Luciano Pavarotti

Born: October 12, 1935

Died: September 5, 2007

Best known for the size of his meals, and ever-present sweat rag, Luciano Pavarotti was a very large, very Italian tenor who defined large Italian tenors for the mid to late 20th century

Pavarotti carried on in the grande tradition of Italian tenors such as Franco Corelli, Enrico Caruso and Tito Schipa when he starred in Leoncavallo's opera I Pagliacci (Italian for "I am a mafia clown") in which he played a fat, psychotic clown.

Marriages
He was married to Adua Veroni, his first wife for 40 years, finally leaving her for his assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani, who was much younger, much skinnier and a trophy wife better suited for a man of his stature.

Music Career
Pavarotti made his debut in Puccini's "La Boheme" about a group of young Italians with typhoid who squatted in a Roman coliseum.

It wasn't until later in his career when he teamed up with two Mexican tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras that he was able to match his peak singing weight of 368 (set in 1978).

With Domingo and Carreras, Pavarotti formed the opera group "The Three Tenors" singing mostly narcocorridos, but in Italian.

Close friends say his only regret was not doing commercials for Mrs. Paul's frozen Fishsticks.

Trivia

 * thought Mario Lanza was gay
 * once sang under the great conductor Insetti Coniglio
 * refused to see the Ben Affleck movie "Gigli" because he thought it was about Beniamin Gigli a rival, who he considered gay