Pavarotti exceeds expectations

Even by his prodigious standards, the announcement last weekend that the partner of opera star Luciano Pavarotti, Nicoletta Mantovani who is more than 30 years his junior, is expecting twins, has capped a remarkable 12 months.

He has named his retirement date, controversially pulled out of his farewell performances at the New York Metropolitan Opera, appeared at the soccer World Cup, stunned London critics with notable performances in Tosca and last October was cleared of charges of avoiding paying US$18 million ($38.2 million) in Italian tax.

Even without the court victory, the Pavarotti money machine will mean that a couple more children will not strain his budget.

The children will be the first for Mantovani, who is four months pregnant, but the fourth and fifth for Pavarotti, 66, who already has three daughters from his former wife.

Pavarotti said he was planning to marry Mantovani, 33, who has been his companion for six years.

"I proposed to her several years ago," he said. "She says yes. And she still says yes - I think she's a masochist." His three daughters from his marriage are all older than his fiancee.

The announcement of the pregnancy followed some months of speculation after Pavarotti said he and his partner were thinking of having children - "one or two or 10".

According to his spokeswoman it was also to end speculation that Pavarotti earlier announced that his last live performance will be on October 12, 2005.

He had not decided what form the farewell would take.

Now the question has turned from "when" to "where" and, as always with the great tenor, "how much?" Considering that tickets for his scheduled New York performances in May were selling for US$1875 ($3978), a high price is likely to attach to the last chance to hear Pavarotti live.

Those who paid those non-refundable prices were disappointed in typically dramatic Pavarotti fashion.

He had kept the audience guessing until the last minute. At 7.10pm he called Met general manager Joseph Volpe saying, "I'm sorry, my friend, I cannot sing." Volpe said he had asked Pavarotti to come to the house to give his regrets in person to the audience, but the singer replied, "I cannot do that". He said he then told Pavarotti, "This is a hell of a way to end this beautiful career of yours." Pavarotti first performed there in La Boheme in 1968 and made 373 performances in 20 roles.

He said he had been looking forward to performing but he could not go on once the flu robbed him of a "proper vocal condition.

"It's stupid, absolutely stupid, to make such a big fuss," he said.

The man is larger than life in all senses: immensely wealthy, hugely popular and, most important of all, prodigiously talented, even if his voice is no longer the vibrant, lyrical, honeyed instrument it once was. Albert Canto, the music critic for Il Giorno described it as "kissed by God and hailed by man" before berating him for singing "less and worse" and dabbling in popular concerts at the expense of opera.

It's a charge often levelled at him.

He appeared at the World Cup this year with fellow tenors Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, for a concert at Yokohama Arena, Japan, although they have said this will be the last of their joint concerts, which started 12 years ago in Rome.

And he is still appearing in opera.

The Independent review of his performance in Tosca in London in January was typical: "The top notes are still in place, the diction still beautifully direct, the sweetness in the middle honeyed and complex."

John Allison, editor of Opera magazine, said whatever was thought of Pavarotti's "side antics", he had been a wonderful performer.

"He is one of the greatest tenors of all time. His voice had unique timbre and sweetness, a way of moulding words into music.

"If you listen to the recordings of, say, 30 years ago, it is still quite startling. There isn't anybody at present to match him." With annual earnings of an estimated US$35 million ($74 million), the critics are unlikely to worry him. He emerged financially unscathed from the expensive divorce from his wife, Adua Veroni, whom he married in 1961 and with whom he has three daughters, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana. He left her for Nicoletta Mantovani, a PhD from Bologna, whom he met when she came to temp one holiday at the Equestrian Centre (after music, horses are his passion) he owns in his birthplace, Modena.

He divides his time between homes in Pesaro, a Central Park apartment in Manhattan, and two flats in Monte Carlo.

But his origins were far from wealthy. His father, Fernando, was a baker and keen amateur singer, and his mother worked in the Toscana cigar factory. Herbert Breslin, first his publicist and then his agent, was arguably the first to exploit Pavarotti's crossover appeal. The man responsible for making him a household name was Tibor Rudas, the impresario behind "The Three Tenors" concert staged to coincide with the 1990 World Cup that turned Puccini's Nessun Dorma into a football anthem. The TV broadcast drew a worldwide audience of 300 million; the CD sold 6 million copies, making it the bestselling classical album of all time.

Pavarotti has never shied away from commercialism. His tastes are eclectic, or indiscriminate, depending on how you look at it.

His next CD will feature a song from the Oscar-winning movie Gladiator. "I will be just like Russell Crowe. Except that instead of entering the arena to face the lions, I will merely sing the feats of that hero," he said.

He said he had been asked to sing to the original music which accompanies the scene where Maximus' wife and son are killed.

"I said no, but that music has stayed within me," he said.

There is vanity and affectation in the wielding of the white handkerchief, the heavily blackened brows but also great enthusiasm. Opera remains his first love, his raison d'etre. He scorns the idea that he has sold out. Rather, he has made it his mission to make an art form he loves loved by others.

- INDEPENDENT