Word: pavarottie
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...classical recordings rarely garner the type of hype that the record industry lavishes on more popular and profitable items, but there are exceptions. Advertisements for the "Three Tenors" concert (with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras) appeared in such unlikely places as subway stations, illustrating the successful use of a formula that was first demonstrated by the soundtrack from Amadeus. It goes like this: In order to guarantee a popular success with a classical recording, bring together popular (and relatively well-known) music, big names and a good pretext, such as a movie or a memorable concert...
...recording of Verdi's Otello on London Records uses this formula neatly. The music is one of the best-known operas by one of the best-known composers of opera, the names are big (Pavarotti, Kiri te Kanawa and Leo Nucci, with Sir Georg Solti at the helm), and the pretext is a double celebration: the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the 100th recording on CD of Solti with the CSO. But, unlike the "Three Tenors" concert or the Amadeus soundtrack, a new recording of Otello is the kind of project that must stand...
Fortunately, this Otello is an impressive offering that should gain a place as one of the standard versions of the opera. The project was a gamble: A not-so-young Pavarotti left concerts in front of royalty and football fans to tackle the role of Otello, a notoriously difficult one, for the first time. What's more, Pavarotti brought his radiant tenor to a tragic role usually sung by deeper voices. This calculated risk almost turned to disaster when most of the principals and the conductor took ill before the performances that were to provide the material for the recording...
...turned out, the first performance was an astonishing success, and Pavarotti (who munched on pieces of apple during the choruses to keep his throat clear) sang an inspired Otello. This is what comes across on the CD: From the Esultate which marks his entry in the storm-tossed first act to his dying embrace of the martyred Desdemona, Pavarotti sings with the passion of the warrior who boils with jealousy. His lyrical voice is audibly more at ease in passages such as the love duet at the end of the first act, but he doesn't shrink from the over...
Even into a royal life a little rain must fall, as the Princess of Wales discovered last week, when she was caught in a downpour during an open-air concert given by Luciano Pavarotti in London's Hyde Park. The occasion, which marked the 30th anniversary of Pavarotti's first major performance, also marked the ninth time in a month that Diana, possibly attempting to squelch growing rumors of marital discord, appeared in public with husband Charles. After huddling under plastic sheeting with a towel over her head during most of the 90-minute program, Diana emerged with dampened hair...