Happy Australia Day with Pavarotti!

Today is Australia Day, the official National Day of Australia, which is celebrated annually on 26 January in Australia and by Australians living abroad.

Pavarotti performed in Australia many times during his career, but there is another important Australian connection for Pavarotti. The Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland was together with her conductor husband Richard Bonynge instrumental for Pavarotti’s career on stage and on record, especially in the early stages of his career. Pavarotti and Sutherland made many landmark recordings on Decca together, as well as performing in operas and concerts together.

In the following video Pavarotti and Sutherland sing the duet “Prendi: l’anel ti dono” from the Bellini opera La Sonnambula from a concert in 1983 in Sydney, Australia with Bonynge conducting. This concert is available on CD and DVD.

The Three Tenors performed in Australia once. On 1 March 1997 The Three Tenors performed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne as part of their World Tour together with conductor Marco Armiliato. At this concert The Three Tenors surprised their audience by singing the popular Australian song “Waltzing Matilda“, by many described as the country’s “unofficial national anthem”.

Pavarotti held solo concerts in Australia as well. More on that in another post. Let’s end these Australia Day celebrations with a clip of Pavarotti singing “Nessun dorma!” from The Three Tenors concert mentioned above. Clearly Pavarotti conquered Australia too! 🙂

Happy Australia Day everybody, especially my Australian followers! 🙂

This blog post no. 303 was first published 26-01-2016. Last revision 26-01-2016.

Domingo: The 50 Greatest Tracks

The Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo is still active as a singer and conductor. It’s amazing how active he still is considering his high age. Needless to say Domingo was one of The Three Tenors together with Pavarotti and Carreras.

To celebrate his 75th birthday on 21 January, 2016, a 2 CDs compilation entitled “Domingo: The 50 Greatest Tracks“ has just been released on Deutsche Grammophon. This compilation is also available on download and streaming.

It’s interesting that the album artwork is the same as the Pavarotti compilation “Pavarotti: The 50 Greatest Tracks“ from 2013.

This compilation contains a very good sample of the great Spanish tenor’s recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca.

The Three Tenors are featured with “Nessun dorma!” from the first Three Tenors concert in Rome in 1990. Two arias by Domingo from the same concert is also featured on this compilation.

This post was first published 29-12-2015. Last revision 29-12-2015.

Happy 80th birthday, Pavarotti!

Today, the 12th October 2015, would have been Pavarotti’s 80th birthday. It’s still so sad that he his no longer with us, but let’s remember the great man with one of his famous quotes and some his music.

The 80th birthday video celebration is showcasing great stage performances by Pavarotti. In some of the clips the great Pavarotti sings together with some of his many colleagues. Enjoy!

Grazie, Luciano! Risposi in pace! Happy 80th birthday, Luciano!

This post was first published 12-10-2015. Last revision 12-10-2015.

Pavarotti Plus at Royal Albert hall for the first time on Decca DVD

Today is the release date for a brand new Pavarotti DVD entitled Pavarotti Plus. This is the entire Pavarotti Plus concert from Royal Albert Hall in London in 1995.

The complete title of this release is Pavarotti Plus 20th Anniversary Edition. Previously available on Decca VHS this reissue is indeed very welcome!

Pavarotti is joined by several of his opera colleagues together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leone Magiera. Pavarotti sings arias and duets, and there are also several numbers where his colleagues sing without him.

Previously the complete concert was issued on a double CD and all the numbers which Pavarotti sang was issued on a single CD (both on Decca). Both CD editions are no longer available, so reissues are in order. At least all the Pavarotti numbers should be included in a future volume of The Luciano Pavarotti Edition.

This post was first published 04-05-2015. Last revised 04-05-2015.

Happy 80th birthday, Mirella Freni!

Today is the 80th birthday of the great Italian soprano Mirella Freni. She wasn’t just one of Pavarotti’s most important singing partners, she was also a lifelong friend of Pavarotti.

Mirella Freni was born on 27 February 1935, in the same year as Pavarotti. She was born in the little Italian town of Modena, just as Pavarotti. Their life turned out so that they became lifelong friends and colleagues on the operatic stage. They also recorded many complete operas together.

We celebrate the 80th birthday of the great Mirella Freni with three operatic duets by Luciano and Mirella together! The three operatic duets are in running order:

• O soave fanciulla from Puccini’s La bohème (live 1996)
• Tutto apprendi, o sventurato from Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell (studio 1978-79)
• Cherry Duet from Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz (studio 1968)

As a bonus video I give you Luciano and Mirella in rehearsal for Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. What fun they were having! They can’t stop giggling!

Happy birthday, Mirella bella! 🙂

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This post was first published 27-02-2015. Last revised 27-02-2015.

Pavarotti sings classic duets

At last! A compilation of Pavarotti’s best operatic duets is out now! The compilation is entitled Classic duets and is available on Decca CD, download and streaming.

 

Classic duets has 15 tracks, but the iTunes download and Spotify streaming versions have three additional tracks and a slightly different cover.

 

There is also a DVD released, also entitled Classic Duets, which has 15 tracks. Many of the duets are the same as on the CD version, but sung with other singing partners than on the CD.

The duets featured on Classic duets are such duets as O soave fanciulla from La Bohème and Bella figlia dell’amore from Rigoletto, in addition to lesser known duets.

Pavarotti’s duet partners on Classic duets include such greats as Mirella Freni, Joan Sutherland, Renata Scotto, Nicolai Ghiaurov and many more. Even José Carreras and Plácido Domingo! Yes! A Three Tenors duet is included! Guess which one!

I hope you like the Pavarotti Duets post card above! Yes, it’s me, Odd Pavarotti, on the post card in an non-existent never before released virtual duet with the great Pavarotti! 🙂

The release of Classic duets is parallel to the pop duets compilation The Duets, also issued on Decca CD, download, streaming and DVD. In fact, both releases have similar cover design.

The Classic duets comes highly recommended. The CD and DVD are both filled with great operatic duets. Such as this one, taken from the DVD: Pavarotti and Renata Scotto sing O soave fanciulla from La Bohème from the Metropolitan Opera in 1977.

This post was first published 07-12-2014. Last revision 07-12-2014.

Happy 79th birthday, Pavarotti!

Today, on 12th October 2014, would have been Pavarotti’s 79th birthday. It’s so sad that he his no longer with us, but let’s remember the great man with music! Here is Pavarotti at his best, in a 79th birthday video celebration showcasing great stage performances by Pavarotti together with some of his colleagues. Enjoy!

Grazie, Luciano! Risposi in pace! Happy 79th birthday, Luciano!

This post was first published 12-10-2014. Last revision 12-10-2014.

Pavarotti in Puccini in Chicago

Pavarotti sang in Chicago many times during his career. Here are some samples from a gala in Chicago in 1975 (audio only), both taken from the Puccini opera La Boheme. At this gala Pavarotti sang together with Mirella Freni.

First Pavarotti sings the aria Che gelida manina followed by Freni who sings the aria Mi chiamano Mimi. Pavarotti and Freni then join forces in the duet O soave fanciulla.

Needless to say, both singers are at the top of their career. Riccardo Chailly conducts the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra.

When performing in Chicago Pavarotti mostly sang in opera performances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. More about that and all the rest of Pavarotti in Chicago in later posts.

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This post was first published 05-09-2014. Last revision 06-09-2014.

Pavarotti and Sutherland: We’ll always have Paris!

How about a trip to Paris! Or just singing about the French capital?

It’s of course time for the duet Parigi, o cara from Verdi’s opera La Traviata.

And only the best in the business will do: Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti!

This duet is from the 1983 Sutherland/Pavarotti Gala Concert in the Concert Hall at Sydney Opera House.  The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra is conducted by Richard Bonynge.

We’ll always have Paris! And I believe that this Sutherland/Pavarotti Gala is available out there on DVD.

This post was originally published 26-05-2014. Last revision 26-05-2014.

Pavarotti in operatic duets (3): The Butterfly duets “Viene la sera” and “Vogliatemi bene”

Our brand new blog post series on Pavarotti in operatic duets continues with two duets from the Puccini opera “Madama Butterfly”.

The two duets are “Viene la sera” and “Vogliatemi bene”. These two duets are in fact part of a long love duet that concludes act 1. This long duet starts with “Bimba, Bimba, non piangere” and ends with the wonderful “Vogliatemi bene”.

Pavarotti sings the role of Pinkerton together with Mirella Freni who sings the role of Cio-Cio San, or Madama Butterfly herself.

Pavarotti performed in Madama Butterfly only a few times early in his career, but he sang the aria “Addio fiorito asil” in concert in his later years.

Pavarotti made only one studio recording of Madama Butterfly. In 1974 he recorded the opera with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker and with Mirella Freni as Madama Butterfly. This recording was first issued on LP in 1975 and is still available on Decca on CD, download and streaming. In fact, it’s a Pavarotti classic!

The two videos above are taken from this very recording (audio only).

Enjoy Pavarotti and the great Mirella Freni in these two duets from Madama Butterfly, and look out for more Pavarotti in operatic duets!

This post was originally published 03-10-2013. Last revision 03-10-2013.