Luciano Pavarotti: The High C Without a Score

Luciano Pavarotti’s “trademark” was the harmonious blend of vocal talent and personal charisma. His forty-year dedication to the stage was built on a vivid individuality and zest for life.

Between Notes and Goalposts

Luciano Pavarotti performed at the world’s most renowned opera houses but was born and died in the same city — Modena. There, in northern Italy, he was born on October 12, 1935, and 72 years later ended his earthly journey.

In childhood, the son of a “singing baker” and a factory worker moved with his parents to a village for a year due to the war, where he developed a serious interest in farming. Despite participating in the church choir and taking early vocal lessons, Pavarotti’s professional plans initially did not involve singing.

After school, he intended to become a football goalkeeper but, at his mother’s insistence, went to work as a teacher. Two years of teaching in elementary school were enough for him to return to music. His passion for his favorite sport stayed with him all his life, and football also helped bring him into pop culture.

Pavarotti’s wide audience in the classical repertoire was later boosted by his performance of the aria *Nessun Dorma* during the final of the World Cup held in Italy. After his 1990 performance at the Rome stadium, Puccini’s piece was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical music recording ever.

A Long Road to Self

At 19, Pavarotti received high praise for his abilities from local tenor Arrigo Pola, who spent over two years coaching the talented student for free because Pavarotti couldn’t afford lessons. The unstable income from working as an insurance agent wasn’t enough to live on. His father didn’t refuse to help but was not going to support him indefinitely. If by age 30 Luciano didn’t start earning through performances, he would have to take up another job to support himself.

Six years of classical vocal training passed without results: the first performances brought no earnings. When Pavarotti lost his voice at one concert, he took it as a sign: singing wasn’t working out, and it was time to look for something else.

However, fate had different plans for him: later the vocal cord lesion dissolved, and no trace remained of the growth that was incompatible with singing! As the singer recalled, his voice returned to him along with its natural timbre — he suddenly heard the very sound he had so desperately sought.

Second Wind

Pavarotti considered the start of his creative career to be his victory in an international vocal competition in 1961. That same year, Luciano started his family: his first wife and mother of his three older daughters was opera singer Adua Veroni.

In 1963, his name appeared on the posters of the Vienna Opera and London’s Covent Garden, and in 1965, Pavarotti debuted in the USA, substituting for a sick tenor during a tour in Miami.

In 1985, applause at Milan’s La Scala theater lasted for nearly two minutes after Pavarotti’s performance, and in 1988 the artist received 165 bows at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper (a Guinness World Record).

It seemed his boundless talent was too vast for sold-out performances in the cramped halls of opera houses, and the singer increasingly moved from theaters to open-air venues. Critics call this innovator the artist who brought opera to the people. In 1991, Pavarotti performed for 150,000 spectators in London’s Hyde Park, and in 1993 gathered over half a million listeners in New York’s Central Park (an all-time record), plus a million more watched the televised broadcast. That same year, the great tenor performed before 300,000 Parisians in an open-air solo concert on the Champ de Mars.

Luciano Pavarotti also popularized opera for the masses in a series of stadium performances with José Carreras and Plácido Domingo in the joint project “The Three Tenors.” This collaboration enjoyed 15 years of commercial success.

All About Him

Besides musical achievements, Pavarotti was honored for his charity work. For refugee aid, for example, he donated over 1.5 million dollars — the largest amount worldwide. The artist helped earthquake victims in Armenia and funded the clearance of landmines, among other causes. The International Red Cross even awarded him a prize for services to humanity.

However, Pavarotti’s good deeds coexisted with some flaws in his professional reputation. Most notably, his fame as the “king of cancellations.” Due to a bad habit of canceling performances, Luciano strained relations with several opera houses. At Chicago Lyric Opera alone, he canceled 26 out of 41 performances over eight years, missing almost every second scheduled show. Eventually, the company stopped working with him, terminating a 15-year contract due to losses.

It’s hard to believe, but critics didn’t always admire his talent. After his last failed performance, Pavarotti never sang again at La Scala, and his negative acting experience in the 1982 film *Yes, Giorgio* forever dampened his interest in acting.

In 2002, the singer broke with his manager, who accused him of being musically illiterate. After the scandalous dismissal, Herbert Breslin published a sensational exposé revealing the “king’s” inability to understand the orchestra’s high C part.