In the same year that John F. Kennedy took office as the 35th President of the United States, another force of nature appeared on the social scene. Luciano Pavarotti, who was 26 in 1961, made his debut in the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia. That same year, the tenor married Adua Veroni (89), whom he had met seven years earlier at a mutual friend's birthday party.
Although it seems like yesterday, it has been eighteen years since Pavarotti passed away from pancreatic cancer. Now a legend, he was recently honored with a grand concert in Verona because he would have turned 90 on October 12.
The artist was excessive in everything. In his voice, his gluttony (he would demand a kitchen and fridge in his hotel suites), his whims and quirks (traveling with 50 suitcases, requesting black sheets to sleep on, and a wooden board on the mattress to avoid bed deformation), and with women, not only those in his family but also those he would pass off as assistants when they were his lovers.
From his first marriage, he had three daughters, Lorenza (63), Cristina (61), and Giuliana (58), who distanced themselves from him after an exclusive cover story in the Italian magazine Chi showed Pavarotti kissing a young woman in the waters of Barbados. It was February 1996 and that unknown woman was quickly identified as Nicoletta Mantovani (55). He was 61, and she was 26. The scandal was significant in ultra-Catholic Italy.
Until the incident that changed their lives forever, Ada had been his center. From the early days of his brilliant career as the best interpreter of the aria Nessun dorma from Puccini's opera Turandot, Ada was not only his devoted wife but also his manager and secretary. In an article in The Telegraph that highlights Pavarotti on the occasion of his birth, it is reflected that as the tenor performed in the best opera houses worldwide, his wife played a diminishing role. This led to the emergence of certain women that contributed to his reputation as a womanizer.
As recounted to the British media by Anne Midgette, former critic for the Washington Post and The New York Times, the origins of it all can be traced back to 1979 when Pavarotti gave a master class at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, where one of the attendees was Madelyn Renée (69). The following year, the soprano made her debut with the Italian in the role of Mimi in La Bohème at the San Diego Opera in 1980. It was said that she became his assistant and protege. "That's where the whole thing about Pavarotti and his 'secretary' started," says Midgette.
As Renée recalls in the documentary Pavarotti (2020) by Ron Howard, in 1986 "Luciano was still married, and I knew I had to end my relationship with Luciano. So I broke up with him." In the biography The King and I: The Uncensored Tale of Luciano Pavarotti's by Herbert Breslin, former press agent and manager of the Modena divo, with the collaboration of Anne Midgette, it is stated that after Renée, another 'secretary' arrived, the Hungarian singer Judy Kovacs.
But that's not all. After being dismissed in 2002, Breslin adds in the book that initially presented Nicoletta as "the favorite of the harem." Regarding Luciano's reputation as a womanizer, his widow is clear in The Telegraph: "The rumors about my husband's mistresses are not true. It was not part of Luciano's life."
Mantovani and Pavarotti coincidentally met in 1993. Their furtive love blossomed during the celebration of the IV edition of the Pavarotti International Horse Show, where Mantovani had come seeking a summer job to continue funding her Natural Sciences studies. Their eyes met, and from that moment on, they remained connected until the tenor's passing.
The beginning of their relationship was complicated as Mantovani was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In the documentary Pavarotti, she recalls what he told her: "I doubt I can continue with you. And he was wonderful because he said something that still makes me cry: 'You know what? Until now, I have loved you, but from now on, I will adore you. We will be together and fight the disease.'"
In January 2003, the couple had a bittersweet moment as Nicoletta gave birth to twins, Alice, who weighed 1.7 kilograms, and Ricardo, who sadly passed away during childbirth. Three months later, they married in secret. After Pavarotti's death in 2007, the women in his life fought over an inheritance estimated at 300 million euros. In 2020, the tenor's widow remarried financial consultant Alberto Tinarelli in Bologna.