Amongst the most iconic figures of the twentieth century, Luciano Pavarotti will probably be remembered by the majority of people for his concert appearances in outdoor arenas. He entertained the crowds with arias such as 'Nessun dorma' and Neapolitan songs such as 'Torna a Surriento' and was famous for his ever-present white handkerchief and breaking into a wide smile at the end of each piece.
But what the world has lost through his death at 71 due to pancreatic cancer is one of the most formidable performers of opera ever to have graced the stage. True, the heyday of Pavarotti's stage appearances was long past - his operatic schedule was reduced to a handful of engagements in his sixties and he retired from opera after singing Tosca at the Met in 2004 - yet his assumptions of certain roles in the Italian tenor repertoire, as documented in numerous recordings, remain unmatched.
Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohčme was the role in which he first appeared in 1961 at the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia; in 1963, he also sang the part in Vienna and at Covent Garden, and it remained his calling card for over twenty-five years. A DVD of the opera co-starring Mirella Freni (one of his closest friends and collaborators) filmed in San Francisco in 1988 proves that he retained the lyrical elegance, vocal style and poetical delivery of his younger days. As a team, Pavarotti and Freni have arguably never been matched in these roles.
Another of his great triumphs was playing Tonio opposite Joan Sutherland's Marie in Donizetti's La fille du régiment. Pavarotti's redoubtable technique allowed him to apply luxurious tone to the nine high Cs of the famous aria 'Pour mon âme' in a way that was almost unprecedented (the singer often explained that these notes would probably have been sung in a light falsetto voice originally, though Donizetti undoubtedly wanted a full-blooded approach). The feat earned him the title of 'King of the High Cs' and the ensuing recording of the opera with Sutherland and her husband Richard Bonynge is still a paradigm of bel canto style. The three of them also recorded the same composer's L'elisir d'amore together.
Perhaps less convincing as the passionate artist Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca than his contemporary and friendly rival Plácido Domingo, Pavarotti nevertheless brought a vocal ease to this and several other Puccini roles that won him critical attention from the start. His performance as the dramatically one-dimensional but vocally demanding Calaf in Turandot was a particularly felicitous match, and it gave him the aria that became his signature tune (both in the opera and football worlds), 'Nessun dorma'.
For me, Pavarotti's greatest role portrayals on record are in the mid-period Verdi parts. Manrico in Il trovatore and Alfredo in La traviata under Bonynge, Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera under Solti and Rodolfo in Luisa Miller under Peter Maag are all outstanding examples; the finest is the Duke in Rigoletto in Bonynge's recording. All of these not only showcase Pavarotti's awesome breath control, beauty of sound and impeccable intonation, but are evidence that he was an intelligent musician, too. However, Otello and Don Carlo were less fortuitous roles for him, the latter drawing loud jeers during his one and only assumption of the character at La Scala in 1992.
His forays into other repertoire were few and far between, preferring to stick to Verdi, Puccini, selected verismo parts and the bel canto operas such as Rossini's Guglielmo Tell, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and La favorita, and Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi. But one part seems to have been made for him: the title role in Mozart's Idomeneo, which is amongst the greatest of his filmed appearances from the Met.
As well as his celebrated concerts in front of hundreds of thousands of people in Hyde Park and Central Park and as one of the so-called Three Tenors, in the 1990s Pavarotti increased his work for charitable causes. Describing in several interviews how he grew up during the war and witnessed the massacre of many people, the tenor gave numerous concerts in aid of children who suffered the atrocities of war. He is credited with raising more money in benefit performances and volunteer work than any other individual, a distinction for which he earned the United Nations' Nansen medal, the organisation's highest award.
Pavarotti gave one of his final public appearances at the 2006 Winter Olympics, singing 'Nessun dorma' to an adoring crowd. Although there were numerous blips in his career, particularly a reputation for last-minute cancellations, the widespread mourning over Pavarotti's untimely demise is proof that he touched many people's lives in a personal way that is unprecedented in the history of opera singing.