Word: italians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...abstinence builds their strength. Several leading men in the 1940s, the story goes, were sabotaged by a shapely U.S. soprano who seduced them just before the curtain.) The only supernatural aid Pavarotti enlists to get himself onstage is a bent nail in his pocket, a traditional talisman of Italian singers. Fans, aware of this quirk, send inm nails by the dozens, sometimes silver or gold, dangling from chains or fasinoned into pins. But Pavarotti will use only an authentic nail from the scenery backstage...
...goes he has access to an expert chef: himself. At major stopovers he likes to take a hotel suite-cum-kitchen, install a big round table and recruit a passel of local friends to sample his creations like Spaghetti Pavarotti. (Recipe for his sauce: half a tube of Italian tomato paste dissolved in olive oil, then mixed with grated Parmesan cheese and finely chopped parsley and garlic.) Nobody knows Pavarotti's precise poundage. He keeps his own scales and his own counsel. When asked how much he weighs, he replies: "Less than before...
...killing time. Pavarotti's wife Adua joins him on tour for a few weeks each year, and friends consider her spirited, sensible ministrations a tremendous boost for him. Says one of them: "At least she doesn't stand in the wings with holy water like the wives of some Italian tenors." But Pavarotti manages only a handful of flying visits home to Modena. He misses family life. He is perplexed by his remoteness from his fast growing daughters?Lorenza, 17, Christina, 15, and Giuliana, 12?and he tends to worry about them and to compensate with strictness when...
...tenor spends a month with his family in a converted farmhouse overlooking the Adriatic in Pesaro. Here, after eleven hectic months as a public performer, he can be a private man, an Italian papa. After a whirl of cosmopolitan continent-hopping, he can return to his cultural roots...
...young Italian soprano arrives from Udine with her American husband to audition for Pavarotti. After an aria and a few exercises, he says he cannot evaluate her voice because her notes are produced from the chest without proper support. "A baby crying is a perfect demonstration of correct vocal technique," he tells her. "The baby chooses a note that is comfortable and can cry all night without tiring or getting a sore throat. Why? Because it produces the sound in the natural way, by pushing it up from the diaphragm...