Is Pavarotti ready for a last night at the opera?
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Luciano Pavarotti is believed to be on the verge of giving up opera for the more lucrative and less demanding routine of performing "greatest hits" concerts.
The name of the world's most famous tenor was missing yesterday from the 2002-03 season launch of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The omission is significant; it will be the first time since the 1969-70 season that the Italian tenor is not among the roster of singers scheduled to perform at the United States' biggest opera company.
The temptation to concentrate on concerts is not hard to understand. Last year he was paid a reputed £650,000 for singing at the Grand Theatre in Shanghai. The price will certainly not go down as retirement rumours abound.
Pavarotti is on the Met schedules this season. He is singing in Tosca at two performances in May, but it now looks like these will be his last opera performances at the Met and possibly anywhere else. His spokesman, Herbert Breslin, did not rule out the maestro's retirement from opera yesterday: "He wants to see how the two 'Toscas' go in May before he decides on anything else. If the two go well, he may decide he wants to do something."
But the "something" is more likely to be concerts than opera. With his knees increasingly fragile, the Italian tenor has found the rigours of performance strenuous, and it has been evident for several years that productions have to be built around him, with his character seated at almost every opportunity.
Concerts are easier as Pavarotti can have constant breaks, retiring, if he wishes, for a short period after every few arias. The 66-year-old's only other opera appearances this season were four performances of Tosca in January at the Royal Opera House in London, which received standing ovations and favourable reviews.
Pavarotti's only other engagements for the rest of the year are concerts, including two in Britain: one in Manchester on 9 June; and at the NEC in Birmingham on 20 October. He said: "Britain is one of the most important countries for me, I look forward to singing for the British audiences, to being with my many friends there. I have performed in Birmingham and Manchester in the past and am very much looking forward to returning to these cities.
"The only thing I am not looking forward to is your terrible weather, the worst for a singer, particularly a person like me who does everything possible to avoid grey skies and cold."
He has consistently refused to be drawn on a retirement date, but the absence of his name from the Met schedules is the clearest clue so far that the concert stage is where he will be concentrating his efforts in future. If the likelihood grows that the Met 'Toscas' are his farewell to opera, black market tickets for the two performances are certain to fetch hundreds of dollars.
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