Luciano Pavarotti

Diese Musik in meiner Werbung There is no better known name in the opera world than that of tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Born on October 12, 1935 in Modena, Italy, the singer loved music from an early age; his father, a baker by profession, sang in the city’s Corale Rossini as a tenor. As a young child, Mr. Pavarotti would perform arias for his family, and he went on to take voice lessons while he was growing up. As a young man, he wavered in his choice of a career—gym instructor, school teacher, insurance agent, or professional singer. He eventually joined the same choir that his father took part in; his first tour was to Wales in 1955 with that chorus.
But it was in 1961 that Luciano Pavarotti took center stage, first by winning the international Achille Peri prize, and then by debuting as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème on April 29th in an acclaimed performance conducted by Francesco Molinari Pradelli at the Teatro Municipale of Reggio Emilia. From there his career blossomed: he sang Rodolfo across Italy. By 1962, he was singing the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto in Parma under the direction of celebrated conductor Tullio Serafin. He was performing abroad as well, but his international reputation was made in 1963, when he famously substituted for Giuseppe di Stefano—one of the young singer’s idols—at Covent Garden, once again in La Bohème. The opera was televised for an audience of 15 million. It was after these triumphs that Decca signed the tenor and that the young conductor Richard Bonynge asked Mr. Pavarotti to sing with his wife, the stellar soprano Joan Sutherland.

1965 marked Mr. Pavarotti’s American debut, in which he performed Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Miami with Sutherland, conducted by Bonynge. The partnership was eminently successful; they teamed up again for performances of La sonnambula (at Covent Garden), and a tour of Australia with La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, and La sonnambula. He also reprised the role of Rodolfo for his debut at La Scala in Milan, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That season also marked the singer’s first collaborations with conductors Claudio Abbado and Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and his reputation was clinched by a legendary performance in the extraordinarily demanding music of Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment, featuring an aria that requires the tenor to sing nine high Cs. Mr. Pavarotti—who was then dubbed "King of the High Cs"—repeated this feat at his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1972.

In the following decades, Luciano Pavarotti has sung in houses across the globe, including New York, London, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Hamburg, Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg, Geneva, Paris, Moscow, and Beijing. He has also sung hundreds of solo concerts, beginning with his debut in New York in 1973. Since that time, he has expanded the audiences for opera by performing in arenas, city squares, stadiums, and parks. In 1975 he gave a recital at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that attracted a huge crowd; 1980 saw a concert performance of Rigoletto in New York’s Central Park that drew over 200,000 people. He has also performed for such distinguished figures as President Ronald Reagan, Prince Charles, and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. In 1981, the tenor founded the Pavarotti International Voice Competition, which takes place every three or four years in Philadelphia under the singer’s direction.

1986—the 25th anniversary year of Mr. Pavarotti’s career—was marked by a number of notable performances. He staged performances of La Bohème in Modena and Beijing. While he was in China for that occasion, the government invited Mr. Pavarotti to give a recital at the Great Hall of the People, which was seen on television by more than 100 million viewers. During that anniversary year, he also sang Verdi’s Aïda at the Metropolitan and at La Scala.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, Luciano Pavarotti built on the legacy of his earlier outdoor performances. The famed Three Tenors—featuring Mr. Pavarotti with Placido Domingo and José Carreras—first performed together in 1990 to celebrate the World Cup in Rome, launching a worldwide phenomenon of blockbuster shows. London’s Hyde Park was the venue for another huge outdoor concert in 1991, and Mr. Pavarotti returned to Central Park in 1993 for a concert that attracted 500,000 fans and was televised nationally in the United States. The tenor founded his charity vehicle Pavarotti & Friends in 1992, creating a series of yearly performances with pop stars such as Eric Clapton, Liza Minnelli, Jon Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey and Stevie Wonder to benefit international humanitarian organizations.