Pavarotti: Technician and Magician

Joseph Talia




At age 25, after six years of intense study, Luciano Pavarotti found himself in utter despair. His voice had just faltered under the pressure of an international competition. He felt his singing had deserted him, believing that he would never achieve the status of the great tenor he aspired to be.


Thirty-three years later, he conquered the citadels of opera and sang to over 500,000 people in New York’s Central Park, with millions more watching the televised event worldwide. He had finally achieved his dream.


Pavarotti’s professional success, a journey enriched by social, educational, and cultural experiences that fuelled his ambition and refined his craft, offers a wealth of practical lessons for today’s aspiring singers.


In this remarkable book, accomplished conductor, director, and voice teacher Joseph Talia presents not only an insight into Pavarotti’s life but also a comprehensive analysis and critique of Pavarotti’s entire singing career. He reveals that success in opera demands more than just a great voice. It requires training, determination, intelligence, practice, and endurance. Operatic singing is assessed by criteria such as breathing technique, resonance balancing, register blending, and vocal quality. It calls for different voice types, temperaments, psychology, and operatic styles across varying musical and dramatic performances. 

 

Talia himself has a repertoire of over 50 major tenor roles. He brings his talent, passion and love for the melodrama that is opera to the first detailed analysis of the artistic and technical development of Luciano Pavarotti. In this intricate telling of Pavarotti’s life and singing performances, informed by exhaustive research and personal interviews with his widow and close colleagues, Talia examines Pavarotti’s professional experience and his adherence to the Italian School of voice training. Informed by contemporary scientific knowledge on the anatomy and physiology of singing, Talia shows us how Pavarotti’s singing matured over his years of dedication and learning, leading to his success.

About the Author

For over 40 years Joseph Talia has sung, directed, conducted, and taught opera, as well as achieving a PhD from La Trobe University on the topic of cultural hegemony and the economics of the performing arts. He began his career in Melbourne, studied in Milan, was engaged to sing at the Teatro Eliseo in Rome, and has performed as a concert artist in Milan, and Vercelli. His repertoire consists of over 50 major tenor roles. He has been involved in over 140 opera productions and has directed such masterpieces as La Boheme, Carmen, Andrea Chenier, Tosca and La Rondine. Dr Talia was artistic director of the Globe Opera Company for ten years, followed by the Melbourne City Opera from 1997 to 2015, and formed the Millennium Opera in 2015. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2007 for his dedicated service to opera. He currently maintains a successful voice studio in Melbourne where apart from his regular students, he teaches visiting students from New Zealand, Europe, Japan and Korea. He is also in high demand as an adjudicator of international competitions, such as the Paolo Tosti, in Ortona, the Mattia Battistini International in Rieti, and The Izmir International in Turkey. He regularly conducts International master classes, in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Austria.

Table of Contents

Contents
The Raison d’être for this Book
About the Author
Chapter 1: An Introduction
Chapter 2: The Pavarotti Family During The War Years
Chapter 3: The Prevailing Cultural Conditions in Italy in 1954
Chapter 4: Italian Vocal Technique During Pavarotti’s Youth and Beyond
Chapter 5: The International Italian School and the Modenese Chapter
Chapter 6: The Three Amigos, Pavarotti, Freni and Magiera
Chapter 7: To Mantova and Ettore Campogalliani
Chapter 8: Family and Friends Rally in a Crisis
Chapter 9: The Sostegno System of Breath Management
Chapter 10: Arrigo Pola’s Belief in Si Canta Come si Parla
Chapter 11: Mori on Vocal Registers and Passaggio
Chapter 12: Success at the Achille Peri Competition, 1961
Chapter 13: Pavarotti’s Debut as Rodolfo in La Boheme, 1961
Chapter 14: Rigoletto and Serafin, Teatro Massimo Palermo, 1962
Chapter 15: Comparison of the 1967 RAI and the 1971 Decca Rigoletto
Chapter 16: Comparison of La Bohème, London 1963 and Modena 1967
Chapter 17: Joan Sutherland and Lucia di Lammermoor
Chapter 18: Lucia Di Lammermoor, Scotto/Pavarotti/Pradelli, 1966
Chapter 19: La Traviata, Modena, Pavarotti, Freni, Magiera, 1965
Chapter 20: Sutherland and Pavarotti, Australia 1965
Chapter 21: La Sonnambula, Sutherland and Pavarotti, Sydney 1965
Chapter 22: The Appoggio System of Breath Management
Chapter 23: I Capuletti E Montecchi, 1966
Chapter 24: Beatrice di Tenda, Sutherland, Pavarotti,  Decca 1966
Chapter 25: La Fille du Regiment, Pavarotti, Sutherland, July 1967
Chapter 26: L’Amico Fritz, Mascagni, Pavarotti, Freni, Gavazzeni, 1968
Chapter 27: La Bohème, Pavarotti, Freni, Schippers RAI, July 1969
Chapter 28: L’elisir d’amore, Pavarotti, Sutherland: January–June, 1970
Chapter 29: La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, 1970
Chapter 30: La Bohème, Pavarotti, Freni, Karajan, 1973
Chapter 31: La Fille du Regiment, 1972/73
Chapter 32: A Change of Direction
Chapter 33: L’elisir d’amore, The Metropolitan Opera, Rescigno, 1981
Chapter 34: Un Ballo in Maschera, Pavarotti, Tebaldi, Bartoletti, 1970
Chapter 35: Rigoletto, Sutherland, Pavarotti, Bonynge, June 1971
Chapter 36: Lucia, Sutherland/Pavarotti, June–July 1971
Chapter 37: L’Elisir d’amore, Pavarotti/Battle/Levine 1990
Chapter 38: I Puritani, Pavarotti/Sutherland/Bonynge, May–July 1973
Chapter 39: La Favorita by Donizetti, Pavarotti/Cossotto/Ghiaurov, 1974
Chapter 40: Maria Stuarda, 1975/1976
Chapter 41: Pavarotti’s Struggle with Depression
Chapter 42: Cavalleria Rusticana, Mascagni, 1976
Chapter 43: I Pagliacci: Pavarotti/Freni 1977
Chapter 44: Turandot, Pavarotti/Sutherland/Mehta
Chapter 45: Ballo in Maschera, Pavarotti/Solti May–June 1982
Chapter 46: Conclusion — An Everlasting Legacy
Bibliography