Thousands pay respects at Pavarotti funeral
Verdi’s “Ave Maria” wafted through Modena’s cathedral today as the world bade farewell to Luciano Pavarotti with a funeral close to his classical roots, attended by family, dignitaries and close friends and followed by admirers around the world.
The Pope sent a telegram of condolence, which was read out at the start of the service. He said Pavarotti had “honoured the divine gift of music through his extraordinary interpretative talent”.
Thousands of people watched the invitation-only service on a huge television screen erected in Modena’s main piazza, where a recording of the tenor’s most famous works had boomed out during two days of public viewing.
Pavarotti’s white maple casket, covered in sunflowers – his favourite – lay before the altar, with his wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, looking on. Sitting nearby were Pavarotti’s three daughters from his first marriage.
The opera great died on Thursday in his home on Modena’s outskirts after battling pancreatic cancer for more than a year.
He was 71 and was beloved by generations of opera-goers and pop fans alike for his breathtaking high “Cs” and his hearty renditions of folk songs like “O Sole Mio,” and popular tunes like “My Way.”
City officials said 87,000 memorial cards had been handed out to well-wishers paying their final respects to Pavarotti.
Admirers signed books of condolences placed by vases of sunflowers outside the cathedral. The Foreign Ministry said similar books of condolences would be available to well-wishers at Italian embassies and consulates around the world.
Bulgarian-born soprano Raina Kabaivanska, a fellow Modena resident who had worked with Pavarotti, cried as she sang the “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s “Otello” as the ceremony began.
Tenor Andrea Bocelli was to sing Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” while the Rossini Chorus performed hymns throughout the service, which was celebrated by Modena Archbishop Benito Cocchi and 18 other priests.
Pavarotti’s body, dressed in a black tuxedo and with his hands clutching his trademark white handkerchief, had been on public display inside the cathedral since Thursday night.
“He was our Italian flag. He was the best representation that we could have,” said Susy Cavallini, a 43-year-old Modena resident as she emerged from the cathedral earlier.
“Modena is known for its cappelletti (a type of tortellini), balsamic vinegar, Ferrari and Pavarotti. It’s a collection of important things that Modena has given to the world.”
Among those at the funeral were Premier Romano Prodi and Italy’s culture minister, Francesco Rutelli, Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli and the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Also expected were U2 lead singer Bono; Stephane Lissner, general manager of Milan’s La Scala Opera House, where Pavarotti appeared 140 times and the Metropolitan Opera’s former general manager Joe Volpe.
Other celebrities with whom Pavarotti worked over the years were expected to be invited to a memorial charity event in the coming months, Pavarotti’s manager, Terri Robson, said.
The tenor was to be buried in Montale Rangone cemetery, near Modena, where members of his family, including his parents and stillborn son Riccardo, are buried.
Pavarotti’s classical career, with his imposing presence, emotional depth and boyish, charming ease all adding to his technical prowess, was the stuff of opera legend. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, presenting a new CD in Rome on Friday, recalled the first time she heard Pavarotti sing, many years ago, at the Metropolitan Opera House. “I said to myself: God does exist,” Bartoli was quoted by the news agency Ansa as saying.
But his legacy reached beyond the opera houses to reach the masses, working with fellow opera stars and pop icons alike.
These far-from-the-opera house performances, including memorable nights under the stars at Rome’s ancient Baths of Caracalla with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, in the “Three Tenors” concert, rescued musical art from highbrow obscurity.
Pavarotti was the best-selling classical artist, with more than 100 million records sold since the 1960s, and he had the first classical album to reach No. 1 on the pop charts.
That Pavarotti – a divorced man who had a child out of wedlock – was given public viewing and a funeral in the cathedral spurred some debate. A Modena parish priest, the Rev Giorgio Bellei, told Corriere della Sera that the move amounted to “profanation of the temple.”
Other critics noted that last year the church refused to grant a religious funeral to a paralysed man who had a doctor disconnect his respirator.
Funeral director Gianni Gibellini said Bellei should have “kept his mouth sewn shut” and that the Modena bishop had approved the funeral plans.
