High quality Pavarotti TV obit

Many of yesterday’s radio/TV tributes to Pavarotti hit the wrong note in this parish. It was mainly the queue of TV-friendly celeb “opera” stars who sell albums by the shedload, but who wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a proper opera house, that drove me to the off switch several times in the day.

But BBC1 TV only had to pick off the shelf an Arena programme it made in 2004, Pavarotti – The Last Tenor. The beautiful 90 minute film tracked Pavarotti, with hand-held camera, around the world in 2003/2004, mixing in career-spanning performance footage with archives and home movies, plus innumerable talking heads who knew what they were talking about.

It was an outstanding piece of documentary film-making, which left you feeling you understood the Maestro. A fine, fitting tribute to a great man and his great art. Silly title, though.

BBC Radio 3’s In Tune did a good job, too, centred around its recording of a 2002 interview.

Not often I say this, but fairness demands it: Bravo BBC!



Gerry Smith