The award-winning filmmaking team behind the hit documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years has turned to another musical phenomenon with Pavarotti, an in-depth, no-holds-barred look at the life, career and lasting legacy of the musical icon. The Ron Howard-directed documentary about one of the world’s greatest operatic tenors, Luciano Pavarotti, features rare footage, peak performances and dozens of new interviews. Pavarotti releases in South African cinemas on 27 September 2019.
Dubbed ‘The People’s Tenor’, Luciano Pavarotti was the rare combination of personality, genius and celebrity and he used his prodigious gifts to spread the gospel of opera as entertainment – and something to be enjoyed by all music lovers. Through the sheer force of his talent, Pavarotti commanded the great stages of the world and captured the hearts of audiences everywhere. Featuring rare interviews with his family and colleagues, never-before-seen footage, and state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos sound, this look at a remarkable man and musical giant is directed by Academy Award® winner Ron Howard.
Pavarotti was no stranger to South Africa and was much loved when he performed in Stellenbosch in January 1996 to an enthusiastic audience. Those that couldn’t get tickets sat outside the stadium and made themselves comfortable with beers and braais as the tenor gave his performance.
In 2005, Pavarotti returned, by invitation from Rand Merchant Bank, to perform in South Africa as part of his ‘farewell tour’, which included performances throughout Europe, South East Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and Canada.
Some 18 600 tickets were sold for Pavarotti’s ‘Farewell from Africa’ concert, held at Supersport Park in Centurion in April 2005. On the night of the performance, the skies opened over Pretoria, but persistent rain did little to dampen the spirits of the thousands of faithful fans, among them President Thabo Mbeki and his wife Zanele, who were spotted enjoying the concert wrapped tightly in white plastic raincoats.
Crowd favourites on the night included the ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’ and the ever-popular ‘‘O sole Mio’, which saw the audience swaying along appreciatively holding aloft red, blue and green lights. An undisclosed malady compelled The Maestro, as he was popularly known, to finish his performance early. ‘I am sorry I cannot do more,’ Pavarotti told concert-goers shortly before 21:30. ‘I have a fever.’ He finished his performance in grand style, an hour earlier than scheduled, singing an excerpt from the opera La Traviata.
In July 2006, while still undertaking his international ‘Farewell Tour’, Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died the following year on 6 September 2007 and his South African fans were grateful for the chance to have seen him perform live in his goodbye to Africa.
He had one of the most epic voices and expressive hearts in human history, but in Howard’s documentary, the remarkable Pavarotti is seen as he’s never been seen before: in a ravishingly intimate close-up that goes behind the glory of his music and the heat of his charisma to uncover his private human struggles, humour and hopes. Echoing the universal themes that have kept opera relevant in the 21st century – love, passion, joy, family, loss, risk, beauty – the film weaves a story of a man discovering, wrestling with and ultimately learning to harness the monumental enormity of his gifts.
fans were grateful for the chance to have seen him perform live in his goodbye to Africa.
He had one of the most epic voices and expressive hearts in human history, but in Howard’s documentary, the remarkable Pavarotti is seen as he’s never been seen before: in a ravishingly intimate close-up that goes behind the glory of his music and the heat of his charisma to uncover his private human struggles, humour and hopes. Echoing the universal themes that have kept opera relevant in the 21st century – love, passion, joy, family, loss, risk, beauty – the film weaves a story of a man discovering, wrestling with and ultimately learning to harness the monumental enormity of his gifts.
The voice of Pavarotti speaks for itself. But Howard sets out here to uncover the man, finding an unceasingly fascinating human being formed from contrasts – mixing child-like lightness with a deep soul, a strong loyalty to his peasant upbringing and that enigmatic X-factor that drives some to the skirt the edges of human possibility.
Going beyond performances, Howard and his team combed the archives for dozens of interviews Pavarotti did for television talk shows and news magazines, looking for highlights. Then, they conducted a comprehensive 53 new interviews in New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, London, Modena and Verona from April 2017 to June 2018. This series of conversations brought in the perspectives not only of wives, family members, students and fellow performers from both opera and rock, but also the managers, promoters and marketers who helped to etch the unusual trajectory of his career and take opera to places it had never gone before.
‘I found the family’s interviews especially remarkable,’ says Howard. ‘They’re emotional interviews that were not easy for them to do, but I am grateful because I think they convey so much of the humanity of his story. That’s what makes this something more than just a look at what a great performer he was. They tell the story of a vast journey of highs and lows that they all undertook together.’
Much of the rare footage came directly from the personal collection of Nicoletta Mantovani, Pavarotti’s widow, mother of their daughter Alice and head of the Pavarotti Museum in Modena, Italy. Mantovani offered her generous help to the production right from the beginning. ‘I felt it was important to tell his story to the world because Luciano was one of the best artists ever, but he also had a great heart. I thought it was important to share that,’ says Mantovani.
Pavarotti’s most loved aria, ‘Nessun Dorma!’, has been a staple of operatic recitals ever since Turandot’s premiere at La Scala in Milan in 1926. The aria is sung by Prince Calaf in the final act and it was Pavarotti who popularised the piece beyond the opera world in the 1990s following his performance of it for the 1990 FIFA World Cup opening.
The Three Tenors, Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, performed the aria at three subsequent FIFA World Cup Finals, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama
According to the Financial Times,‘It was also the last song Pavarotti performed in public; although he was so ill by the time of his final appearance, at the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006, that his ”Nessun Dorma!” was lip-synced.’
The magnificence of Pavarotti’s singing secured him an exalted position among the finest tenors of the 20th century. No one did more in our time to bring a new public to opera.
In later years, Pavarotti’s singing retained many of the qualities that brought him renown: the superbly clear timbre, the spectacular secure upper register, the exquisite Italian diction. Pavarotti also continued to fit precisely the popular image of the Italian tenor, claiming that he loved music, women, wine, football, horses and pasta. Physically, he resembled a tenor of an almost Victorian kind, especially on the concert platform. The huge white handkerchief to mop his brow and the watch-chain in his waistcoat were part of the persona.
The wave of the fluttering white handkerchief has been missed within the theatre, as well as in the wider world of those who have never set foot inside an opera house.
Pavarotti the movie reminds us what a powerful tenor he was and brings us close to Luciano Pavarotti, the man he was.
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