Pavarotti, Ron Howard’s new film (at the Maple and Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor) about the famed tenor who died in 2007 will please opera lovers and those who don’t even know a lot about opera. It’s a splendid, easy going tribute to the man and the voice who was a legend in both the world and non-world of opera in the late 20th century. It’s also very human or at least portrays someone who is very human. Pavarotti was rather humble and full of life, and despite his acclaim, always had stomach-churning worries about his performances immediately before setting foot on the stage. His biggest claim to fame was from his ability as a tenor (an unnatural voice) to reach High C notes. He loved his family, Italian food (he’d have a suitcase of Italian specialties as he toured), people and zest for life. But despite the mostly favorable portrait the singer was not entirely a saint. The film depicts two affairs, with his lovers interviewed for the picture. Even his former wife Adua Veroni speaks laudably and no doubt after much consternation concludes Pavarotti’s philandering was indicative of his very human self. Pavarotti perhaps most famously brought opera to a mass audience transcending its elitist status - at least by today’s standards but just the way opera traditionally had always been received in Italy. After all, his association with José Carreras and Plácido Domingo as the Three Tenors created stadium-filling sensations. And, a little-known fact to me, he performed in the 1990s with rock starts like Sting, Bono and Stevie Wonder. He broke categories and rules (earlier he sang for his wife’s record label contravening an exclusivity contract with Decca but his personal response was to hell with it if he couldn’t be happy; Decca gave in and bought the label!) One comment about the film’s technical aspect. It uses video from only 20 or 30 years ago yet the quality is often uneven and blotchy. Was film stock that bad such a short time ago?
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