Don Perdue-Thirteen/WNET New York

GREAT PERFORMANCES marks the first anniversary of the passing of one of opera’s most cherished voices with Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias, Wednesday, September 10 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York and combining archival and rarely seen performance footage with fresh reminiscences by friends and colleagues, the 90-minute musical feast offers a concise yet compelling look at the tenor’s meteoric career trajectory. From soccer-playing son of a Modena, Italy, baker to onstage partner of “La Stupenda,” world-renowned soprano Joan Sutherland, from media darling to truly one-of-a-kind superstar, it is a story writ as large as the great one himself.

But, as all agree, it was the voice, with its unique golden timbre, that will be the enduring legacy. His recordings of the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s offer the definitive performances of the great romantic operas – Rigoletto, Turandot, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Fille du Regiment, among them.

“I think that Luciano had the sun in his voice,” says fellow Three Tenors partner Jose Carreras. “It was such a bright, pure sound.” “One of the greatest ever,” adds the third illustrious member of the trio, Placido Domingo.

Assembled by acclaimed filmmaker David Thompson (GREAT PERFORMANCES’ Busby Berkley: Through the Roof, Copland’s America), Carreras and Domingo are joined by sopranos Sutherland, Montserrat Caballe and Renata Scotto; p.r. whiz Herbert Breslin, credited with creating the Pavarotti Phenomenon; and Terri Robson, the tenor’s manager from 2000 until his death. Also on hand: delightful young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, who tells of dialing the maestro on his cell, moments before stepping on stage at Covent Garden to attempt the killer high C’s aria, “Pour mon ame,” made famous there by his idol 40 years earlier.

“I said I feel a certain emotion, and he said, ‘Great, I know you are there. You’re gonna do great.’”

The seven arias, and the chapters they represent in the singer’s life, are:

1) “Che gelida manina,” from Puccini’s La Boheme, the opera that marked Pavarotti’s debut and shown here in a rare 1965 performance from Modena with Mirella Freni.

2) “Pour mon ame,” from Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment, the work he toured with Joan Sutherland. Its famous aria and nine astronomical high notes he detonated from the stage at Covent Garden earned him the sobriquet King of the High Cs.

3) “Panis Angelicus,” the haunting Cesar Franck work he sang as a youth in Modena with his father. The duet affords a visit to his beloved hometown and a chance to recall friends there and participation in the city’s renowned Rossini Chorale.

4) “Questa o quella,” from Verdi’s Rigoletto, marking the beginning of the Pavarotti media blitz.

5) “Nessun dorma,” from Puccini’s Turandot, the aria he makes his own and immortalizes in the first Three Tenors concert.

6) “E lucevan le stelle,” from Puccini’s Tosca, underscores the last years and final Met performance.

7) “Ingemisco,” from the Verdi Requiem.

Valiant to the end – it was pancreatic cancer that felled him at age 71 – Luciano Pavarotti faced his “charmed” life with a clear eye and hard-won honesty. “We go on the stage every night with the same feeling: we are afraid,” he told an interviewer in 1979. “If somebody tells you (otherwise), the man is a liar.”

Related Links

• The Official Web site of Luciano Pavarotti
• Luciano Pavarotti’s Wikipedia Entry
• The New York Times: Luciano Pavarotti Is Dead at 71

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS. Major funding for this telecast was provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund and the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Joe Sinnott-Thirteen/WNET New York

Pavarotti’s friends and colleagues remember his life. Read what they have to say of the late master.

“He was like a, let’s say prima donna? Yes, why not? Prima donna can be also a tenor, and we need prima donnas on stage to catch the audience’s attention.” — Soprano Renata Scotto

“Outside the opera world, Caruso became the first tenor with universal fame because his was the first voice credible on record. He was the first best-seller. Half a century (later), along comes Pavarotti and he redefines that model for a mass public.” — Critic Norman Lebrecht

“He was always touching her up and trying to find how she breathed. I think she did influence him because she is so conscious of technique. In fact, she gets cross when she hears young singers trying to sing all the difficult works without the technique that’s necessary.” — Conductor Richard Bonynge, on Joan Sutherland’s influence

“We did L’Elisir (d’Amore) three times and I think it was the role I enjoyed him most in. He was cheeky, and he came on and got the audience in the palm of his hand. He just moved them, and that’s what the business is about, isn’t it?” — Director John Copley

“When we saw him later in life, one thought of him as a lazy tenor; who felt that all he needed do was to get on stage and beam and not really move about. Well, in those years when he did the major recordings, he worked very, very hard, and the results stand the test of time. They are as close to recorded perfection as you can get in those roles.” — Norman Lebrecht

“He was very interested in his high notes. He always wanted Decca to record (them) before he sang anything else, which I didn’t like very much. And he wanted to hear his voice louder that anybody else’s. In the control room I used to say ‘turn him up, turn the others down, and he’ll be happy.’ And he was.” — Richard Bonynge

“This great face, this great voice. The sound of that voice hadn’t been heard for many years. He gave you goose pimples; he made the hair on your hands stand on edge.” — Manager Herbert Breslin

“Happiness in the voice, that’s very important. Pavarotti had happiness in the voice. His technique was based on clarity, on the words, on the vowels. This is something I learned (from) listening to him. It’s important, especially in a tenor, that the words come across, and you can understand them” — Tenor Juan Diego Florez

“Pavarotti understood he had to get out of the opera house. He had (manager Herbert) Breslin, who started putting him into public arenas – where he could sing in front of five or ten thousand people – and who could put him into Hollywood – where he was a complete disaster in a film called Yes, Giorgio. He shouldn’t have gone near that sort of thing, but there was this craving to extend the Pavarotti brand beyond the opera house.” — Norman Lebrecht

“The personality was partly his own and partly created by the publicity. I think the idea of the handkerchief, et cetera, was created just to make something that was not of the normal.” — Tenor Placido Domingo

“He invited artists from the world of pop music to sing with him; he knew he’d raise a lot more money that way. But he loved the experience. He found it difficult to sing pop, but he loved (that) world. He loved meeting Sting, Bono, Stevie Wonder. And some of the artists became really good friends. Bono was like a son to him.” — Manager Terri Robson, on the Pavarotti & Friends charity concerts

“I am a servant of the audience. The public understand(s) and give(s) me back the love with applause.” — Luciano Pavarotti

Producer: Daniel Ross, Colin Fitzpatrick
Graphic Art: Gabriel Torres
Technical Director: Brian Lee
Production Assistant: Diana Cofresí-Terrero
HTML Implementation: Brian Santalone

GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages copyright
© 2008 Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Tamara E. Robinson, Vice President & Director, Programming.

Television Credits

“GREAT PERFORMANCES: PAVAROTTI: A LIFE IN SEVEN ARIAS “

Produced and Directed by
DAVID THOMPSON

Executive Producer
PETER MANIURA

Film Editor
COLIN MINCHIN

Production Executive
RACHEL WRIGHT

Narration
RONNIE FARER

Assistant Producer
CAT DIXON

Production Co-Coordinator
PAT SMYLIE

Production
WILLIE NORTON
ROZ EDWARDS

Camera
MALCOM HICKS
ALAN SMITH
BRUNO SORRENTINO
LEO SCHWEITZER
CHRIS SQUASHIC
BOB LONG

Sound
MICHAEL WHITEHOUSE
CHRIS CALLUS

New York Interviews
KAREN MCLAUGHLIN

Special thanks
DECCA MUSIC GROUP LIMITED
TERRI ROBSON ASSOCIATES
C-MAJOR ENTERTAINMENT
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA, NEW YORK
RAI TRADE
THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN
VICTORIA AND ALBERT PICTURE LIBRARY
DOMINIC PHOTOGRAPHY
CLIVE BARDA
GETTY IMAGES
ARCHIVIO PAVAROTTI
ARENA
FRANCIS HANLY
ERICA BANKS
CARLO MARIA CELLA
PETER CLARK
UNITEL CLASSICA

For Decca Music Group Limited
Executive Producer
BEN PATEMAN

For Great Performances
Producer
JOHN WALKER

Coordinating Producer
CARA COSENTINO

Editors
MITCH JACOBSON
MICHAEL PILGRIM

Post Production Audio
JON BERMAN

Graphic Design
BRIAN WHITEHILL

Series Producer
BILL O’DONNELL

Executive Producer
DAVID HORN

A BBC Production
in association with
Thirteen/WNET New York

Copyright BBC MMVII
Additional Materials Copyright Educational Broadcasting Corporation and Decca Music Group Limited MMVIII

The contents of these GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages are copyrighted under United States and other copyright laws. You may not download, reproduce, transmit, display, distribute or make derivative works from the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages other than for personal use without the advance written permission of the copyright owner. Any unauthorized use of any of the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Online Web pages may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Metropolitan Opera Archives

“Che gelida manina”

“Che gelida manina” (”Your tiny hand is frozen”), from Puccini’s La Boheme (1896), stacks high in any tenor’s repertory, but none higher than Pavarotti’s. The role of the romantic poet Rodolfo fits him like a glove and was the first he sang on stage, in hometown Modena. Also his debut role at the Met, it remained a calling card through much of his career. His recording of the opera, with Mirella Freni and led by Herbert von Karajan, was an instant bestseller.

“Pour mon ame”

“Pour mon ame” (”For my soul”) is the loopy, grandstanding aria that Donizetti wrote to wow the French in his comic opera La Fille du Regiment (1840). Boasting nine high C’s (count ‘em), its seemingly effortless execution by Pavarotti drove audiences and critics to a frenzy.

“Panis Angelicus”

“Panis angelicus” (”The bread of angels”), the penultimate strophe of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Sacris solemniis, has been set to music by many composers, most famously by Cesar Franck in 1872. Closely associated with the singer, it was sung often by him as a young man in duet with his father in the Modena Cathedral. His performance of it with Sting was a highlight of 1992’s Pavarotti & Friends.

“Questa o quella”

“Questa o quella” (”This girl or that one”) is the lecherous Duke of Mantua’s opening aria in Verdi’s Rigoletto (1851), in which he explains that all women attract him. Pavarotti’s rendition in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1985 film version became an instant iconic image of decadence.

“Nessun dorma”

“Nessun dorma” (”None shall sleep”), from Puccini’s Turandot (1926), is probably the aria most associated with Pavarotti. Its lush sweeping melody and brilliant orchestration virtually defines the composer, while revealing the singer at his most exalted and thrilling.

“E lucevan le stelle”

“E lucevan le stelle” (”And the stars were shining”) is another of Puccini’s most famous arias. Written for the opera Tosca (1900), it is the forlorn lament of the painter Cavaradossi, lover of the beautiful Floria Tosca, on the eve of his execution. The aria was a particular Pavarotti favorite and sung by him in his final appearance at the Met, as Cavaradossi, in 2004.

“Ingemisco”

“Ingemisco tamquam reus” (”I groan, as the accused”) is the exquisite tenor solo in Verdi’s monumental Requiem of 1874. A plea for divine rescue, it is an integral part of the composer’s famous musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass. Pavarotti filmed the work at La Scala, Milan, with von Karajan conducting, in 1967, the same year he recorded it in Vienna, under Georg Solti’s baton.

Producer: Anu Krishnan
Designer: Lenny Drozner
Graphic Art: Gabriel Torres
Technical Director: Brian Lee
Production Assistant: Diana Cofresí-Terrero
Copy Editor: Leslie Kriesel
HTML Implementation: Brian Santalone

GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages copyright © 2007 Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Tamara E. Robinson, Vice President & Director, Programming.

Television Credits

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “L’Elisir D’Amore”

Gaetano Donizetti
“L’Elisir D’Amore”

Conducted by
Nicola Rescigno

Production by
Nathaniel Merrill

Set and Costume Designer
Robert O’Hearn

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Cast
Adina
Judith Blegen

Nemorino
Luciano Pavarotti

Sergeant Belcore
Brent Ellis

Dr. Dulcamara
Sesto Bruscantini

Giannetta
Louise Wohlafka

Choreographer
Todd Bolender

Chorus Master
David Stivender

Musical Preparation
Joan Dornemann

Assistant Stage Manager
Pamela Mcrae

Prompter
Joan Dornemann

Recitative Accompanist
Gildo Di Nunzio

Metropolitan Opera Administration
General Manager
Anthony A. Bliss

Music Director and Principal Conductor
James Levine

Assistant Managers
Joan Ingpen
Joseph Volpe
Marilyn Shapiro

Production Advisor
John Dexter

Artistic Administrator
Charles Riecker

Technical Director
Joseph Clark

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Personnel Manager
Abraham Marcus

Concert Master
Raymond Gniewek

Metropolitan Opera Chorus

Metropolitan Opera Ballet
Ballet Master
Donald Mahler

Stage Managers
Tom Connell
Chris Mahan
Stanley Levine

Stage Operations
Master Carpenter
Stephen Diaz

Master Electrician
Sander Hacker

Properties Master
Arthur Ashenden

Wig and Hair Stylist
Nina Lawson

Makeup Artist
Victor Callegari

Wardrobe Mistress
Christina Calamari

This stage production of “L’Elisir D’Amore” was made possible by a gift from the Metropolitan Opera Club, Mr. R. Livingston Ireland & Margaret Allen Ireland, Mrs. John Barry Ryan, and Mrs. Albert D. Lasker

LIVE FROM THE MET
Executive Producer
Michael Bronson

Producer
Clemente D’Alessio

Directed by
Kirk Browning

Associate Director
Alan Skog

Associate Producer
Karen Adler

Engineering Consultant
John Leay

Audio Design
John Pfeiffer

Transmission Consultant
Mark Schubin

English Subtitles
Sonya Friedman

Continuity
Gerald Fitzgeralt

Intermission Feature
Gene Searchinger
Equinox Films

Production Supervisor
Norman C. Berns

Editors
Judith Fleth
David Dean
Steve Rosofsky

Senior Technician
Ralph Parisi, Sr.

Technical Director
Rosario Augugilaro

Audio
Gino Aldo Lombardo
Michael Shoskes
Bill King

Video
Bill Steinberg
Paul C. York

Camera
Juan Barrera
John Geher
Les Leibowitz
Mike Lieberman
Jake Ostroff
Ron Washburn

Television Stage Managers
Terrence Benson
Tony Marshall
Diana Wenman

Production Assistants
Scott Fraser
Karen McLaughlin

Production Facilities
Reeves Teletape

Copyright 1981 by Metropolitan Opera Association

The contents of these GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages are copyrighted under United States and other copyright laws. You may not download, reproduce, transmit, display, distribute or make derivative works from the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages other than for personal use without the advance written permission of the copyright owner. Any unauthorized use of any of the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Online Web pages may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET pays tribute to the life of Luciano Pavarotti, who died on September 6, 2007, with an encore performance of one of his most treasured roles, Nemorino in Donizetti’s “L’Elisir D’Amore” (”The Elixir of Love”). The two-and-one-half-hour, two-act opera was originally broadcast on PBS stations from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on March 2, 1981. A highlight of the telecast is Pavarotti’s stunning rendition of “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” an aria he made his own in his illustrious career. Charlie Rose introduces the In Memoriam broadcast.

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti

Librettist: Libretto by Felice Romani, based on Eugène Scribe’s libretto “Le Philtre”

Production: Nathaniel Merrill

Conductor: Nicola Rescigno

Performers: Judith Blegen (Adina), Luciano Pavarotti (Nemorino), Brent Ellis (Sergeant Belcore), Sesto Bruscantini (Dr. Dulcamara), and Louise Wohlafka (Giannetta)

Synopsis:
Act I
Adina, wealthy owner of a local farm, her friend Giannetta and a group of peasants are resting beneath a shade tree on her estate. At a distance Nemorino, a young villager, laments he has nothing to offer Adina but love. The peasants urge their mistress to read them a story — how Tristan won the heart of Isolde by drinking a magic love potion. No sooner has Adina done so than Sgt. Belcore swaggers in with his troops. The soldier’s conceit amuses her, but he is not dissuaded from asking her hand in marriage. Saying she will think it over, she orders refreshments for his comrades. When Adina and Nemorino are left alone, he awkwardly declares his love. She tells him his time would be better spent looking after his ailing uncle than mooning over her, for she is fickle as a breeze.

In the town piazza, villagers hail the traveling salesman Dr. Dulcamara, who proclaims the virtues of his patent medicine. Since it is inexpensive, the villagers buy eagerly. When they have gone, Nemorino asks Dulcamara if he sells the elixir of love described in Adina’s book. Pulling out a bottle of Bordeaux, the charlatan declares this is the very draught. Though it costs him his last cent, Nemorino buys the wine and hastily drinks it. Adina enters to find him tipsy; certain of winning her love, he pretends indifference. To punish him, Adina flirts with Belcore, who, informed that he must return to his garrison, persuades her to marry him at once. Horrified, Nemorino begs Adina to wait one more day, but she ignores him and invites the entire village to her wedding feast. Nemorino rushes away, moaning that he has been ruined by Dulcamara’s elixir.

Act II
At a local tavern, the pre-wedding supper is in progress. Dulcamara, self-appointed master of ceremonies, sits with the bridal couple. Adina’s mind is distracted by the doctor, who suggests they blend their voices in a barcarole about a gondoliera and her wealthy suitor. When the duet ends, Adina goes off with Belcore to sign the marriage contract; the guests disperse. Remaining behind, Dulcamara is joined by Nemorino, who begs for another bottle of elixir; his pleas are rejected, because he has no money. Belcore returns, annoyed that Adina has postponed the wedding until nightfall; he spies Nemorino and asks why he is so sad. The youth explains his financial plight, whereupon the sergeant persuades him to join the army and receive a bonus awaiting all volunteers. Belcore leads the perplexed Nemorino off to sign him up, enabling him to buy more elixir.

Peasant girls, gathered in the square, hear from Giannetta that Nemorino’s uncle has died and willed him a fortune. When the youth reels in, giddy from a second bottle of wine, they besiege him with attention; unaware of his new wealth, he believes the elixir finally has taken effect. Adina and Dulcamara arrive in time to see him leave with a bevy of beauties, and she, angry that he has sold his freedom to Belcore, grows doubly furious. Hoping to sell Adina a bottle of elixir, Dulcamara claims that Nemorino’s popularity is due to the magic potion. Adina replies she will win him back through her own charms. Reentering alone in a pensive mood, Nemorino takes heart because of a tear he has seen on Adina’s cheek, but when she appears, he acts disinterested. She confesses she bought back his enlistment papers because she loves him.

Back in the piazza, Belcore marches in to find Adina affianced to Nemorino; declaring that thousands of women await him, he accepts the situation philosophically. Attributing Nemorino’s happiness and inheritance to the elixir, Dulcamara quickly sells more bottles before making his escape.

Opera synopsis courtesy of Opera News.

Related Web Sites

• Luciano Pavarotti
• Bach Cantatas: Short Biographies: Judith Blegen
• Fondazione Donizetti
• All Music Guide: Nicola Rescigno
• Charlie Rose