Luciano Pavarotti RIP

With the death of Luciano Pavarotti, the world of opera has lost probably its best known character and one of the great tenors of the second half of the twentieth century.

I first heard Pavarotti in 1976, singing Rodolfo in Puccini’s “La Boheme” at Covent Garden. It was an astounding performance: his charm and personality seemed to fill the stage as much as that glorious voice filled the auditorium. The voice was both individual and beautiful with a wonderful feel of Mediterranean sunshine to it. In his glory days it sailed easily up to a top C. While his interpretative gifts did not match those of a singer like Bergonzi, there was a freshness and honesty about Pavarotti’s singing, matched with clear words. Above all he always sounded as if he was loving every moment of what he was doing.

I was later to see him in more Puccini, in three Verdi roles and as Edgardo in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”, the last at the Verona Arena. His ventures into heavier Verdi roles were not generally great successes and his Radames in “Aida” at Covent Garden was less than wonderful but in parts that suited him he was simply awesome.

He first came to prominence in the early 1960s and some of his first big breaks came partnering Joan Sutherland, particularly as Tonio in Donizetti’s “Filled du Regiment”. Their partnership became one the great singing combinations and they made thirteen complete opera recordings together, each one of which would have a fair claim to be amongst the best recordings of the opera in question.

It was that combination with Sutherland, and the music of Puccini, in which Pavarotti excelled, that brought forth what I consider to be his greatest recording. “Turandot” not only contains his ‘signature tune’ “Nessun Dorma” but also a fantastic duet for him and Sutherland in the second act where they both roar up to a sustained top C. But the best is yet to come from Pavarotti. After he has solved the riddles and thus won the competition for Turandot’s hand he confronts her continuing reluctance with the words ‘Ti voglio tutta ardente d’amor’ (I would have you aflame with love). Other tenors throw this out as a shout of defiance but Pavarotti, while still taking all the optional higher notes, sings with such beauty and warmth of tone that he convinces you that he means exactly what he says. A truly magical moment from a magical singer.

Edinburgh Festival

When I first looked at the programme for this year's Festival, my first reaction was disappointment. No classical ballet, virtually no opera, lots of obscure early music: was this a huge sea-change in the ethos of the Edinburgh Festival? My experience of being there for the last three days was that the changes were not quite as damaging as at first appeared.

Let me start with a very welcome new addition: the programme of short early evening concerts of early vocal music at Greyfriars Kirk. I was able to catch the concert given by the Tallis Scholars with the title "Spanish Golden Age", which featured liturgical music by Guerrero, Lobo and Padilla. I thought the outstanding piece was Lobo's Missa Maria Magdalena, a Mass setting I had never heard before. The choir sang the music with vivid attack and at often seemingly reckless speeds but they carried it all off brilliantly. I especially liked the effect of halving the number of voices singing for the 'narrative' central section of the Credo. Only one moan: the ladies again sang with a rather harsh edge to their tone, presumably to avoid vibrato and a too womanly or (God forbid) operatic sound. This concert was packed and was enthusiastically received. I hope that this series will become a regular feature of the Festival.

Happily, a dear old friend remained intact: the morning concerts at the Queens Hall. These concerts, more than anything else, are the essence of the Edinburgh Festival to me. I was able to catch John Williams's guitar recital, a brilliant concert by a man who is not just a virtuoso but also a profound musician and communicator. My second concert was a recital of music for horn and piano by David Pyatt and Leon McCawley. This was an unexpected success. Did you know that Beethoven wrote a horn sonata? Neither did I until I heard it on Saturday!

The Usher Hall is undergoing extensive refurbishments but was still usable for the big orchestral concerts. The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra gave a luscious performance of Mahler's seventh symphony. What a shame that they decided to drown out Deborah Voigt in the final scene from "Salome". Strauss accompaniment was rather better served by the Guerzenich orchestra of Cologne under Markus Stenz when accompanying Gabriele Fontana in three songs the following evening. I thought the highlight of that evening was Zimmerman's extraordinary "Photoptosis": I even enjoyed Stenz's little talk introducing it.

By the final week, what dance there had been had petered out completely. As for opera, only Strauss' "Capriccio" was available, staged by the Cologne Opera at the Festival Theatre. This was my first encounter with Strauss's last stage work and it may well be my last. It has virtually no plot and large parts of the music are accompanied conversation. There is a glorious final scene for the leading soprano (wonderfully staged in this production) but by then the opera had been going for nearly three hours with only one short interval and I had rather lost the will to live. Lovely singing from Gabriele Fontana in the title role and again excellent accompaniment from Markus Stenz and his orchestra.

In between all this music I was able to take in the large and impressive Andy Warhol Exhibition at the National Gallery and the rather higgledy-piggledy "Naked Portraits" exhibition at the Portrait Gallery.

I enjoyed my visit to Edinburgh this year rather more than I expected to. I thought the Greyfriars concerts a great idea, which I hope will return. But please, can we have some ballet and some proper opera back?