Pavarotti's Grand Reprise Ron Howard Brings The Legend To Life

The Famous Face Behind Pavarotti Tackles Life in the Spotlight in a Vastly Different Way

- Linda Dias

A man of voracious appetites – for music, women and food (in that order) – opera legend Luciano Pavarotti had few rivals. And if he could combine two of his great passions, so much the better.

Extolling the virtues of Viagra to reporters, he once claimed, “Sex is always good for you if your little friend asks for it. It doesn’t matter if it is before or after the show.” He added, “The best thing would be during the show, on the only table on the stage.”

It is one of the more colourful revelations in Pavarotti, a documentary film about the late Italian tenor directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, maker of movies such as A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 and The Da Vinci Code.

But while it captures the opera star’s prowess with women – Princess Diana was a close friend, and soprano Madelyn Renee, one of his many mistresses, talks on camera about the pain of ending their eight-year affair – it shows that men too were not immune to the force of his personality.

Always keen to find new musical collaborators, Luciano resolved to enlist the services of U2’s ambivalent frontman Bono, eventually turning up on his doorstep in Dublin and cajoling him into the studio.

He was, jokes Bono, “one of the great emotional arm wrestlers – he will break your f***ing arm”.

Ron witnessed Luciano’s star power first-hand, having met him at a Hollywood event in the early 1980s.

“We only had a quick handshake,” he says, “but certainly even then I could sense his charisma.”

Back then, Ron was best known for his role as Richie Cunningham in the hit TV show Happy Days and says he had no idea that their lives would again converge decades later.