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.

Pavarotti sings you to Granada and your next holiday in Spain

Planning a holiday in Spain? How about a trip to the beautiful Spanish city of Granada? And why not let the great Pavarotti take you there?

One song that Pavarotti included in his concert repertoire late in his career was the song “Granada” by the Mexican composer Agustín Lara. And you are quite right! This song is really about the Spanish city of Granada!

In the following two videos Pavarotti sings this beautiful song from live performances in Llangollen, Wales in 1995 and in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1997.

Pavarotti of course performed in Spain many times, but more about that in later posts. Now it’s time to book your next summer holiday to Spain! 🙂

*

This blog post no. 302 was first published 25-01-2016. Last revision 25-01-2016.

Happy 75th birthday, Plácido Domingo!

Today is the 75th birthday of the Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. The great Plácido Domingo was born in Madrid, Spain on 21 January 1941.

Domingo is one of the world’s leading tenors of our time, and of all time. Domingo is probably the most versatile opera singer in history. He has sung 147 (!!!) opera roles in Italian, French, German, English, Spanish and Russian. This opposed to Pavarotti’s repertoire of ca. 30 opera roles, almost exclusively in Italian.

Domingo has had an incredible career on stage and on records in opera, sacred works and various crossover projects, and in the last years he also has made a career as a conductor, among many other things. He is clearly an intellectual, also in his approach to singing.

Domingo was for years considered a strong rival of Pavarotti, but from the first Three Tenors concert in Rome, Italy in 1990 the competition between the two changed into collaboration.

To celebrate the great Plácido Domingo I give you excerpt from the medley from the first Three Tenors concert in Rome, Italy in 1990.

Happy 75th birthday, grandissimo Plácido Domingo! 🙂

This blog post no. 301 was first published 21-01-2016. Last revision 21-01-2016.

Odd Pavarotti Blog in 2015 in review: Some odd statistics!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Click here to see the complete report!

I will take this opportunity to thank all my followers. Writing this blog gives me so much joy and getting response from you followers out there is a very big part of it!

And by the way: This is my blog post number 300! Yay! 🙂

Looking forward to blog more about the great Pavarotti and so much more in 2016!

I thank you so very much and I wish you all a happy and peaceful 2016! 🙂

This post was first published 30-12-2015. Last revision  30-12-2015.

Vinyl is back: The first Three Tenors concert back on vinyl after 25 years

This year marked the 25th anniversary for the very first Three Tenors concert in Rome, Italy on July 7, 1990. Decca released a special 25th anniversary edition of the concert on CD and DVD.

Decca also released the concert on LP (!!!). The very special 25h anniversary LP edition brought back this concert to vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1990!

And there’s more! A blue vinyl edition was also released. I’m not sure what’s the difference between black and blue vinyl other than the color but it sure looks blue! 🙂

We all know that vinyl is back, so we all hope for more Pavarotti releases on vinyl in the future! In addition, some of us hunts for second-hand Pavarotti vinyls wherever we are. More about my Pavarotti vinyl findings in blog posts to come! 🙂

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

The Great Plácido Domingo

There’s another Plácido Domingo compilation out this year. A short while ago I reported about “Domingo: The 50 Greatest Tracks“ which has just been released on Deutsche Grammophon. Warner Classics has also just released a 3 CDs compilation entitled “The Great Plácido Domingo”.

This compilation contains two tracks with The Three Tenors:

• Granada
• Around The World Part 12: Torna A Surriento

I believe that both of those tracks are taken from The Three Tenors concert in Los Angeles in 1994. The entire concert is available on Warner Classics CD, download, streaming and DVD.

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

German Pavarotti compilation

Almost every year there’s at least one new Pavarotti compilation on the market. Especially interesting are Pavarotti releases from different countries. There are seldom any new tracks on these compilations but they are never the less interesting and very welcome.

This year Decca in Germany released a single CD Pavarotti compilation for the German market entitled “La donna è mobile“.

This compilation contains 21 tracks of mainly opera arias but also some popular Italian songs and one religious work is included. This CD is sold for a bargain price in stores and is also easily available online.

I love the picture of Pavarotti on the cover! 🙂

I believe it goes without saying that the following aria is included! 🙂

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

Pavarotti, Divas & Tenors

Essential to every opera lovers record collection is a decent sample of the most well-known and loved opera arias. Everybody needs a decent opera compilation or two in their record collection!

The compilation “Divas & Tenors“ is a 2 CDs collection from Decca with mostly opera arias. In addition there are some arias from religious works, musicals and popular songs.

This collection features some of the greatest opera singers in the world today and some great singers from the past such as Pavarotti. In fact, Pavarotti is featured on five tracks on this compilation.

This collection is one of many opera compilations out there so if you don’t find this one there are many others to choose from. Many of them features Pavarotti as well.

Pavarotti was a tenor but some said he also was a real diva, or divo, at times. Be that as it may. It’s time for you to buy yourself a brand new opera compilation! 🙂

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

Karajan: The Opera Recordings

Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) is one of the most legendary conductors of all time. His legacy is well-preserved on record as he made many recordings thru his career.

This year Deutsche Grammophon released a 70 CDs box set with the complete opera recordings by Karajan on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca entitled “Karajan: The Opera Recordings“.

This box set features two opera recordings with Pavarotti:

• Puccini: La Bohème with the Berliner Philharmoniker (recorded in 1972)
• Puccini: Madama Butterfly with the Wiener Philharmoniker (recorded in 1974)

Both recordings are available separately on Decca CD, download and streaming.

If you want to own a collection of great opera recordings then this lavish box set might be just what you need. See details in the video and the illustration below.

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

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.