Pavarotti: The tenacious tenor

From Brooke Alexander
CNN WorldBeat Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Luciano Pavarotti celebrates his 65th birthday on October 12, marking an operatic career that spans four decades, an eternity in the life of a tenor.

"Forty years of tenor is something really very, very important and more than everything, very difficult," he said. "A soccer player goes for 15, 20 years -- a boxer the same, a tennis player the same. We are more or less athletes of another world ... and it's very difficult, remarkably beautiful and gratifying."

Pavarotti first sang in a chorus with his father, an amateur tenor and opera buff. The chorus won first place in an international competition, a promising sign of a career to come. His solo debut came in 1961, portraying Rodolfo in a performance of "La Boheme" at the opera house in Reggio Emilia.

VIDEO Watch Luciano Pavarotti in concert Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    VIDEO A day in the life of soprano Jane Eaglen Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     NAME THAT TENOR How well do you know your tenors? Play our audio matching game

Today, almost four decades later, Pavarotti still is going strong. Retire? Forget it, he said before his performance at Madison Square Garden last month. His tour schedule is booked into 2003.

Both as a solo artist and as one of the three tenors (Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras are the other two), Pavarotti took opera from the concert hall to the stadium and produced some of the world's biggest-selling classical CDs.

Making 'Friends'

Every year, Pavarotti invites a selection of world-renowned pop artists to his hometown of Modena, Italy, for a concert billed simply as "Pavarotti and Friends." After their own performances, the friends join the maestro in a duet -- not a task for the musically faint-hearted.

"The music is incredible -- to bring people together and to break any barrier -- because it is something positive," he said.

Darren Hayes, half of the Australian pop duo Savage Garden, sang "O Sole Mio" with his tenor host.

"It's in Italian, but it's Neapolitan," he said. "So it's a different dialect than most people are used to, so it's quite specific. It swings, that's all I know. When Elvis Presley sang it, it was called 'Now or Never.' But now I'm singing all in Italian."

The Eurythmics' Annie Lennox said she admires Pavarotti for embarking on this undertaking.

"To do this as a singer -- to take on so many different people -- he has to learn all the songs and, of course, we all sing with different styles," she said. "He has to find his way with us individually. It gives you an idea of the incredible sort of focus of the mind. "

Skin, lead singer of Skunk Anansie

The concert and the CD raise money for Pavarotti's charity. In past years, he has helped the needy in Kosovo and Guatemala. This year's targets are Cambodia and Tibet.

Hardcore British rocker Skin, of Skunk Anansie, said she believes in the cause.

"There's different artists, different genres, different styles of music, different age groups," she said. "I think coming together to support this cause in particular, for Tibet is very important to us."

Hayes called the collaborations "music at its best".

"In an occasion like 'Pavarotti and Friends,' when spirits can lift and you can raise awareness and money for children or a charity, I think that's wonderful," he said.

Bocelli releases back-to-back opera albums
September 29, 2000
Pavarotti to return to Madison Square Garden
September 13, 2000
Pavarotti settles German tax-evasion aria
AUgust 30, 1999
Pavarotti's friends gather for charity concert
Junw 2, 1999

Luciano Pavarotti (Official site)
Skunk Anansie (Official site)

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