Thank you. Through my tears, thank you.
Ave atque vale, Pavarotti. The last wave of the handkerchief, for the voice we knew at once when it soared in song.
Mere tears are not enough.
I can hardly see the keyboard to post this.
I’ve never been an avid fan of Pavarotti, though I have listened to him on occasion, and would never deny his greatness. Even I got a little weepy after watching that video, too. Such a pity for what we’ve lost, but at least he’s no longer fighting all those medical problems.
Farewell maestro Pavarotti.
Here’s a clip from a documentary on Pavarotti, which includes a brief excerpt of him singing a duet with his father, as well as a bit of his 1961 La Scala debut as Rodolfo.
I think the most fascinating part of this clip is when he claims that of the three young tenors making waves in the world at that time (him, Domingo, and Jaime Aragall), Aragall was the best.
It is too bad. I just keep thinking that it’s a shame that over the years his reputation suffered here in Chicago because of his tendency to schedule appearances and back out at the last minute.
What can I say, except that he possessed one of the most freakishly musical, athletic, and beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. I honestly don’t expect to hear anything in my lifetime that puts it to shame.
My favorite recordings of his are the Karajan La Bohème that **fachverwirrt ** already mentioned, and a collection on RCA called “The Early Years, Vol. 2” that has lots of live cuts from the 1960s before he got really famous. The energy, spirit, and raw athleticism of his early singing far outshine his post-superstardom recordings, IMO.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve just ordered them, along with the DVD of Karajan conducting the Verdi Requiem with a very young Pavarotti, Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, and Nikolai Ghiaurov. Can’t wait!
By the way, Amazon.com offers two versions of the Requiem, a 2001 and 2005 release, on Deutsche Grammophon and Phillips, respectively. From the reviews, it appears that the 2001 release is the better choice for audio quality.
Agreed. The clip I posted has some of his very early singing; he had squillo coming out of every pore in those days. I think he lost a lot of that flexibility and pure ring when he started singing roles outside of his Fach. He tried to make it heavy, and it was never a heavy voice.
Donizetti - L’Elisir d’Amore (Mostly Battle singing here, but this my favorite part of the whole opera) They sounded perfect together. One of my favorite pieces of music. I’m sad today.
I was blessed to have seen them both perform this opera at the Met. It’s not my favorite opera, but it was one of the most thoroughly enjoyable performances I’ve every witnessed. Pavarotti totally hammed it up and stole the show. Of all the many times I saw him perform, this was the most memorable.
*Grazie, *Luciano.
And it’s only a couple of months since we lost Beverly Sills. This is a sad year for opera lovers.
Man am I jealous! I have a soft spot for this opera because that’s the performance that completely fell me in love with opera. They played this piece on an opera channel I listen to (Sirius) and I actually thought Battle sounded sexy! Amazing! I went insane trying to find that very performance (not always easy for the novice trying to dig through all of the performances and performers for that one particular opera!) She and Pavarotti just sold opera to me, lock, stock and barrel.
BBC mentioned that he died 10 years to the day after attending Princess Di’s funeral. They showed footage of him mourning.
It seems to happen to almost every famous tenor. Superstar = sings Verismo. I cringe every time I hear Roberto Alagna trying to heave his way through rep 3 times too heavy for him.
I have to say, though, Pavarotti’s longevity was way above average. Even after the bloom came off his sound, he still sang beautifully by any standard well into his 60s. The vibrato never slowed, and he still had access to the top of his voice. His “Ti Adoro” recording from a few years ago, for all of its crossover shlockiness, captures a surprising amount of vocal ability still intact.
Nice use of “squillo” 
I’ve always liked the onamatapoetic quality of that word.
I love his performance of Verdi’s Requiem, especially Ingemisco.
Here is a video of him singing it(beardless, by the way).
But man, could he have been a little less obvious reading the cue cards? Other singers read ahead or, dare I suggest, memorize their songs to make it look a bit more natural but he would just stand there, staring.
I just heard “Miss Sarejevo” on the radio this morning; it was done by Pavarotti and U2 in a side project called "The Passengers about 10 or so years ago.
Lovely song, and a fantastic operatic section by Pav.
In the Karajan Requiem, he was a very young singer, not yet a star, surrounded by major stars, and he’d been called in at the last minute when the tenor originally meant to participate was taken sick. I’d call that enough to intimidate him into clutching any rag of comfort he could find.