Photo by Don Perdue/WNET
Hard to believe we’re approaching the 10th anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti’s death in September of 2007. Award winning film director Ron Howard is excited to begin working on a major documentary about the opera superstar, “I didn’t know that much about opera, but always found Pavarotti a charismatic figure, whom I’d met in the ’80s. Like with many people, he was my introduction to opera as something that was accessible, moving and emotional. Probably the only opera albums I bought were by Pavarotti.”
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Italy in 1935, made his professional debut in 1961 and gave his last concert the year before he died in 2006 at the Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. A tremendous talent who managed to create drama on and off stage and seemed to always be driven by his love of music and humanity. The film crew will interview a long list of family members, contemporary performers of Pavarotti and music biz insiders.
Last year Howard released another major music documentary about the Beatles and their years as a live band called Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years. As with the Fab Four film Ron Howard and his staff are facing a complicated series of hurdles before their production starts, yet it looks like approval and access to Pavarotti’s recorded music, concerts, operas and film performances have been green-lighted. It promises to be a tour de force celebrating the 20th century’s greatest tenor.
