magicdarkvamp
holy crap!!!!!!!!
Pavarotti, Most Famous Opera Singer Since Caruso, Dies at 71
By David Shengold
Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian tenor whose clarion lyric voice and performances from concert houses to outdoor stadiums made him a pop icon and the most famous opera singer since Enrico Caruso, has died. He was 71.
Pavarotti, who underwent surgery in New York for pancreatic cancer in 2006, died today at his home in Modena, Italy, according to his agent, Terri Robson. He was hospitalized in Modena in August for a high fever.
The bearded Pavarotti was the king of tenors from the late 1960s through the 1990s. He popularized opera more than any other singer through recordings that made him the best-selling classical artist ever and concerts in parks and stadiums around the world that were televised to millions.
With his huge frame, at times 300 pounds or more, and trademark white handkerchief that he used to wipe his brow, the charismatic Pavarotti became what his former manager Herbert Breslin called ``a rock star for people over 30.''
Pavarotti offered sunny, instinctive musicality rather than the scrupulous musicianship of his career-long rival Placido Domingo.
He took opera outside the concert hall: performances before 150,000 people, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, in London's Hyde Park in 1991; 500,000 on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park in 1993; and 300,000 in 1994 at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Pavarotti shared the stage with rock and pop singers, including Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Bono of U2, to raise money for charities.
`Three Tenors'
He toured the world alongside Domingo and Jose Carreras for the ``Three Tenors'' concerts, which began with the 1990 World Cup and were repeated every four years through 2002. The CD from the first concert broke all records for classical music, selling more than 11 million copies.
Pavarotti's career wasn't without problems.
As stardom ballooned, so sometimes did the singer's weight, causing sciatica to affect his mobility and stamina. He frequently backed out of performances because of colds, laryngitis and other health issues, including knee, neck and back surgery. A 1989 dispute over cancellations ended his association with Lyric Opera of Chicago.
His mainstreaming of opera to venues outside the traditional concert hall and turning himself into a pop star led critics to accuse him of blatant commercialism.
Tax Battles
In 2000, he ended a four-year tax battle with Italian authorities who charged him with filing false returns from 1989 to 1995 for claiming that his primary residence was in Monte Carlo. One year earlier, he paid an undisclosed sum to settle a tax-evasion charge in Germany against him, Domingo and Carreras.
He left his wife of 34 years, Adua Veroni, for his former secretary, Nicoletta Mantovani, 35 years his junior; they had a daughter, Alice, before they married in 2003. He had three daughters from his first marriage.
Pavarotti was born on Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena, northern Italy. His mother worked in a cigar factory. His father was a baker and amateur singer and chorister who sometimes sang small parts on his son's recordings. As a youngster, soccer was more attractive to Pavarotti, but he joined his father's chorus and was recognized for his vocal potential.
He was a slim, handsome 25-year-old when in April 1961 he made his operatic debut in the city of Reggio Emilia as Puccini's romantic poet Rodolfo in ``La Boheme.'' It served as a ``good luck'' debut role throughout his career.
Joins Sutherland
The slimness didn't last, though Pavarotti's brilliant high C, golden sound and clear Italianate line held him in good stead for Rodolfo debuts at London's Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala and New York's Metropolitan Opera House, where Caruso, also a tenor, performed through 1920.
Pavarotti's recording career began in 1964 with Australian soprano Joan Sutherland and her conductor husband Richard Bonynge in Bellini's ``Beatrice di Tenda.''
After the three toured Australia triumphantly in 1965, the artistic bonds took hold, with subsequent recordings of Bellini's ``I Puritani,'' Donizetti's ``Fille du Regiment,'' ``L'Elisir d'Amore,'' and ``Lucia di Lammermoor,'' and Verdi's ``Rigoletto.''
Pavarotti first performed in the U.S. in Miami at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in February 1965 with Sutherland. He made his debut at the Met as a relative unknown on Nov. 23, 1968, opposite soprano Mirella Freni, a childhood friend from Modena.
Met Triumph
He achieved stardom in the U.S. when in a 1972 performance at the Met in a production of ``Fille'' opposite Sutherland, he hit nine successive and impeccable high C's.
His recording company, London/Decca, followed that triumph with many solo recitals and complete operas. The Met staged a succession of 11 new productions around him, including ``Puritani'' with Sutherland (1976), ``Un ballo in maschera'' (1980) and ``Idomeneo'' (a rare Mozartean venture) in 1982.
Pavarotti starred in the first ``Live from the Met'' telecast in March 1977 as Rodolfo in ``Boheme'' with Renata Scotto. His Met performances included 60 of ``Tosca'' and 49 of ``Elisir.''
For more than two decades after his triumphant ``Fille'' performance at the Met, Pavarotti appeared in almost every major European and American concert house. He sang in Beijing before an audience of 10,000 at the Great Hall of the People in 1986.
In 1982, Pavarotti appeared in the Hollywood extravaganza ``Yes, Giorgio,'' which fared poorly with critics and audiences.
As with Caruso, Pavarotti's sound darkened in later years, prompting him to take on heavier repertory, sometimes successfully, sometimes questionably. The stadium and televised outdoor concerts took precedence in his schedule.
Farewell Tour
With age and heavy exposure, some tonal wear and tear became evident by the mid 1990s. Pavarotti's last performance at the Met was in ``Tosca'' on March 13, 2004, where he received an 11-minute standing ovation. He began an extensive farewell tour in 2005 after announcing his retirement, but it was frequently interrupted by illness and injuries.
In a 2006 interview with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, Pavarotti said, ``I have every intention of returning to singing. I'll have to discuss it with the doctors, but I think I'll start again next year.''
very sad
Pavarotti, Most Famous Opera Singer Since Caruso, Dies at 71
By David Shengold
Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian tenor whose clarion lyric voice and performances from concert houses to outdoor stadiums made him a pop icon and the most famous opera singer since Enrico Caruso, has died. He was 71.
Pavarotti, who underwent surgery in New York for pancreatic cancer in 2006, died today at his home in Modena, Italy, according to his agent, Terri Robson. He was hospitalized in Modena in August for a high fever.
The bearded Pavarotti was the king of tenors from the late 1960s through the 1990s. He popularized opera more than any other singer through recordings that made him the best-selling classical artist ever and concerts in parks and stadiums around the world that were televised to millions.
With his huge frame, at times 300 pounds or more, and trademark white handkerchief that he used to wipe his brow, the charismatic Pavarotti became what his former manager Herbert Breslin called ``a rock star for people over 30.''
Pavarotti offered sunny, instinctive musicality rather than the scrupulous musicianship of his career-long rival Placido Domingo.
He took opera outside the concert hall: performances before 150,000 people, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, in London's Hyde Park in 1991; 500,000 on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park in 1993; and 300,000 in 1994 at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Pavarotti shared the stage with rock and pop singers, including Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Bono of U2, to raise money for charities.
`Three Tenors'
He toured the world alongside Domingo and Jose Carreras for the ``Three Tenors'' concerts, which began with the 1990 World Cup and were repeated every four years through 2002. The CD from the first concert broke all records for classical music, selling more than 11 million copies.
Pavarotti's career wasn't without problems.
As stardom ballooned, so sometimes did the singer's weight, causing sciatica to affect his mobility and stamina. He frequently backed out of performances because of colds, laryngitis and other health issues, including knee, neck and back surgery. A 1989 dispute over cancellations ended his association with Lyric Opera of Chicago.
His mainstreaming of opera to venues outside the traditional concert hall and turning himself into a pop star led critics to accuse him of blatant commercialism.
Tax Battles
In 2000, he ended a four-year tax battle with Italian authorities who charged him with filing false returns from 1989 to 1995 for claiming that his primary residence was in Monte Carlo. One year earlier, he paid an undisclosed sum to settle a tax-evasion charge in Germany against him, Domingo and Carreras.
He left his wife of 34 years, Adua Veroni, for his former secretary, Nicoletta Mantovani, 35 years his junior; they had a daughter, Alice, before they married in 2003. He had three daughters from his first marriage.
Pavarotti was born on Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena, northern Italy. His mother worked in a cigar factory. His father was a baker and amateur singer and chorister who sometimes sang small parts on his son's recordings. As a youngster, soccer was more attractive to Pavarotti, but he joined his father's chorus and was recognized for his vocal potential.
He was a slim, handsome 25-year-old when in April 1961 he made his operatic debut in the city of Reggio Emilia as Puccini's romantic poet Rodolfo in ``La Boheme.'' It served as a ``good luck'' debut role throughout his career.
Joins Sutherland
The slimness didn't last, though Pavarotti's brilliant high C, golden sound and clear Italianate line held him in good stead for Rodolfo debuts at London's Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala and New York's Metropolitan Opera House, where Caruso, also a tenor, performed through 1920.
Pavarotti's recording career began in 1964 with Australian soprano Joan Sutherland and her conductor husband Richard Bonynge in Bellini's ``Beatrice di Tenda.''
After the three toured Australia triumphantly in 1965, the artistic bonds took hold, with subsequent recordings of Bellini's ``I Puritani,'' Donizetti's ``Fille du Regiment,'' ``L'Elisir d'Amore,'' and ``Lucia di Lammermoor,'' and Verdi's ``Rigoletto.''
Pavarotti first performed in the U.S. in Miami at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in February 1965 with Sutherland. He made his debut at the Met as a relative unknown on Nov. 23, 1968, opposite soprano Mirella Freni, a childhood friend from Modena.
Met Triumph
He achieved stardom in the U.S. when in a 1972 performance at the Met in a production of ``Fille'' opposite Sutherland, he hit nine successive and impeccable high C's.
His recording company, London/Decca, followed that triumph with many solo recitals and complete operas. The Met staged a succession of 11 new productions around him, including ``Puritani'' with Sutherland (1976), ``Un ballo in maschera'' (1980) and ``Idomeneo'' (a rare Mozartean venture) in 1982.
Pavarotti starred in the first ``Live from the Met'' telecast in March 1977 as Rodolfo in ``Boheme'' with Renata Scotto. His Met performances included 60 of ``Tosca'' and 49 of ``Elisir.''
For more than two decades after his triumphant ``Fille'' performance at the Met, Pavarotti appeared in almost every major European and American concert house. He sang in Beijing before an audience of 10,000 at the Great Hall of the People in 1986.
In 1982, Pavarotti appeared in the Hollywood extravaganza ``Yes, Giorgio,'' which fared poorly with critics and audiences.
As with Caruso, Pavarotti's sound darkened in later years, prompting him to take on heavier repertory, sometimes successfully, sometimes questionably. The stadium and televised outdoor concerts took precedence in his schedule.
Farewell Tour
With age and heavy exposure, some tonal wear and tear became evident by the mid 1990s. Pavarotti's last performance at the Met was in ``Tosca'' on March 13, 2004, where he received an 11-minute standing ovation. He began an extensive farewell tour in 2005 after announcing his retirement, but it was frequently interrupted by illness and injuries.
In a 2006 interview with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, Pavarotti said, ``I have every intention of returning to singing. I'll have to discuss it with the doctors, but I think I'll start again next year.''
very sad
*gasp* OH NO!
PAVAROTTI!!!!!!
