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Luciano Pavarotti Talkasia Transcript
LH: Lorraine Hahn Block A: LH - Hello and welcome to TalkAsia, I'm Lorraine Hahn. My guest today is a man who's been charming audiences for more than 4 decades with his rich tenor and beautifully expressive phrasing. Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena Italy in October 1935. He was close to his father, an amateur tenor who introduced him to singing through the local choral group. Young Pavarotti made his debut in 1961, but it was at New York's metropolitan opera a few years later that he achieved true superstardom. Since then, he has received accolades from around the world, including Emmy and Gramaphone awards, and is the best selling classical recording artist of all time. Now aged 70, Pavarotti is in the midst of his farewell tour -- 40 performances that will take him around the world for the last time. Welcome to Hong Kong, than you very much for speaking with us. (LP: Thank you) I wanted to ask you, a 40-date world tour sounds extremely tiring at least to me. How are you holding up? LP -- Well, we make a concert every 3 or 4 days, so it's not so tiring. I'm very lucky that I'm living a lot, either in bed or on the plane, I go to sleep. And I keep all the energy and spending in singing. Besides, I am making a profession in which adrenaline is always there burning for you. It's not heavy, it's a pleasure, it's not working. LH - Is this particular tour more emotional for you? LP -- A little, yeah. I little more emotional but the emotion that from being afraid of don't sing like the audience expect. It was always like that for 44 years. It doesn't change now. The other emotion, of being the last, I don't feel yet because there's one more year to go. At the end of 2006, perhaps I will be! LH - It's been a long journey since your debut in 1961, 44 years! How would you describe those years? LP -- Sensational! Challenging! It's almost always winning the battle. In fact, you would not be there for 44 years if you don't win the battle. And you have to win the battle every night. Now you make a beautiful performance, and so you have to make another, next time, next city perhaps, or next audience. LH -- And people want more and more and more! LP -- People want me to be infallible! But we are human beings no? LH -- Are there any special, very special moments that you remember? LP -- The debut. The time in which I commemorate with Verdi Requiem, Toscanini in Milan, with maestro Karian(?) Like I said before I'm very lucky, for 44 years to be always there to do beautiful things that you can remember. Everywhere and in every city in the world. LH -- There was one performance in 1972, that I read, where you had 17 curtain calls at the Met, at the Metropolitan Opera. LP -- Yes it was beaten from the 49th call in Berlin. They applaud went for 45 minutes, I was embarrassed! Yes I was embarrassed! We had to finish the opera singing with the piano on the stage. It was something very special. LH -- Very, very special! I also wanted to ask you about the Three Tenors. They seem to be like a super group in the classical world! LP -- We are! LH -- How did that idea take shape? How did you all bond so well? LP -- Many, many people would like to have the 3 Tenors together. I was the only one to say no, to say no because there is no reason for us to go there to see who is the best of us. There are 3 different personalities. But at that time, Mr. Carreras was very sick and he came back, he survived. And we celebrate that with a concert in Rome. The concert in Rome because it was the Champion football, the world champion of football, we were three players, and we decided to celebrate there. And then we celebrated in Los Angeles and then in Paris. All the time when football came around. It's absolutely fantastic because all 3 of us are lover of the voice of the tenor. So in the night, you go there you're going to hear yourself and you're going to hear the other 2. Without pay! The opposite, they give you a lot of money! It is a pleasure! LH -- I was lucky enough to speak to Mr. Jose Carreras when he was in Hong Kong and he was telling me that the only rivalry you had was deciding which football team to support! LP -- That's right! LH -- Otherwise, you all worked very, very well together? LP -- It was Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Italy! LH - Classical music, to a lot of people, always have this reputation of being intellectual, maybe even a bit snobbish. But for you, for the three tenors, you have almost made it so that everybody, the mass, can appreciate it. Is that important to you? LP -- It's indispensable. Music, I always say, you don't need to be a professional to understand music. My barber is one of the greatest connoisseurs of music, of opera especially. Purity is the performance, the good performance, purity. Because if you make bad performance for a few people, it's not purity. If you make beautiful performance for many people, it's purity. LH -- Mr. Pavarotti, there've been reports about your health, about your bad back. Are you ok now? LP -- I am recovering very, very, very well. LH -- Your core voice, people have written, is spectacular. The descriptions of your voice are just remarkable. But there's also talk that through the ages, there is wear and tear of the voice. Is that true? LP -- You have to be very careful. You have to treat your voice like a precious. LH -- Is it true though, that tenors and sopranos suffer most to the voice? LP -- The voice is more delicate than the base and baritone, and mezzo. Yes it's more delicate. LH -- When you decide to finally end your singing performances, what legacy do you hope to leave behind? LP -- (thinks and looks awed) There's so many tenors my dear! It's not true that there are no tenors. There are so many! And depends on the personality of them, which one is going to do better, but not following me. It's not a question of following. It will be somebody who is going to be himself, or herself if it's a lady. It's not "I'm a copy of..." the new Callas or the new...no, that doesn't exist. LH -- There will only be one Luciano Pavarotti? LP -- There is only one of Domingo, only one of one of each of us! LH -- What will you miss most? LP -- Let me finish and then I will tell you! (laughs) LH -- Mr. Pavrotti, we're going to take a very short break. When we come back, we'll ask Luciano Pavarotti about singing with his father and the importance of giving back to the community. Block B: LH - Welcome back, you're watching TalkAsia and my guest is Luciano Pavarotti. Mr. Pavarotti, you grew up in Modena Italy, the son of a baker. Your father was very important to you, wasn't he? LP -- He was extremely important., My father and my mother. Because my father was a beautiful voice tenor. Absolutely gorgeous, not just good. Better than mine! And you can ask maestro Madrid (?) and he will tell you the truth! By imitation, like all the kid does, I tried to imitate him, and I sang all the pieces of music that he was singing. And I really little by little conquer what is the secret of the singing. My mother was fantastic because my mother had a tiny little voice but beautifully tuned and beautifully nuanced. She gave me the intonation and she gave me the sensibility. She gave me many, many qualities. And Papa gave me the voice. They encouraged me until a certain point. LH -- So they encourage you to a point. But what about encouraging you to make singing a career? LP -- At the age of 19, I finished and became an elementary school teacher and they have to decide if I should go to Rome to be a gymnastics professional, or if I try to sing. My mother says I think Arrigo Pola, who is a tenor of the city, he's teaching him, I think he should begin to sing. So I sang for 2 years, vocalizing AEIOU (makes warm-up sounds) for 6 months without doing anything else than that, going to every lesson, every day except Sunday on a bicycle from one side to another of the city. My teacher was fantastic, and a very, very nice man. And a very good tenor. And every time he asked me to do something and I was not able to do it, he would say "it's like that!" and he sang it for me. LP -- So you see my parents they were with me all the time. They want me to sing, absolutely! LH -- Was there anything that they instilled in you as a young man that you still value and that you live by, up until today. LP -- Absolutely! He always said, when you wake up in the morning and you see yourself in the mirror, be proud! LH -- And you live by that, even till today? LP -- yes! LH -- Who would then be your biggest mentor, the person who influenced you the most? LP -- Probably my first teacher. He gave me a technique that I am using now, even after 44 years of stage! (LH -- Amazing!) Amazing! (LH -- Amazing!) Amazing! LH -- When you perform, do you have to follow a very strict routine? LP -- Where? On the stage? (LH - right before you perform, let's say) LP -- Right before I perform, its better you don't come close to me. I'm tell you, I'm terrible! I'm nervous! I insult myself and say "Why have you done this profession if you have to suffer so much?" And I insult myself and so and so and so, until I put 1 foot on the stage and I feel the atmosphere and I feel the music and the audience and the composer, the colleagues, and the conductor and everything disappears to give place to another person! LH -- What about your voice and looking after your voice? I don't know, any particular diet? Do you avoid certain foods? LP -- Let's say that to make this profession, you must be an athlete. I was a great athlete when I was young. Great! That has allowed me to be still singing with my chubby body! I have great muscles! LH -- Mr. Pavarotti, it seems as though giving back is something that you value, that you do very often, charity in particular. Why is charity so important to you? LP -- It's absolutely incredibly important because I received so much from life, I think I receive so much from music. And with the music, this vehicle, we are able to make concerts and raise money for poor kids. We build many things around the world, generally schools and hospitals. LH -- Your recent one was for the Iraqi refugees? (LH: Yes) You raised 2 million? LP -- Or more, more. Oh yes it was 2 and a half million, you're right. LH -- And that will continue? LP -- We'll see. LH --We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we'll talk to Luciano Pavarotti about retirement and nurturing young talent. Block C: LH -- Welcome back to TalkAsia, my guest is Luciano Pavarotti. Mr. Pavarotti, you've recently established a teaching facility for young singing students in Modena. (LP-- Yes!) Tell me about that, where did the idea come from? LP -- Don't forget that I'm an elementary school teacher, so teaching is really a great pleasure. It's a great pleasure to hear them when I make an observation, or a correction, let's say, to a singer and he's immediately doing better. That is very, very good, very gratifying. It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, to be around young people and to see them suffer, to see them fight and be by their side to help them do it, is very, very good. LH -- You seem to be a busy man off stage as well. You've re-married, you have a little girl. She must keep you very busy? LP -- Oh, she's charming! She is wise! She commands everybody -- do this! Do that! Do this papa! Yes, yes my dear! (LH -- and you listen to her?) But she is so charming! LH -- What's it like to be a father again? LP -- It's beautiful. It's beautiful even because I can with this daughter of mine, see her grow. With the other 3, I wasn't able because I was never around. And that is something I lost in the other marriage. LH -- The other 3. Any of them into singing at all? Any of them followed -(LP --No, No, No) LH -- Would you encourage them to do something like that? LP -- If they are good yes, but they are not! LH -- What about the little one? LP -- The little one is just screaming. We will see when it's time. LH -- Do you spend then, your free time, relaxing with them? (LP -- absolutely!) that is how your time is spent? LP -- yes LH -- Amazing! You have traveled and performed all around the world, and many times around the world. Are there any special places, you keep in your heart? LP -- many! (LH - Many cities?) Many! If you have to express a desire, I would like to sing in India, in Egypt, places where I was'nt able to go before. And I'm thinking what you say, if there is a place that keeps my heart, I was very lucky like I told you before. And every place is beautiful. I was alone, you cannot say your manager has done or not done. Because every night, you have to go in front of the audience and say who you are. (LH -- Alone?) Alone! LH -- I also read that you're into sports! When you say that your performances is something you do alone, sports is something that's very different! LP -- Well, I was a decent football player, I played tennis, I was (shakes his head) but I was very tough at the net! I played even volleyball. So when you have a court, you have 6 people there and you have to go up and look where they are. With a racket at the net, chu chu chu (makes sound hitting the ball) I was very good at the net! (LH -- And equestrian and very keen?) Yes even on the horse! LH - What's next for you? Once this tour is over? LP -- I go home, I go to New York, I spend Christmas in New York with my family and then we begin the tour in South America and then in Europe, and then and then. LH (laughs) And then! And then! Is absolute retirement on the cards? Absolute? Finito? Will it come to that? LP -- Of course, of course it's finito, yea. LH -- And your charities will continue? LP -- I hope! I hope I'm able to do it. LH -- And your famous master classes? LP -- Even! Even! LH- Mr. Pavarotti, thanks for spending time with us today and for 4 decades of wonderful music, thank you. We wish you the very, very best. You've been watching TalkAsia. My guest has been world renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti. I'm Lorraine Hahn, let's talk again next week. 
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