Pavarotti's 'Heir Apparent'
Juan Diego Florez May Step into Some Big Shoes

Listen to the Weekend Edition Saturday report on speculation regarding Pavarotti's retirement.

Luciano Pavarotti (top) and Juan Diego Florez. Photos: Pavarotti courtesy LupaWeb; Florez courtesy Decca Classics

Some cuts from Rossini Arias, by Juan Diego Florez "Che Ascoltol", from Othello "Cessa Di Piu Resistere", from The Barber of Seville "Si, Ritrovarla Io Givro", from La Cenerentola Pavarotti, from Tosca "E Lucevan Le Stelle"

May 11-12, 2002 -- Luciano Pavarotti cancelled what was to be his final performance in Puccini's Tosca at the Met on Saturday. But even before that, the opera world was wondering whether his apparance was to be a career finale of sorts.

Preparations for the closing night were such that many people were speculating that Pavarotti himself saw it as a farewell.

"Opera farewells tend to be highly ambiguous," Philadelphia Inquirer music critic David Patrick Stearns tells Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday. Stearns says the atmosphere surrounding the closing night carried a "sense of ceremony" that was "not conventional." On the high end, tickets were going for $1,500 -- which is unusually high even for a Pavarotti closing night.

But Stearns notes that Pavarotti still has concerts scheduled, and he thinks that after this weekend, "we will still hear the Pavarotti voice -- but I think, less and less."

Either way, Pavarotti is in his twilight years. And while his voice is still considered finer than that of most singers at any age, getting it to meet Pavarotti's own standards is a serious challenge. Given all that, it should come as no surprise if Pavarotti decides to retire, or at least seriously scale back his workload.

Enter Juan Diego Florez. The young tenor is often referred to as "Pavarotti's heir apparent," although he demurs. "I would love to have his voice," he tells Lynn Neary for Weekend Edition Sunday. But, he adds, "real opera-goers" don't make that comparison, because "we just have different voices."

Nevertheless, as the tenor currently drawing the most buzz, Florez, 29, may at some point have to accept the title.

That's especially remarkable given that he just recently released his first album, Rossini Arias, and debuted on stage only a few years ago.

He's not about to let the advantage of youth go to waste. That is why he took on Rossini now, he says. More than most other composers, Rossini demands much of his singers. "Singing is like a sport, really," Florez says. "It takes a lot of muscular activity. It's like a soccer player -- they play until they are 35, maybe 40 years old."


Other Resources

Stearns reports on the speculation surrounding Pavarotti in the Philadelphia Inquirer

The official Pavarotti Web site

An index of Florez reviews

A Florez fan site

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