Late Italian superstar tenor Luciano Pavaroti has got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Modena-born.and-died supertenor, who died on September 6, 2007 aged 71, was celebrated at a ceremony where his daughter Cristina and Los Angeles Orchestra Director James Conlon were among those paying homage to the legendary Italian opera singer.
Star no 2730, placed next to those of Sydney Poitier, Stan Lee, Ennio Morricone and Lina Wertmuller, comes 10 days before the 25th anniversary of Pavarotti’s death.
“If I think of my father, of the paths he opened and the many emotions he gave and received, I feel a sense of vertigo,” said Cristina on behalf of her sisters Lorenza, Giuliana and Alice, Pavarotti’s widow Nicoletta Mantovani and their younger daughter Caterina.
She recalled how her father, after his barnstorming performances, “happy but tired and hungry, would stay there for hours signing autographs, so as not to leave even one fan unhappy”.
Conlon recalled an artist who was prepared to take risks when few others were ready to do so, such as when he sang Nessun Dorma for the 1990 World Cup and the aria became his piece de resistance.
And Pavarotti’s Hollywood star also provides further backing for Italian opera’s bid to get onto the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list next year.
An area dedicated to Pavarotti was opened at the Grammy Museum on Thursday.
The tenor won five Grammies plus one ‘legend’ prize during his career.
The new exhibit will include the score for his first performance of Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Herbert von Karajan at La Scala in 1967, on which Pavarotti went on to gather the signatures of many of the great conductors who performed with him during his 30-year career.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame star for the late Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti is unveiled following a ceremony honoring him posthumously in Los Angeles, California, USA. EPA-EFE/CAROLINE BREHMAN
