The King and I by Herbert Breslin

Author:Herbert Breslin [Breslin, Herbert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-51414-9
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2004-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

chapter IX

ANOTHER OPENING, ANOTHER SHOW

Getting Luciano Onstage

I’ve said it before: Luciano Pavarotti is the heir to a great Italian musical tradition. He’s happy to let everybody know it himself.

The tenor roles he sings are his birthright. He learned most of his arias in childhood, through his father’s incessant playing of his great tenor precursors: Caruso, Pertile, Schipa, Gigli. You could say it’s in his blood.

At least, the arias are in his blood. What may not have made it into the bloodstream are all the words to all those arias. Nor did he learn the parts of the roles that weren’t arias: the dialogue, the recitatives, the ensembles, and all the other things that make an opera an opera. For those, he needed a little help. Well, all right, a lot of help.

And it’s not always easy to help Luciano. How can you help somebody who always knows best about everything? To judge by the way he treats what’s written in the score, Luciano even knows better than many of the composers who wrote the operas in the first place.

So how does the greatest tenor in the world prepare to go out onstage? It’s a question I’ve gotten a lot. It’s hard to give a concise answer, except to say that it involves a lot of people and it’s a long process.

The first step is to bring a coach in to teach him his roles. We did that all the time. Gildo Di Nunzio from the Met and Leone Magiera, Mirella Freni’s ex-husband, whom we often hired to accompany Luciano’s recitals or conduct his concerts, were practically fixtures in Luciano’s homes.

But in order to be effective, a coach needs to sit down and work with you. That was the tricky part.

Luciano is not very good at programming his time. There are always a million things to do instead of work, and when you do finally start to work, there’s always something to interrupt. The phone will ring and require Luciano’s immediate attention. A couple of unexpected visitors will drive up. Some young singer will arrive, pleading that the maestro (that’s Luciano) promised to hear him sing, so of course Luciano has to oblige. Then, and most important, it’s time to prepare lunch. You can’t work without a good lunch. So Leone Magiera might show up at Luciano’s house at nine or ten in the morning and sit around until four o’clock in the afternoon without actually getting any coaching done. The fact that other people might have other things to do with their time than wait around for him is not a very big consideration for Luciano.

To get him to do what’s required of him, you have to insist a little. That’s something about me that was probably very helpful to him, although he may not have felt as if it was helpful at the time. I know how to insist.

“Come on, Luciano, let’s do this book project. Let’s do this TV production. Let’s have you sing Ernani.”

If you pound Luciano enough, he’ll agree.

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