Luciano Pavarotti.

Born on October 12, 1935, in Modena, Italy, Luciano Pavarotti was the first child of a baker father, Fernando, and a mother who worked in a local cigar factory. His father, a gifted amateur tenor, instilled a love for music, and young Luciano sang in the Corale Rossi male choir.

He won first prize in an international choir competition in Wales and also played soccer as a goalkeeper for his town’s junior team. At 19, he decided on a professional opera career, studying with Arrio Pola, who discovered his perfect pitch and taught him for free. To support himself, he worked as a school teacher and later an insurance salesman.

Pavarotti made his operatic debut on April 29, 1961, as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia. His international debut came in 1963 at London’s Royal Opera House, stepping in for Giuseppe Di Stefano. That same year he met soprano Joan Sutherland, beginning a legendary partnership; his American debut followed in February 1965 opposite Sutherland at the Miami Opera.

In 1966, he became the first tenor to hit all nine high C’s with full voice in the aria Quel destin from Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, a feat he repeated at the Metropolitan Opera in 1972, earning the nickname King of the High C’s. His 1993 Central Park concert drew 500,000 fans, and he performed as part of the Three Tenors with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. He founded the Pavarotti & Friends charity concerts in Modena, and in 1995 he sang with Bono on Miss Sarajevo.

His last opera performance was in March 2004 as Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Met. On February 10, 2006, he sang his signature aria Nessun Dorma at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin.

Pavarotti married Adua Veroni in 1961, and they had three daughters: Giuliana, Lorenza, and Cristina. The couple divorced in 2000. In December 2003, he married his longtime assistant Nicoletta Mantovani, who gave birth to twins in January 2003; only daughter Alice survived. He was close friends with Princess Diana.

Pavarotti set two Guinness World Records: most curtain calls 165 and best-selling classical album The Three Tenors in Concert. He raised $1.5 million for Bosnia through his Concert for Bosnia and established the Pavarotti Music Center there. He received the Nansen Refugee Award and a 2001 Kennedy Center Honor. Posthumously, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022, accepted by his daughter Cristina. He is most remembered for his unparalleled tenor voice and the iconic high C’s.