Onstage and On-Screen, Tributes for Pavarotti

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti died on September 6, 2007, and now, almost a year after his passing, the tributes are coming. Next month, two important celebrations of the King of the High C’s will bring his legacy to the public.On September 10, Thirteen/WNET will broadcast a new Great Performances special, “Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias.” Directed by David Thompson, the documentary film provides a chronology of Pavarotti’s career. It ranges from a 1965 performance of Rodolfo’s “Che gelida manina” from Puccini’s “La Bohème” — sung in the tenor’s hometown of Modena, Italy — to his final operatic performance, “Tosca,” at the Metropolitan Opera in 2004.Then, on September 18, the Met is honoring Pavarotti with a free performance of Verdi’s Requiem, which will be broadcast on Sirius and streamed live on the Met’s Web site. James Levine will conduct, and the cast will include major names in the solo roles: soprano Barbara Frittoli, mezzo Olga Borodina, tenor Marcello Giordani, and bass James Morris. This tribute will have special meaning for New Yorkers and loyal fans: Pavarotti gave 378 performances at the Met, making the house the one in which he performed more than any other in the world.The singer’s special relationship to the Met cannot help but be a part of the Great Performances documentary. One memorable moment in the film — taken from Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” at the Met in 1981 — highlights Pavarotti’s range. He is shown performing the role of the country bumpkin and cavorting with a wine flask. Later, his comedic gestures are contrasted with the breathtaking conclusion of the aria “Una furtiva lagrima.” The former shows the star delighting in one of his favorite parts, while the latter proves a pensive essay in delicacy, during which one can all but hear the silence in the house.The documentary includes comments from his great singing partners. Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé says that his voice was “from the bottom to the top a line of equality, of beauty, of facility, and at the same time of emotion.” Plácido Domingo, who toured for years with Pavarotti and José Carreras as the Three Tenors, speaks of his “expressivity, a very, very thrilling quality.” In archival interviews, Pavarotti recalls learning from Dame Joan Sutherland and her “beautiful diaphragm,” then talks with startling candor of how all singers “go on the stage every night with the same feeling: We are afraid.”But the only fear surrounding the Met’s free tribute performance of Verdi’s Requiem will likely come from audience members desperate to attend. Tickets will be distributed after a random drawing (the deadline for which is September 3), and the winners will be announced on September 8.The event will remind the world of its lost star, but it will also point to the future. Pavarotti excelled at this mass, and his treatment of it was recorded on one of his famed Decca releases. For the tribute, the tenor will be Mr. Giordani, who recently sang in Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” in Boston with Mr. Levine and was the first soloist to sign on for the tribute performance. From his home in Sicily, he told The New York Sun that when Mr. Levine and Met general manager Peter Gelb approached him for the performance, “I didn’t think twice. I had to cancel another engagement but did it with pleasure. This is a great, great honor for me.”Mr. Giordani said the first tenor who “blew me away” as a youth was the legendary Giuseppe di Stefano, “and the second was Luciano Pavarotti. I remember listening to recordings and hearing the sun in his voice, the clarity and free emission. And understanding every single word.”Pavarotti heard a recital tape of Mr. Giordani in 1989, and three years later invited the young singer to share the stage for the annual Pavarotti Plus concert. Renée Fleming was also involved, and Mr. Giordani appears to enjoy the memory: “Ms. Fleming and I were unknown, just up-and-coming new artists. Since then, I couldn’t believe how generous he was with every single young singer. And he was always a great colleague onstage, very demanding, of course, very severe with everybody because he wanted the best.”Learning directly from Pavarotti included understanding and appreciating the singer’s early career. In his formative years, Pavarotti sang bel canto, “which can really help when you approach a heavier role. He used to tell us that every time he was singing ‘Turandot’ or ‘Il Trovatore’ or ‘La Forza del Destino,’ it was healthy for him to go back and sing bel canto.”Of Pavarotti in Verdi’s Requiem, Mr. Giordani said: “The role was perfect for his particular voice. The things that I’ve never heard from anyone else are the passages when he’s singing the Hostias. He was so beautiful and moving that every time I think about it, I get goose bumps. It is written in E-flat, almost in the passagio role, but the way he sang that in pianissimo, it was so clear and sad that he really made you cry.”But it wasn’t always the grand operatic moments that endeared people to Pavarotti. When Mr. Giordani would telephone the master to deliver Christmas or birthday greetings, Pavarotti had a way of playing with Mr. Giordani’s first name: He would call the younger singer “Marcello Finalmente,” a reference to a line in the duet between Rodolfo and Marcello in the third act of “La Bohème.” “He’d pick up the phone and sing to me, ‘Marcello finalmente.’ And I’d answer him, ‘Qui niun ci sente,'” Mr. Giordani said. The line means “Marcello, finally we’re alone and none can hear us.”“Just a couple of months before he died, he still had the energy to call me ‘Marcelo Finalmente’ in a singing way. It will remain in my soul forever.”For more information about the lottery for the September 18 performance, visit metopera.org or call 212-362-6000.

Onstage and On-Screen, Tributes for Pavarotti

Onstage and On-Screen, Tributes for Pavarotti

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