According to his former manager, Herbert Breslin, Pavarotti loved ‘music, women, food and football.’ At 150 kgs he devoured heaps of pasta, heavily sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and loads of salami. His conception of dieting consisted of a whole chicken, beans and more beans, mashed potatoes topped off with three scoops of ice cream. When on a long tour he would ask any friend travelling from Italy to smuggle kilos of tortellini, Parmesan cheese and oodles of salami. I say ‘smuggled’ because I doubt if any customs institution would allow entrance into their country with meat in their luggage. Even on his death-bed, his ex-wife Adua, whom he had divorced for a woman 34 years his junior, visited him and he persuaded her to cook him some spaghetti bolognese.
Pavarotti’s nickname was ‘Big Lucy’ for obvious reasons. He was also called ‘Luciano Havelotti’ because of his size. He was also known as the ‘King of the High Cs’, an appendage he earned after two 1972 performances singing Tonio in Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment at London’s Covent Garden and New York’s Metropolitan. In one of the arias he sang nine high Cs in a row. At the Metropolitan he was called back for seventeen curtain calls….a record number, according to some. It was then that Pavarotti came of age as an operatic tenor.
Pavarotti realised he was destined to pursue a singing career when he was a member of a male chorus (it included his father) that won first prize at the International Eisteddfod in Wales. Prior to that he’d given serious thought to joining Juventus as a goalkeeper.
He began his professional career as Rodolfo in La Boheme in 1961. Thereafter he tried to sing that role when making his debut in different opera houses around the world. That included his debut at Covent Garden when he replaced an ailing Giuseppe di Stefano. Richard Bonynge took him along for the tour of Australia with Joan Sutherland in 1963 (supposedly Bonynge was looking for a tenor taller than his wife). Pavarotti later remarked that Sutherland had increased his vocal longevity by explaining the proper use of the diaphragm in singing.
Pavarotti always had his eye on the ladies too. Although he married Adua in 1961 and had three daughters, his roving eye was forever getting him into romantic imbroglios. In 1979 he met Madelyn Renee during a masterclass at the Juillard School of Music and according to her: ‘I was the friend, the student, the secretary. He was my mentor, my teacher, my love.’ She also did his packing for him – 28 suitcases. ‘…..God forbid (if) his handkerchiefs were not where they were supposed to be,’ she recalled. Eventually they broke it off because he was still married. They did not speak for a long time.
Adua filed for divorce when it was clear Pavarotti was having an affair with Nicoletta Mantovani, whom he’d met at a horseshow. Soon after they became romantically involved, Nicoletta contracted MS but Pavarotti stood by her. The divorce went through in 2002 and Pavarotti married Nicoletta the following year. She gave birth to twins, a son was still-born but the daughter, Alice, became the light in Pavarotti’s life.
In his later years, Pavarotti embarked on charity work and concerts. He started mixing with the likes of Elton John and Sting. He met Princess Diana in 1991 and in 1995 he brought her to tears when he sang Schubert’s Ave Maria.
In December 1975 he was a passenger in a TWA flight that crashed on landing at Milan’s airport. He was uninjured, but some of his fellow passengers had to be treated for bruises and lacerations. Both pilots suffered fractures.
As the years wore on, Pavarotti became lax with his career. He began to cancel quite a few of his appointments and failed to show up at his scheduled concerts. He also started cracking on his high notes. His co-host at some of the charity concerts, Bono from U2, said his cracks were a sign ‘that he has lived these songs. As it was, there were suggestions that even when in good voice, he’d often ask the conductor in his live shows and operas to bring the music down a semi-tone for his arias. Heaven knows what happened when he had a duet to sing!
The cancellations became so bad that he became persona non grata at both London’s Covent Garden and Chicago’s Lyric Opera. In Chicago alone he cancelled 26 out of his 41 scheduled appearances. He became demanding and unpredictable and it was only his voice that sold out show after show. In 1992, in an appearance in his hometown of Modena – where he sang with Elton John, Liza Minelli and Sting – he lip-synched to a recording!
The great money-spinners came in 1990 when he collaborated with Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Zubin Mehta in the highly super-successful Three Tenors’ Concert on the eve of the Rome World Cup in Rome. There were rumours that Pavarotti pocketed an extra million dollars from Decca (who produced the best-selling CD and DVD) but Pavarotti pooh-poohed the rumour. As it turned out, after his death, his then agent confirmed that he had indeed been given that extra million. This concert was repeated for the next 3 FIFA World Cups, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris and 2002 in Yokahama. Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s unfinished ‘Turandot’ became his signature tune and the world loved him for it. It was also sung at the opening of Turin’s 2006 Winter Olympics but it was later revealed that Pavarotti had recorded the aria weeks earlier.
In 2006, while engaged in a marathon 40-concert farewell tour, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He’d had back problems prior and endured an operation to repair two vertebrae. Following this, complications ensued the following year and he contracted an infection while in a hospital in New York.
He died at his home in Modena on 6 September 2007. He was 71. He left an enduring legacy in the millions of records and CDs that his voice blessed. His first Three Tenors’ recording also became the best-selling classical album of all time.
His wife Adua in a current film directed by Ron Howard said: ‘I fell in love with the man, then I fell in love with the voice. Who wouldn’t fall in love with the voice of Luciano Pavarotti.’
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