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Remembering Big Luciano
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Luciano Pavarotti passed away this morning, at the age of 71, in his villa in Modena due to pancreatic cancer. This news was received with consternation and bewilderment by the global music community.
Although news of his battle against cancer were widespread, this morning’s event came as a surprise since Pavarotti has always stood up again from his previous falls.
 Luciano Pavarotti
However, Big Luciano’s spectacular tenor voice, corroborated by an outstanding and unique career, will let his name echo through eternity.
As a matter of fact, Pavarotti’s career has been until now unequalled, starting with him being born in a poor neighbourhood in Modena and with the original intention of becoming an elementary school teacher.
While listening to his father’s records of Caruso, Martinelli and Gigli, his love for music prevailed on pre-established programs for his career, and he therefore decided to pursue a musical education which then resulted in the biggest success ever imaginable. Similarly, when recovering from a nodule on his vocal chords when still very young, he declared: “Everything I had learned came together with my natural voice to make the sound I had been struggling so hard to achieve”, therefore gloriously overcoming a bad fall.
Pavarotti’s career has well exceeded 40 years of excellence, with his debut being on the 29th of April 1961 interpreting Rodolfo in La Boheme, and later with great success in the US with Lucia di Lammermoor and Donizetti’s Fille du Régiment at the Metropolitan where he astounded the audience with nine perfect chest C’s.
For this reason, two days ago Francesco Rutelli awarded him the Award for Excellence in Culture, reminding of Big Luciano’s fight against his illness “which he is fighting with the same determination with which he has accomplished himself through a formidable career”. Furthermore, Modena’s mayor Giorgio Pighi has decided to dedicate him the local arena theater.
Although Pavarotti’s career was also full of relentless criticism, he spent most of his life
enjoying his music and family, which was by his side during his last moments.
In one of his last letters, Pavarotti had stated “ I hope to be remembered as an opera singer, or rather as a representative of an art which has found its maximum expression in my Country, and moreover I wish that love for opera music will always be of central importance in my life”.
And this is how we will remember you, Luciano.
The views and opinions in this blog post are those of its author.
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