Luciano Pavarotti

The name Luciano Pavarotti was, and still is, a household name around the world for most of his extraordinary career. The impact of the great tenor on the world is enormous. His thrilling voice and unique personality, which expanded the horizons of classical music and brought countless new fans to his art, continue to touch innumerable people worldwide. For more than 40 years, Luciano Pavarotti was an exclusive artist for Decca: he remains the most popular classical artist in recording history. Born in Modena, Italy, in 1935, Luciano Pavarotti gained his first musical experiences in his hometown choir, of which his father Fernando was also a member. The teenage Pavarotti and his father traveled with the choir to Wales and won first prize in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. This experience ignited the young Pavarotti's musical ambition for a life as a tenor. He initially trained as a teacher but then, in 1961, after studying first with Arrigo Pola and then with Ettore Campogalliani, he won the prestigious Concorso Internazionale and made his operatic debut that same year as Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Teatro Reggio Emilia. Pavarotti immediately impressed the Italian opera scene and received engagements at opera houses throughout Italy. In a very short time, he was in international demand and debuted outside Italy in Belgrade in La Traviata. Pavarotti's colleagues included the most famous opera stars: Montserrat Caballé, Piero Cappuccilli, José Carreras, Fiorenza Cossotto, Plácido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Kiri Te Kanawa, Aprile Millo, Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Leontyne Price, Leonie Rysanek, Renata Scotto, Dame Joan Sutherland, Carol Vaness, and Shirley Verrett, to name just a few. He worked with conductors such as Tullio Serafin (who conducted Pavarotti's first performances of Rigoletto in Palermo in 1962), Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Bonynge, Riccardo Chailly, Carlos Kleiber, Lamberto Gardelli, Carlo Maria Giulini, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Leone Magiera, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Eugene Ormandy, Seiji Ozawa, and Sir Georg Solti. Among the most important opera houses where Luciano Pavarotti performed in his career are the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Bastille (Paris), Deutsche Oper (Berlin), La Fenice (Venice), Palais Garnier (Paris), Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London), San Carlo (Naples), La Scala (Milan), Staatsoper (Vienna), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), as well as opera houses in Barcelona, Chicago, Florence, Hamburg, Madrid, Miami, Monte Carlo, Philadelphia, Rome, Salzburg, San Francisco, Sydney, Turin, and Zurich. Luciano Pavarotti performed in concert halls, arenas, and stadiums across North and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. Important international concert venues included New York's Madison Square Garden, London's Wembley Stadium, the Olympic Stadiums in Berlin and Barcelona, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Roman Amphitheater in Orange, France. In London's Hyde Park, even torrential rain could not dampen the spirits of the delighted audience of over 150,000 people, including Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and Prime Minister John Major (1991). In June 1993, Pavarotti performed before more than half a million people in New York's Central Park, while millions more watched the concert broadcast worldwide on television. Pavarotti's concert at the Eiffel Tower in Paris attracted more than 300,000 people. With his friends José Carreras and Plácido Domingo, he performed in the Three Tenors concerts around the world. Pavarotti will forever be identified with the central tenor roles from the following operas: Aida, Ballo in Maschera, La Bohème, L’Elisir d’Amore, La Fille du Régiment, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, I Pagliacci, Rigoletto, Tosca, Il Trovatore, and Turandot. His recordings are permanent bestsellers; his opera recordings include Aida, La Bohème, Cavalleria Rusticana, Andrea Chénier, Don Carlo, L’Elisir d’Amore, Ernani, La Fille du Régiment, Norma, I Puritani, La Sonnambula, Lucia di Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda, Mefistofele, La Favorita, L’Amico Fritz, Manon Lescaut, Pagliacci, Idomeneo, I Lombardi, Macbeth, Luisa Miller, Otello, Rigoletto, Tosca, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, and Guillaume Tell. Pavarotti recorded Verdi's Requiem and Rossini's Stabat Mater; his discography features many solo CDs with recitals, arias, Neapolitan and Italian songs, as well as the ever-popular Christmas perennial O Holy Night, all of which also became bestsellers. Essential Pavarotti became the first classical album ever to reach number 1 in the UK Pop Charts, holding that position for an unprecedented five weeks. Since the 1990 World Cup, "Nessun Dorma" has been inextricably linked with both Pavarotti and football. Luciano Pavarotti cared for the development of young singers and founded an international singing competition in Philadelphia, which fostered the careers of many singers. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his career, Pavarotti invited the competition winners to gala performances of La Bohème in Italy; this was eventually followed by a historic stay in China, where the opera was performed with young singers in Beijing. To conclude his stay, Pavarotti gave the first-ever concert in the Great Hall of the People. With his close friend and colleague, conductor and pianist Leone Magiera, the tenor established an important teaching institute for young vocal students in Modena. The tenor was widely recognized as an equestrian expert and organized one of the most important international show jumping tournaments, the Pavarotti International. Concurrently with this event, Pavarotti hosted his world-famous annual charity concert, Pavarotti & Friends, in his hometown. The great tenor brought together artists from different musical genres, including well-known stars from rock, pop, and jazz such as Bryan Adams, Anastasia, Jon Bon Jovi, Boyzone, James Brown, George Benson, Bono and the Edge of U2, Mariah Carey, Tracey Chapman, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole, The Corrs, Sheryl Crow, Lucio Dalla, Celine Dion, Brian Eno, Gloria Estefan, the Eurythmics, Bob Geldof, Enrique Iglesias, Elton John, Grace Jones, Tom Jones, BB King, Ricky Martin, John McLaughlin, Meat Loaf, George Michael, Liza Minnelli, Eros Ramazzotti, Lionel Richie, Spice Girls, Sting, Barry White, Stevie Wonder, and Zucchero. These benefit concerts raised millions of dollars for important health, vocational, and educational initiatives in Bosnia, Cambodia, Kosovo, Guatemala, Liberia, Tibet, and for Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. The 2003 concert raised two million dollars for refugees from Iraq. Luciano Pavarotti received many international awards, including several Orders of Merit of the Italian Republic, countless Emmy, Gramophone, and Grammy Awards (including the 1998 Grammy "Legend Award"), and was honored as an Officer of the Legion of Honor and as MusiCares Person of the Year; he also received honorary doctorates from the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts and the Universities of Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Parma, Urbino, and San Martin Lima, Peru, the Prix Ville de Paris (awarded to him by Jacques Chirac), the People's Choice Award, and the title of Kammersänger from the Austrian Minister of Culture. In 1998, Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York, declared Luciano Pavarotti Day on the occasion of the tenor's 30th anniversary at the Metropolitan Opera House. Pavarotti was appointed UN Messenger of Peace by then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and received the coveted Nansen Award from the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) in 2001 in recognition of his fundraising efforts for the UN Refugee Agency (which exceeded those of any other private individual). In November 2001, former Soviet President Gorbachev presented Luciano Pavarotti with the World Social Award in Vienna; this was followed later that same year by a Kennedy Center Honors Award. In 2004, he received the Eisenhower Medal and the highest award from the Italian community in the USA: induction into the Italian Hall of Fame by the NIAF (National Italian American Foundation). On September 4, 2007, the Italian Minister of Culture honored Pavarotti with the "Premio Eccellenza per la cultura" for his enormous contribution to the dissemination of Italian culture and art worldwide. In March 2004, Luciano Pavarotti performed for the last time in an opera production at the New York Metropolitan Opera House; his final appearance before a huge audience occurred at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Maestro Luciano Pavarotti passed away on September 6, 2007, at his home in Modena. Status: 09/2013