Teacher, amateur painter or sponsor of young talents: the course of the very popular singer Luciano Pavarotti does not fail to surprise you. Nicknamed “Lucky Luciano” or “Big P” because of its size of 1 meter 80, the tenor died on September 6, 2007 at age 71.

 

Tenor from father to son

At the Pavarotti, opera is a family affair! The father, Fernando, a baker by trade, also has a beautiful tenor voice and occasionally sings in small operatic productions, as well as in the church choir.

Every night, in their small apartment in Modena (Italy). The Pavarotti listen to the greatest Italian operatic arias on the family record player. Cradling the childhood of little Luciano with the voices of the great tenors Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli.

 

A nanny

Because both parents have to work to support the family, Luciano is raised by his grandmother and entrusted, baby, to a nanny. A nanny who is breastfeeding another child, a little girl, Mirella, born a few months before Pavarotti.

Like her baby brother, Mirella Freni will become one of the great stars of the operatic scene, her path meeting that of Pavarotti many times. They meet first in the streets of their hometown, Modena, then in Mantua, where they both train with the same teacher, and finally, at the top of their respective careers, on the stage of the Scala in Milan or in recording studio with Herbert von Karajan.

 

Twice miraculously

Little Luciano is only 12 when he suddenly falls into a coma. One day, he complains of a high fever and the next day he is totally paralyzed. He hears everything that is said around him but is unable to react. His family believes him dead and Luciano receives extreme unction. Mysteriously, the child finally wakes up, escaping from his own funeral …

Many years later, in 1975, Pavarotti recounts how he escaped death a second time: the plane in which he returns from Milan fails to crash on landing. He, who was already terrorized by air travel, is suing the company for ‘psychological trauma’, and receives the modest sum of $ 1 million in compensation.

 

 

Anonymous

While many singers have landed their first roles before age 25. Pavarotti, he remains until the same age a perfect anonymous. For seven long years, he studied conscientiously with his vocalist Arrigo Pola. And while Luciano still depends on the financial support of his parents. He gradually sees his friends leaving the family nest, making a living and getting married.

The situation is too frustrating for the aspiring singer who then decides to take a part-time job. That of teacher in primary school. And it is there, in front of young indocile blond heads, that he learns the workings of his future profession: the scene. It must capture attention, interest, even when it comes to subtraction or conjugation.

 

Influenza

In 1968, the name of Pavarotti spread across Europe, among music lovers and theater directors. But the tenor dreams of conquering America! And then after a first engagement in San Francisco, in a production of La Bohème. He is finally invited to the Met: the New York temple of opera, the most prestigious halls across the Atlantic.

Now, the evening of the first, Luciano is sick. Influenza. Feverish. When he goes on stage, he shivers with cold and stress … However, the public will see only fire, Luciano will sing to the end, receiving the next day a shower of excellent reviews. This ‘first flu’ also earned him his first appearances in the popular TV show. Where Luciano now takes his habits, speaking as much of music as Italian pasta or football.