Talented tenor Luciano Pavarotti has been regarded as the best singer in the world for decades.
But now that he is 68 years old and has announced that he will retire in 2005, Pavarotti has released a swan song solo pop album to top his career with Decca. The all-Italian-language "Ti Adoro" was released Sept. 23 in the U.S with other regions planning to issue the project by year's end.
"For 20 years, Decca has been asking me to make such an album," Pavarotti says. These 13 tracks written specifically for the tenor will not fail to please them.
"I refused to do an album like this for a long, long time," he says. "But in the past five years, I said, 'OK, I'll do it.' So Decca sent about 200 songs to choose from, without telling me the name of the writers. And there were some wonderful ballads, but no happy songs.
"In the past year, I got two happy songs that I love -- 'Ti Adoro' [I Adore You] and 'Buongiorno a Te' [Good Morning to You]. Now, with those songs, it was time. The colours of my painting were really formed."
Already, the album is a hit, sitting in the No. 3 spot on Billboard's classical and classical crossover charts.
There is a great deal of interest in Pavarotti's personal life as of late. The past year has seen the deaths of his mother and father, as well as that of his infant son who died in childbirth (he was survived by his twin sister, Alice, now 8 months old). On Sept. 24, Pavarotti announced his intention to marry Alice's mother, Nicoletta Mantovani (his former secretary), before year's end.
"Maybe once I retire," Pavarotti muses, "I'll sing in the shower. I've never done that before."
