@}-}rebecca----
not enough discipline ...
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If you love Opera and can make it through this without tears .... http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m71/worldrebecca/Pavarotti_Portrait.jpg
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Italy on October 12, 1935. His father was a baker and an amateur tenor. The young Pavarotti grew up loving sports and was childhood friends with Mirella Freni, later to be a famous opera soprano with whom Pavarotti sang on many important occasions during his career. After several years of dedicated vocal studies (and a short-lived career as an elementary school teacher), Pavarotti made his operatic debut on April 29, 1961 at the opera house in Reggio Emilia as Rodolfo in La Bohème. This role would become one of his most important and one which he recorded with Freni and Herbert von Karajan many years later. Soon Pavarotti was discovered by the legendary Australian soprano Joan Sutherland. He sang with her and her conductor husband, Richard Bonynge, in Australia, the United States, and London. He made his American debut with Sutherland and Bonynge in February 1965 in Lucia di Lammermoor in Miami, Florida. He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City two years later in La Boheme. The Met would soon become the opera house with which he had the closest professional relationship.
Pavarotti first achieved true stardom at the Met on February 17, 1972, in a production of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, in which he drove the crowd into a frenzy with his nine seemingly effortless high Cs in the signature aria, “Pour mon ame.” He achieved a record 17 curtain calls at that performance. Pavarotti had previously recorded the role of Tonio in La Fille with Joan Sutherland and he had made a success of the part at La Scala with Mirella Freni.
Pavarotti starred in the first Live from the Met telecast in March of 1977 as Rodolfo in La Boheme. The telecast attracted one of the largest audiences ever for a televised opera. Since that time, he has appeared in numerous additional Met telecasts, in operas such as Ernani and Un Ballo in Maschera. He has also performed on many other TV shows and specials, including his more recent Pavarotti and Friends concerts with pop and rock stars. He has won several Grammys. In addition, he has been featured on many prominent opera recordings. Several of his recordings have gone gold and platinum. He is the best-selling classical recording artist of all time. In 2003, he released his first pop album, Ti Adoro. In 1990, Pavarotti joined forces with Jose Carreras and his former rival Placido Domingo at the Baths of Caraculla in Rome for one of the most popular and legendary concerts of all time. The concert, which was given to coincide with the World Cup finals, was telecast to millions around the world, and the three singers were soon dubbed The Three Tenors. The recording of this first concert became the number one best-selling classical album of all time. The tenors had donated their entire earnings from the concert to charity. In response to their sudden mass fame, the Three Tenors began to tour the world. They met again for another concert around the time of the World Cup finals in Los Angeles in 1994. In 1998, they sang together again before the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The telecast of this concert was watched by billions around the world. The recordings and videos of these concerts have outsold recordings by Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.
Pavarotti is also famous for his solo mass concerts. His televised concert in London's Hyde Park drew a record attendance of 150,000 people. In June 1993, more than 500,000 listeners gathered for his performance on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park, while millions more around the world watched his performance on television.
In the 1990s, Pavarotti and his wife of decades divorced after photos of Pavarotti and his secretary Nicoletta Mantovani appeared in tabloid papers around the world. Pavarotti had three daughters from his first marriage. In 2003, Mantovani bore him a daughter, Alice (pronounced Ah-lee-chay). A son died at birth. More recently, Pavarotti has married Mantovani. In 2003, Pavarotti gave his farewell opera performance at the Metropolitan Opera in Tosca. He plans to devote himself to teaching young opera singers.
