance poetry, word style and much of what's evolved musically in multi-media creations.
In my youth opera was considered a "sissy thing". At 16 I competed successfully for a place in special music training school in Pittsburgh. Our professors were professional orchestral musicians and opera singers. I dare not tell my neighbors from my working class neighborhood what I was doing in this school, sure of their laughter, scorn and doubts upon my manhood. One of my duties was to take voice training. Having grown into baritone voice in normal school choir, a testament to my male prowess I assured myself, I was shocked and angry when my voice trainer informed me that I was to be shaped into a tenor. A tenor! That was for sissies! I was being prepared to sing an aria for an upcoming performance date by and for we students. Truth be told, after each one hour voice training session I was completely exhausted, needing to rest.Those voice training lessons were as demanding, tiring as track and field training I took the same year at normal school. Opera is not for lightweights!!
Pavarotti's career took rapid ascent in 1963. Destiny gifted him last minute stand-in for a sickly lead singer. That evening in London's Convent Gardens hall the surprise under-study dazzled audience and critics alike with the remarkable quality of his distinct timbre and tonality. At 28 the youthful Luciano was admired and requested for musical characteristics of unforced beauty, thrilling urgency and mesmerizing charisma. Within a few years he would jettison from talented tenor into the spotlight of star performer. He was hailed a virtuoso.
In the same period American marketers greatly expanded the casting of pop stars and athletes to endorse products. Sales zoomed and the talking heads made millions. To the shock of everyone, Pavarotti appeared in this line-up, beguiling to music purists and haute culture segregationists. Next he would vex traditionalists by inviting pop stars on stage with him, such as James Brown, Bono, the Spice Girls, Ricky Martin and many others, a practice he would continue throughout his life. Acting in two flop movies Pavarotti ended film ambitions, a youthful desire he pursued after watching opera singer cum Hollywood star, Mario Lanza, notably in the classic celluloid spectacle,South Pacific.
In 1990, Pavarotti teamed up with fellow artists Placido Domingo and Jose Carrera to record and perform internationally as the Three Tenors. The trio gained global acclaim, singing at numerous venues heretofore foreign to opera artists. Featured on prime time television, often broadcast worldwide, they commemorated sports events, national holiday celebrations, governmental ceremonies, numerous other special events.Ever popular, Luciano gave numerous outdoor concerts, again a breakthrough for opera. Appearing in New York's Central Park in 1993, Pavarotti drew 500,000 fans, equaling record breaking draws by world famous rock stars.
Controversy dogged him nonetheless, most notably in 1991, in opera's heartland,world renowned la Scala hall in Milan.Out of shape, grossly over weight, unfit for performance, Pavarotti was loudly booed off stage early into his performance. In following years he was criticized for unfitness, condemned for practicing a soft lifestyle, the result of vainglorious submission to super stardom.
Years earlier Pavarotti turned his attention to several humanitarian causes enlisting support from a number of pop stars he had gotten to know.He sponsored annual fund raising concerts for his home town of Moderna, for Armenian earthquake victims in 1989, in Bosnia in 1996, after four years of genocidal war launched by Serb forces against the Bosnian Muslims. For his support of Bosnian reconstruction he was able to fund the building of the Pavarotti Music Center in the city of Mostar. He would build the same institution in home town Moderna. Pavarotti's last performance was in Feb. 2006, for the winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.
With the expiration of his last breath several hours ago Luciano Pavarotti had passed on to us the following: He recorded over 90 albums which includes recordings of Neapolitan folk songs, Christmas songs, and an album in progress, now unfinished, of sacred music, scheduled for release in 2008; two music academies benefiting disadvantaged youngsters:creation of the Pavarotti Award for opera singers. He is remembered by opera artists as a engineer of opera popularity. Pop artists recall him as humorous and easy to work with. Residents of his home town Moderna tell of his warm and friendly conversations with them year after year on visits. He is recognized as the first opera artist to succeed with the public as a crossover performer. As Leonard Bernstein won over millions of my generation to orchestral music, Pavarotti did the same from an even more unlikely art form.
Some years ago Pavarotti remarked joyously: "We have reached one and a half billion people with opera". Summing up his personal experience: "I think a life spent in music is a life beautifully spent".
Later on I'm going to play him, to listen to the King of high C's. I think I'll begin with Neesum Dorma from Pucccini's Tosca. Next, I'll listen to him wail out Verde's Travatore. Then I'll sit back and picture Luciano Pavarotti in his classic image to me. He stands broad shouldered beaming a tuxedo busting smile.
Ciao Bello Luciano.
Moe Seager
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Last update : 08-09-2007 15:15
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