Luciano Pavarotti dies at 71
By Tjames Madison
LiveDaily Contributor
Legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti who helped reintroduce a generation of music fans to operatic singing, has died following a long battle with cancer. He was 71. The singer's manager, Terri Robson, said in a press statement that Pavarotti died early Thursday (9/6) at his home in Modena, Italy, which was also the city of his birth.
"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life," Robson said in the statement. "In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness."
Pavarotti had officially retired from the opera in 2004 following various health scares but had toured as recently as last year as part of a "farewell" series of appearances prior to the diagnosis of his cancer and subsequent surgery to remove a tumor. His most recent hospitalization, in early August, prompted the cancellation of the remainder of his scheduled concerts; Pavarotti underwent diagnostic tests at a Modena hospital and was released 17 days later.
The singer's last official performance was at the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February 2006. Pavarotti becomes the second opera icon to die this summer, following the death in July of American soprano Beverly Sills.
Born in 1935, Pavarotti achieved his first taste of fame not as a singer but as a member of the town's local soccer team, while also singing in the local chorus alongside his father, an opera buff and amateur tenor. The young Pavarotti used the chorus's winning entry in an international competition to springboard himself into the music business, making his solo debut in a 1961 performance of "La Boheme" in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia.
The performer then climbed the ranks of opera's star structure, emerging in the mid-60s as a legitimate lead player and making his American debut in a 1965 Miami production of "Lucia di Lammermoor" with Joan Sutherland, in what would be the first of the duo's many pairings.
Pavarotti gained international fame in 1972, earning his nickname of "King of the High C's" following his performance in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regimen" at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, where the singer hit nine high C's in succession to a delirious standing ovation.
In the '90s, Pavarotti teamed with fellow tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carerras to win a crossover following as The Three Tenors. The trio toured and recorded many times during the decade, bringing a brand new audience to the genre of operatic singing.
"The word commercial is exactly what we want," he told an interviewer several years ago. "We've reached 1.5 billion people with opera. If you want to use the word commercial, or something more derogatory, we don't care. Use whatever you want."
"I always admired the God-given glory of his voice--that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range," Domingo said in a statement to the press early Thursday.
"I also loved his wonderful sense of humor and on several occasions of our concerts with Jose Carreras--the so-called Three Tenors concerts--we had trouble remembering that we were giving a concert before a paying audience, because we had so much fun between ourselves," he said.
Often compared to enigmatic early 20th century tenor Enrico Caruso in terms of his relative impact on opera, Pavarotti never shied from reaching fans of pop culture as well, taking a stab at a Hollywood movie career with the 1982 critical and commercial flop "Yes, Giorgio" and appearing several times in duets with U2's Bono. He also performed with artists as varied as Ricky Martin, James Brown and the Spice Girls.
According to his manager, Pavarotti had spent time in a recording studio this summer working on a set of "sacred songs," an album that had been tentatively scheduled for release in early 2008.
The performer is survived by his wife, Nicoletta; his daughters, Lorenza, Cristina, Giuliana and Alice; and his sister, Gabriela. Other relatives and friends were at his side when he died, according to his manager.
Article used with permission from
LiveDaily.
