Bringing opera to the masses

IN Britain, he will forever be known as the man who brought classical music to the masses. But to serious fans, Luciano Pavarotti, who has died at the age of 71, was known for the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of his voice, his vibrant high Cs and ebullient showmanship making him one of the world's most beloved tenors.

Pavarotti's beginnings, however, were somewhat more humble, hailing from an ordinary working class Italian family with no connections to the elite world of opera he would one day be king of.

Pavarotti was born in Modena, northern Italy, on October 12, 1935, the only child of a baker father and tobacco factory worker mother. As a boy, his first love had been football, but his mother recognised the quality of his singing and he began his musical studies, making his professional opera debut in his home country in 1961, as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme.

His introduction to British audiences came at the age of 19. He arrived in Llangollen, north Wales, with his local Rossini choir - which included his father - for an international singing competition. The choir took away first prize and Pavarotti was imbued with a love of musical performing which would never leave him.

But it wasn't until his twenties that he gained international recognition at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. He had stepped in for the tenor lead in La Boheme following an illness and his performance prompted rave reviews. He went on to make his TV debut in front of 15 million viewers at the London Palladium and gain fans around the globe.

In America, he produced one of his finest performances during the production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment at New York's Metropolitan Opera. He sang nine effortless high Cs, driving his audience to a frenzy and taking his reputation to new heights.

But his talent was not only appreciated by opera lovers. With the theme song for the World Cup in 1990, he brought opera to the football terraces with Nessun Dorma, an aria from Puccini's Turandot.

"It was wonderful because Pavarotti was from a very ordinary family with no one to push him, no contacts in the business and yet he rose to the very top," says North-East opera singer Suzannah Clarke, who trained with Pavarotti's tutor in Italy.

"People who would normally go to the pub for a pint then pop into the chippy are not the type of people who would normally rush to the nearest opera house, but they were passionate about Nessun Dorma and that was because of Pavarotti. He connected with people wherever he was."

Suzannah met Pavarotti a number of times and recalls him telling her that she was "so English - but in a nice way".

"Years later I saw him again at the side of the stage and he said 'Suzannah, you are almost Italian now,' which I took to be a great compliment. But by then you could hardly get a couple of sentences out before he was accosted by other people. He was larger than life in many ways and had a great sense of humour."

Along with Nessun Dorma, Pavarotti achieved pop chart success when The Essential Pavarotti became the first classical album to reach number one in the UK charts. It was followed by the phenomenally successful series of Three Tenors concerts with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.

''I always admired the God-given glory of his voice - that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range," says Mr Domingo.

''I also loved his wonderful sense of humour and on several occasions of our concerts with Jose Carreras - the so-called Three Tenors concerts - we had trouble remembering that we were giving a concert before a paying audience, because we had so much fun between ourselves.''

Pavarotti came to the North-East in 2000, when 10,000 people heard him play at the Newcastle Arena. It was the only UK venue he played that year and was one of the biggest opera events for the region since 1983, when Placido Domingo sang at Newcastle's Tyne Theatre and Opera House.

But one of his fondest concerts was at Hyde Park in 1991 when he performed to a rain drenched audience of 150,000 which included the Prince and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Pavarotti became a close friend of Diana's and the pair worked on a number of charity projects together. He sang at a concert to help raise money for dying children in Wales, while she began helping with his favourite charity War Child, set up to help the children of war-torn Bosnia. (His other charity worked raised millions for causes in Bosnia, Cambodia, Kosovo, Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq.)

Their rapport grew so strong that he even tried to help himself to some of her seafood once as they dined together. "I am not accustomed to sharing my food," she declared, but apparently made an exception for him.The tenor later turned down an invitation to sing at her funeral because he was too grief stricken.

"My heart is full of grief and pain," said Pavarotti, who went on to ban all mention of Diana in interviews.

But as Pavarotti's world-wide reputation grew, so did stories of his diva-like demands. At a Royal Variety performance in Edinburgh, he reportedly demanded a fully-fitted kitchen to be built into his hotel suite and a string of last minute cancellations also soured relations with some opera houses.

In later years, he was criticised for turning his back on traditional opera in favour of the easy money of mass concerts, earning up to £100,000 for each stadium event. He gave his final performance in a staged opera in Puccini's Tosca in New York in 2004 where he received an 11 minute standing ovation.

But while he received rapturous applause on stage, his personal life was enduring rockier times. He split from his wife of 35 years, Adua Veroni, who was the mother of his three adult daughters and his business manager, and later married his assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani. Nicoletta was half his age and had been having an affair with the legend for ten years. The couple went on to have a daughter, Alice.

At the age of 69, Pavarotti announced a 40-date "farewell tour" but the schedule was thrown apart by his deteriorating health. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006 and underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumour. The overweight singer also underwent neck surgery to repair two vertebrae, surgery to reduce his waistline and ease the pressure on his knees, and back surgery.

He died at his home in Modena yesterday at the age of 71. Suzannah Clarke sums up what his death means to the millions who loved and revered him.

"His legacy is that he bridged the gap between the masses and opera," she says. "We need to reinvigorate the interest in very young people so we don't lose the Pavarotti effect - linking the ordinary working person with the beauty that is opera."