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 When
The 3 Tenors – Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano
Pavarotti -- joined together in song in the Mandalay Bay Events
Center on April 22, 2000, there were many highly theatrical
and emotional moments as images of the great operas unfolded.
But it is the story behind how three of the
world’s great voices came to be standing side by side
on the same stage at all that is the very stuff great musical
drama is made of.
Granted, this particular evening was the first
anniversary festivities for the Mandalay Bay Resort &
Casino. In fact, upon learning that The 3 Tenors’ appearance
would be the first-ever Nevada appearance by these artists,
as well as their only West Coast U.S. concert in the year
2000, the hotel planned the anniversary celebration around
this once-in-a-lifetime musical event. But, to the three men
themselves, all mega-stars in their own right, there is a
continuing celebration on another level that goes much deeper
than that.
 “Many
people ask us to be together,” says Pavarotti with his
thick Italian accent, in a telephone interview from his home
in Italy. “I don’t know about the other two, but
I always say no because there was no reason to see whether
one was better or not. I never felt it necessary to make this
kind of concert. And then Mr.Carreras fell sick and suddenly
he fight for his life. He won and then we celebrate that.
We make our first concert in Rome in 1990. Then we begin to
think about to make a tour but we’ve done nothing until
1994. In the middle of 1994, we begin to tour around the world.
Big enjoyment. We are together because Carreras come to life.
We celebrate Carreras.”
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Pavarotti has known Domingo for 38 years and
Carreras for 30 years. Still, that first combined performance
in Rome, which was a benefit concert, was an unknown commodity
and no one knew which way things were going to go.
“We
wanted to celebrate and we wanted to have the happiness to
be together on stage at least once,” says Carreras,
in an earlier interview. “We did not know what was going
to happen, the tremendous impact, if I may say, our concert
would have on the musical world, the operatic world. I was
very pleased with the concert in Rome. It gave me the opportunity
to know these two gentlemen better, not only in the professional
and artistic aspect but also on the human and personal side,
which is even better than their singing.”
Between the three of them, the tenors have
more than 100 years on stage. Carreras occupies a privileged
position in the music world. Born in Barcelona, he studied
in his hometown, his meteoric musical career the result of
his early debuts in the world’s most prestigious opera
theaters and festivals. His repertoire includes more than
60 operas as well as more than 600 titles of the most diverse
styles, ranging from baroque to contemporary music. His extensive
discography includes more than 150 recordings, notably 50
complete operas, oratories, popular and classical recitals.
Domingo, a man of extraordinary talents, has
appeared in 111 different roles – more than any other
tenor in the annals of music. His repertoire spans the gamut
from Mozart to Verdi, from Berloiz to Puccini, and from Wagner
to Ginastera. Domingo was the first classical artist to give
a concert in New York’s Central Park, drawing more than
400,000 people in inclement weather. As a conductor, he has
led performances in all the important theaters from the Metropolitan
to London’s Covent Garden and from the Vienna State
Opera to the Los Angeles Music Center Opera. As an administrator,
he was the Music Director of the Seville World’s Fair
and today is the Artistic Director of the Washington Opera
and founder of the Las Angeles Opera.
 With
his many appearances not only on the greatest international
and concert stages, but also on television, in movies and
in arena concerts, Pavarotti’s impact on the world of
music has been enormous; his name is a household word. He
has broadened the horizons of classical music and brought
untold numbers of new fans to his art. His thrilling tenor
voice and unique personality have reached and touched countless
audiences throughout the world and he has become the personification
of opera in our time on television and on recordings. Each
and every one of his recordings is a bestseller and his frequent
television performances on “Live from Lincoln Center”
and “Live from the Met,” as well as on documentaries
and talk shows have all added to his musical renown.
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Pavarotti explains that, in determining the
show, all three of them sit down and plan it out together.
They select their musical program from hundreds of songs and
arias and then decide how to put it together, what has to
follow what. To do it properly, there is a tremendous amount
of work involved, but Pavarotti loves the feeling of being
on stage with the other two tenors, a beautiful orchestra
and a great conductor.
“I can tell you what Placido and Carreras
bring to me,” he explains. “I am a tenor buff
and to stay onstage with these people, to hear them for free
– not even for free, they pay me – there is nothing
better. Besides, the friendship is really the friendship of
a team. When somebody is not well, all three suffer. We are
very, very good friends, even more so after The 3 Tenor concerts.”
One would think that among three stars of
this stature, there would be great ego or rivalry. Quite the
opposite. “The song ‘Anything You Can Do I Can
Do Better’ should be changed to ‘Anything You
Can Do I Try To do Better,’ says Domingo. “And
not always with the result. It’s so beautiful when you
hear a phrase and know your turn is coming and say, ‘I
hope I can do it as beautiful as that.’”
Pavarotti agrees. “Rivalry in that term
does not exist because that would mean you were happy if someone
was not well. No. The rivalry is at best, from my side, that
they are so good that I have to try to be the best, the best
of mine. When I am on stage with Placido and Carreras, I feel
admiration and pleasure and friendship – a union. And
the medleys that we make are fantastic. I think to find three
people who blend that way is not difficult, it’s impossible.”
While Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo are
busy celebrating Carreras’ return to life and to his
profession, it is interesting that it was also illness that
spurned Pavarotti’s career. Born in Modena, Italy, he
discovered his voice at the age of 4. He first sang in the
city’s chorus with his father, who was a member of the
local opera house’s chorus and a fervent lover of opera
and the tenor voice. On a journey to Wales, the chorus won
first prize in an international choral competition and the
experience fueled young Luciano’s musical ambitions.
He had trained to become a teacher, then decided to pursue
a musical career, much to his father’s joy.
“I was born happy, a son of the war,”
Pavarotti remembers. “But when I was 12, I got very
sick and almost died -- I was in a coma for two weeks. Then
I wake up and say to myself that the most important thing
in life is life – all the other things are little things
of life. The sickness impacted me in my singing career by
giving me persistency, no playing games, being properly honest
with myself, and keeping criticism.”
Pavarotti says that while he loves all operas
and calls them all “masterpieces,” he feels the
closest to “La Boheme” because of his history
with it. It was back in 1961 that he won the “Concorso
Internazionale” and the prize offered was a carefully
prepared performance of an opera under the highest standards.
Pavarotti made his debut as Rodolpho in “La Boheme”
on the April 29th of that year. He made an immediate impression
on the Italian operatic scene and was engaged to sing in theaters
throughout the country.
The tenor made his American debut in 1965
in Miami in “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Joan Sutherland.
But, just before his departure to join the renowned soprano
on a six-week tour of Australia, he made his debut at Milan’s
La Scala, singing Rodolfo to the Mimi of Mirella Freni. In
1968, again with Mirella Freni as Mimi, Pavarotti made his
Metropolitan Opera debut as Rodolfo. He also sang Rodolfo
in his first live telecast from the Met in March of 1997.
Though the Pavarotti phenomenon was born at
the Met on February 17, 1972 when the house erupted in a frenzied
ovation at the conclusion of his aria including nine high
C’s in a revival of Donizetti’s “La Fille
du Regiment” with Joan Sutherland, it is “La Boheme”
that he has performed countless times. “It’s absolutely
different every time I perform it,” Pavarotti explains.
“What makes it different is live performance. I find
something different in it every night, always.”
The tenor says that the best thing about being
Luciano Pavarotti is being able to make people happy with
his voice. He also acknowledges that whether or not people
respond to opera depends upon the city – he says that
if there is an opera house in that locale, they know opera
well and if there isn’t, they know less. In general,
however, in most of the places he performs, audiences are
well-educated. And he notes that one thing that has helped
to spread the appreciation of opera is TV.
“I think when I began, opera was already
in a big crisis,” he admits. “Then television
came in and now everybody knows opera. If you like, you hear
it, if you don’t, you go someplace else. But at least
we’re reaching many, many people.”
Pavarotti says that there is no difference
between performing for American audiences or performing for
European ones and that if an artist is good, he is good all
over the world. He relates that an opera singer has to take
care of his voice differently than a pop singer. “I
practice at least every two days and before a performance,
I vocalize and warm my voice up -- like an athlete,”
he reveals. “I also don’t much and try not to
catch cold.”
As for his performance and recording a couple
of years with pop diva Celine Dion, Pavarotti says that it
wasn’t an attempt to break into another market. Rather,
it wascharity that made him go in that direction. Each June,
in Modena, I always make a show with a pop singer to raise
money for world children,” he explains. You have to
sell records to make these people happy so you have to do
it with a pop singer.”
As for the near future, on the solo front,
Pavarotti says that he will be appearing at the Met next season
in “Aida” and “Tosca.” He will also
be doing a concert tour as well as two classical recitals,
one at the West Point Academy and the other in Boston. And
he will continue touring with The 3 Tenors, who, after Las
Vegas, have gone on to perform in Washington, D.C., Hamburg
(Germany), Cleveland and Albany. By the way, Pavarotti very
much enjoys coming to Las Vegas to perform.
“I enjoy Las Vegas, what it is,”
he enthuses. “The beauty of these works with the real
and the unreal – with fantastic effects.”
And
he should know. The real and the unreal is just what opera
is made of.
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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The
3 Tenors Are 3 Amigos
In
loving memory, we present this exclusive interview that Bobbie
was granted with Luciano Pavarotti who left us last week.
