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Description:
For the collector who wants one Pavarotti video, this is probably the one to have. Taped live in Munich in 1988 at the height of the tenor's career, it preserves his work at its best. The voice is in top condition and he leaves out (or the editors of the video production leave out for him) the 18th-century arias and Italian art songs that used to clutter up his recital programs back in the 1970s, long before he became a part of "The Three Tenors." What we get here is an hour of Pavarotti in his prime, singing the music that comes most naturally to him. The two tenor showstoppers from Rigoletto open the program, which continues with a series of Neapolitan popular songs and verismo arias in a similar style from L'Arlesiana, I Pagliacci, and Manon Lescaut. A short program, but choice; if he had included "Nessun dorma" and "Ingemisco," it would have covered all his most important work. The Neapolitan songs actually outnumber the operatic arias by nine to five, and the audience approves loudly and at great length (applause takes up quite a bit of the hour). This is the music Pavarotti was born to sing; its archetypes are "O sole mio" and "Torna a Sorrento," and by no coincidence, they bring the program to a tumultuous conclusion. --Joe McLellan
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