Luciano Pavarotti's Birthday
Next: October 12, 2027
Hail the King of the High C.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the birthday of Luciano Pavarotti, born in Modena, Italy, on 12 October 1935, the son of a baker who sang as an amateur tenor. He trained as a primary school teacher before studying singing, and made his opera debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème in 1961. In 1966, at London's Royal Opera House, he became the first tenor to sing all nine high Cs of a famous aria in Donizetti's La fille du régiment, and was called the 'King of the High C' from then on. He believed 'opera should be everyone's heritage'.
How it's celebrated
There is no organised observance, but Modena remembers him all year. His home in the countryside outside the city has been a museum since 2015, the city's opera house carries his name (since 2021 shared with his childhood friend, the soprano Mirella Freni), and a bronze statue of him stands beside it. Anywhere else, the simplest way to mark the day is to play a recording; 'Nessun dorma' is the obvious place to start.
Did you know
- In 1986 he took La Bohème to Beijing and gave the first concert ever held in the Great Hall of the People, to an audience of 10,000.
- The 1990 Three Tenors concert in Rome with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras became the best-selling classical album of all time, and the trio sang again at Yokohama for the 2002 World Cup.
- In 2001 the UN refugee agency gave him its Nansen Award for raising more money for refugees than any other private individual.
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- Global Handwashing Day · October 15, 2027
- World Food Day · October 16, 2027
- International Day of the Intangible Cultural Heritage · October 17, 2027