BEFORE: The Big Summer Music Concert series continues with some opera from Pavarotti, Ron Howard's latest documentary subject. I kicked off this whole topic back in 2018 with Ron's documentary about the Beatles' Touring Years, and now I've come full circle once again. Opera's really not my bag, but then neither is country music, and I watched the Dolly Parton doc...
Aaron Neville carries over from "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice" via archive footage.
THE PLOT: Life, works and achievements of opera legend Luciano Pavarotti.
AFTER: Who's really shocked that Luciano cheated on his wife, several times over? Not me...he's like opera's equivalent of a rock star, and we know THEY'RE not faithful. Oddly, I'm thinking of putting this on the same DVD as "Zappa", because I think the two famous singer/musicians have a lot more in common than one might think. Zappa sort of saw himself as a classical composer, though he was never really recognized as one during his lifetime. And he wasn't faithful when he was on the road, either. Both men sort of really regretted, later in life, not being present for their families, not being good husbands or good fathers, and that sort of leads to questions over why they couldn't do that in the first place, if it turned out to be so important to them in the end. Like, why not just NOT be such a dick? Something about the male egos of famous people, they give themselves free rein to screw around - it's why I'm not really into the documentary about Anthony Bourdain right now, who left TWO wives, successively, and a young daughter behind while he traveled the world and then checked himself out. Sure, he may have struggled with depression, but maybe think about other people who care about you once in a while, that could even help. Just saying.
Anyway, we learn that Pavarotti loved to travel, loved to sing, loved to eat (duh, just look at him) and was otherwise larger than life in ways other than just his size. But he seemed to have the talent to back all that up - and again, I'm not an opera expert, if you tell me he's a good singer, I'm inclined to believe you. Other than a man's reputation, really, what has he got? (Oh, yeah, the simple joys of having a loving family, screw that, there's a big concert coming up at La Scala...)
Pavarotti doesn't just remind me of Zappa here, also Dolly Parton and/or Linda Ronstadt - Luciano teamed up with two other tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, to perform as "The Three Tenors", which hadn't been done before, and was a great success - much like Dolly teamed up with Linda and Emmylou to record "Trio". If it works, and the scheduling can be arranged, by all means, go for it. My mother tried her darnedest to get me interested in classical music, but opera never really connected with me - I know just enough to work my way through the subject if I'm ever a contestant on "Jeopardy!", though. Like I can tell you which composer wrote which famous operas, and who Pagliacci was, where "Aida" takes place, and stuff like that. Also the rough plot of Wagner's "Ring Cycle", but some of that comes from osmosis, with my wife also being a big opera fan.
Pavarotti also stood accused, however, of slumming with pop and rock stars, something that just wasn't DONE by most opera singers. How DARE he put on charity concerts. called "Pavarotti & Friends", with Sting and Stevie Wonder and the Spice Girls! He shouldn't be associating with such commoners! Get real, whatever puts asses in the seats AND raises money for good causes should be encouraged, at the end of the day. Even if I don't approve of how he ran his personal life, it seems he went out of his way to raise money for sick kids. But, umm, only after his own daughter got sick, so now I'm not sure if his heart was in the right place. When your daughter gets sick, you should spend more time with HER, not all the other sick kids in the world, too.
I guess it doesn't really matter now, because Pavarotti left this world in 2007 - fuck cancer, by the way. Hey, I guess that's another thing that he had in common with Frank Zappa. And today's fun fact is that before performing as The Three Tenors, Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras already knew each other, and even had apartments in the same building on Central Park South in NYC. I wonder how many noise complaints came from the other tenants in that building, from all the opera rehearsals going on.
Also starring Bono (last heard in "Lost in London"), Herbert Breslin, José Carreras, Placido Domingo (last heard in "The Book of Life"), Angela Gheorghiu, Harvey Goldsmith, Vittorio Grigolo, Andrea Griminelli, Eugene Kohn, Michael Kuhn, Lang Lang, Nicoletta Mantovani, Zubin Mehta, Anne Midgette, Madelyn Renée Monti, Christina Pavarotti, Giuliana Pavarotti, Lorenza Pavarotti, Terri Robson, Dickon Stainer, Carol Vaness, Adua Veroni, Joseph Volpe,
with archive footage of Luciano Pavarotti (last seen in "Quincy"), Kofi Annan, Jon Bon Jovi (last seen in "The Accidental President"), James Brown (last seen in "Let's Go to Prison"), Mariah Carey (last seen in "Girls Trip"), Johnny Carson (also carrying over from "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Jimmy Carter (last seen in "John Lewis: Good Trouble"), Enrico Caruso, Celine Dion (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), Brian May (ditto), Phil Donahue, The Edge, Bob Geldof (last seen in "Quiet Riot: Now You're Here, There's No Way Back"), Sting (ditto), Russell Harty (last seen in "Dolly Parton: Here I Am"), Clive James, Peter Jennings (last seen in "Shock and Awe"), Spike Lee (last seen in "Malcolm X"), Nelson Mandela (ditto), John Major, Mike Oldfield, Prince Charles, Princess Diana (last seen in "Whitney"), Tony Randall (last seen in "The Mating Game"), Tibor Rudas, the Spice Girls, Bruce Springsteen (last seen in "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band"), Joan Sutherland, Suzanne Vega, Stevie Wonder (last seen in "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"), Zucchero
RATING 5 out of 10 High C's
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