Friday, December 20, a conference on the theme “History of Tenors” for the IUTL was given by Jean-Bernard Soleillant.
On September 8, 2007, immense emotion in Modena, Pavarotti’s hometown: 50,000 people followed the funeral ceremony on giant screens. There are nearly 10 million on the RAI One ! Many artists are present in the cathedral, among others Franco Zeffirelli and Mirella Freni (friend since childhood). Raïna Kabaïvanska sings Ave Maria from Otello by Verdi, as if for the funeral of a head of state.
Political figures came, Kofi Annan, Romano Prodi… Pope Benedict XVI, traveling to Austria, also wanted to welcome the departure of an immense artist who honored the divine gift of Music. Above all, Pavarotti was a talent worth gold.
For the funeral, 1,500 booklets were printed and distributed. Two were put up for sale on the Internet.
Vocal technique
Male voices fall into three categories: baritone (normal voice), bass (low voice), and tenor (the highest voice in the register). That of women as well: soprano (highest voice), mezzo (middle register) and alto (lowest).
The Music Dictionary says: “The highest category of the natural male voice.” As opposed to artificial. Because, in Italian opera, we had gotten into the habit of entrusting men with women’s roles. Two types of voices will then lend themselves to this new situation: the tenor and the soprano, the baritones and the mezzos. Pavarotti also explains that the tenor is always sympathetic: the modern history of tenors begins with Manuel Garcia, the great Caruso, who had the most beautiful voice in the world. Caruso is finally the first singer to really perform on stage. Beniamino Gigli, Toto Schipa, Lauritz Melchior, Danish, he had an incredible longevity of 36 years, Richard Tauber, Australian, Jussi Bjorling, Danish, Mario Del Monaco, Italian, Guiseppe Di Stephano, Franco Corelli, Nicolai Gedda, born in 1925 in Stockholm, Carlo Bergonzi, Alfredo Kraus, Placido Domingo.
It is superfluous to present Domingo, world super star for almost half a century, José Carreras and finally, Luciano Pavarotti, considered “the tenor of the century”. An unusual character. He had the appearance of an ogre, of a “Rabelaisian” character. It wouldn’t have been out of place in a Perrault story. Certainly, a colorful character, who exuded the joy of living and was one of the “people”. Hunted by the paparazzi, we see Pavarotti alongside Lady Di, John McEnroe, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan. Pavarotti has 595,000 pages on the Internet (you read that correctly) and 100 million records sold. In 2003, for “La Tosca”, in Berlin, he asked for €25,000! In 2004, it was the final appearance at the Met, for a final “Tosca”. The die-hard fans snapped up the $2,000 tickets! Pavarotti’s discography is relatively small: only 23 operas, around ten anthologies and a series of popular arias. There is no comparison with Domingo.
