Pavarotti sang fire, says Bono
2007-09-06 19:01
London - U2 singer Bono, who sang a duet with Luciano Pavarotti on a single about the plight of the Bosnian people, hailed the late Italian tenor on Thursday as "a great volcano of a man who sang fire".
He also revealed that the Irish band had a nickname for the huge opera legend - the Pavlova.
"Some can sing opera, Luciano Pavarotti was an opera. No one could inhabit those acrobatic melodies and words like him," Bono said in a statement on U2's website after Pavarotti died at his home in northern Italy overnight.
"He lived the songs, his opera was a great mash of joy and sadness; surreal and earthy at the same time; a great volcano of a man who sang fire but spilled over with a love of life in all its complexity, a great and generous friend."
Pavarotti died during at his villa near the city of Modena after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Bono, who sang Miss Sarajevo with Pavarotti in 1995, recalled the Italian singer's sense of fun and powers of persuasion.
'Full of love'
"When he wanted U2 to play his festival in Modena, he turned up in Dublin unannounced with a film crew, and door-stopped the band. His life and talent was large but his sense of service to the weak and vulnerable was larger."
The Irish rock star also underlined Pavarotti's sensual side, calling him "a sexy man whose life lit up again when he fell in love with (his young wife) Nicoletta".
"I spoke to him last week...the voice that was louder than any rock band was a whisper. Still he communicated his love. Full of love," he said.
"That's what people don't understand about Luciano Pavorotti. Even when the voice was dimmed in power, his interpretive skills left him a giant among a few tall men."