Luciano Pavarotti Dead

[Leonard Washington]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/arts/music/06pavarotti.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian singer whose ringing, pristine sound set a standard for operatic tenors of the postwar era, has died. He was 71.

His death was announced by his manager. The cause was pancreatic cancer. In July 2006 he underwent surgery for the cancer in New York and had made no public appearances since then. He was hospitalized again this summer and released on Aug. 25.

Like Enrico Caruso and Jenny Lind before him, Mr. Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera. He became a titan of pop culture. Millions saw him on television and found in his expansive personality, childlike charm and generous figure a link to an art form with which many had only a glancing familiarity.

Early in his career and into the 1970s he devoted himself with single-mindedness to his serious opera and recital career, quickly establishing his rich sound as the great male operatic voice of his generation — the “King of the High Cs,” as his popular nickname had it.

By the 1980s he expanded his franchise exponentially with the Three Tenors projects, in which he shared the stage with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, first in concerts associated with the World Cup and later in world tours. Most critics agreed that it was Mr. Pavarotti’s charisma that made the collaboration such a success. The Three Tenors phenomenon only broadened his already huge audience and sold millions of recordings and videos.

And in the early 1990s he began staging Pavarotti and Friends charity concerts, performing side by side with rock stars like Elton John, Sting and Bono and making recordings from these shows.

Throughout these years, despite his busy and vocally demanding schedule, his voice remained in unusually good condition well into middle age.

Even so, as his stadium concerts and pop collaborations brought him fame well beyond what contemporary opera stars have come to expect, Mr. Pavarotti seemed increasingly willing to accept pedestrian musical standards. By the 1980s he found it difficult to learn new opera roles or even new song repertory for his recitals.

And although he planned to spent his final years, in the operatic tradition, performing in a grand worldwide farewell tour, he completed only about half the tour, which began in 2004. Physical ailments, many occasioned by his weight and girth, limited his movement on stage and regularly forced him to cancel performances. By 1995, when he was at the Metropolitan Opera singing one of his favorite roles, Tonio in Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment,” high notes sometimes failed him, and there were controversies over downward transpositions of a notoriously dangerous and high-flying part.

Yet his wholly natural stage manner and his wonderful way with the Italian language were completely intact. Mr. Pavarotti remained a darling of Met audiences until his retirement from that company’s roster in 2004, an occasion celebrated with a string of “Tosca” performances. At the last of them, on March 13, 2004, he received a 15-minute standing ovation and 10 curtain calls. All told, he sang 379 performances at the Met, of which 357 were in fully staged opera productions. In the late 1960s and 70s, when Mr. Pavarotti was at his best, he possessed a sound remarkable for its ability to penetrate large spaces easily. Yet he was able to encase that powerful sound in elegant, brilliant colors. His recordings of the Donizetti repertory are still models of natural grace and pristine sound. The clear Italian diction and his understanding of the emotional power of words in music were exemplary.

Mr. Pavarotti was perhaps the mirror opposite of his great rival among tenors, Mr. Domingo. Five years Mr. Domingo’s senior, Mr. Pavarotti had the natural range of a tenor, leaving him exposed to the stress and wear that ruin so many tenors’ careers before they have barely started. Mr. Pavarotti’s confidence and naturalness in the face of these dangers made his longevity all the more noteworthy.

Mr. Domingo, on the other hand, began his musical life as a baritone and later manufactured a tenor range above it through hard work and scrupulous intelligence. Mr. Pavarotti, although he could find the heart of a character, was not an intellectual presence. His ability to read music in the true sense of the word was in question. Mr. Domingo, in contrast, is an excellent pianist with an analytical mind and the ability to learn and retain scores by quiet reading.

Yet in the late 1980s, when both Mr. Pavarotti and Mr. Domingo were pursuing superstardom, it was Mr. Pavarotti who showed the dominant gift for soliciting adoration from large numbers of people. He joked on talk shows, rode horses on parade and played, improbably, a sex symbol in the movie “Yes, Giorgio.” In a series of concerts, some held in stadiums, Mr. Pavarotti entertained tens of thousands and earned six-figure fees. Presenters, who were able to tie a Pavarotti appearance to a subscription package of less glamorous concerts, found him a valuable loss leader.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Not a fan of his music, but he definitely meant a lot to a lot of people. My mom was a huge fan.

RIP, Mr. Pavarotti.

[RLeVan]

What a shock and sorry to hear that he passed away. He was an iconic figure in modern day Opera. RIP.

[Bang]

Not a fan of opera, but he was an immense talent. (no pun intended.)

If you'd like to hear him do a song that is more contemporary and not an opera song, listen to him on U2's "Miss Sarajevo",, a beautiful song about the war there over a decade ago. Pavarotti provides a solo in the middle that will bring a tear.

~Bang

[CHUBAKAH]

R.I.P.

A true icon.

[SkinsBry]

Fantastic voice.

R.I.P. Luciano

[Corcaigh]

Italia 1990 and Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma.

Two great memories intertwined.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j_eUCLewLtA

[EersSkins05]

Nessun Dorma- the ONLY opera song I can name, and it's because he blew the damn doors down whenever he sang it.

I remember a story from a few years ago where his voice cracked at one point in the song during a concert in South America (I mean damn, he was like 68 at the time), and he refunded everyone's ticket in the entire stadium.

[Leonard Washington]

I remember a story from a few years ago where his voice cracked at one point in the song during a concert in South America (I mean damn, he was like 68 at the time), and he refunded everyone's ticket in the entire stadium.

i heard about that. that's integrity. i wish the skins would do that after embarrassing losses.

[jrockster21]

RIP. Great, great voice. I'm surprised he lasted this long because of how big he was though.

[rdsknbill]

He had an incredible voice! My father has been singing tenor for the last 50 years and followed Pavarotti for all of those years

[Head Hog UK]

The Central Park concert is being aired on the BBC now

I knew the end was coming but I have felt sad all day after hearing the news this morning

[thehogs]

I had heard he had gone back in to a hospice a few weeks ago and did think then that the end was near. Astounding voice, thankfully we can still listen in years to come.