Queensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. The state is Australia's second largest by area, following Western Australia, and the country's third most populous after New South Wales and Victoria.
The area was first occupied by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who arrived between 40,000 and 65,000 years ago, according to various dating methods. Later, Queensland was made a British Crown Colony that was separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859, a date now celebrated state-wide as Queensland Day.
The area that currently forms the state capital, Brisbane, was originally the Moreton Bay penal colony, intended as a place for recidivist convicts who had offended while serving out their sentences in New South Wales. The state later encouraged free settlement, and today Queensland's economy is dominated by the agricultural, tourist and natural resource sectors.
The state's population is concentrated in South East Queensland, which includes Brisbane, Logan City, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Other major regional centres include Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Mount Isa.
Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State. Executive power rests with the Premier. Queensland is currently governed by Anna Bligh of the Australian Labor Party, and is the state's and the nation's first popularly elected female premier.
In the south, there are three sections that comprise its border: the watershed from Point Danger to the Dumaresq River; the river section involving the Dumaresq, the MacIntyre and the Barwon; and 29°S latitude (including some minor historical encroachments below the 29th parallel) over to the South Australian border.
The state capital is Brisbane, located on the coast 100 kilometres (60 mi) by road north of the New South Wales border. The state is divided into several officially recognised regions. Other smaller geographical regions of note include the Atherton Tablelands, the Granite Belt, and the Channel Country in the far south-west.
Queensland has many places of natural beauty, including: the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast having some of the state's most popular beaches; the Bunya Mountains and the Great Dividing Range with numerous lookouts, waterfalls and picnic areas; Carnarvon Gorge; Whitsunday Islands and Hinchinbrook Island.
The state contains six World Heritage listed preservation areas: Australian Fossil Mammal Sites at Riversleigh in the Gulf Country, Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, Fraser Island, Great Barrier Reef, Lamington National Park and the Wet Tropics of Queensland.
There are five predominate climatic zones in Queensland, based on temperature and humidity:
However, most of the Queensland populace experience two weather seasons: a "winter" period of rather warm temperatures and minimal rainfall and a sultry summer period of hot, sticky temperatures and higher levels of rainfall.
The annual mean statistics for some Queensland centres is shown below:
!Min. Temp | !Max. Temp | !No. Clear days | !Rainfall | |||
Brisbane | align=center> | | | 113.1 | < | ||
Mackay, Queensland | Mackay | align=center> | | | 123.0 | < | |
Cairns | align=center> | | | 89.7 | < | ||
Townsville | align=center> | | | 120.9 |
The highest maximum temperature observed in the state is 49.5 °C (121 °F) at Birdsville on 24 December 1972 (The temperature of 53.1 °C (128 °F) at Cloncurry on 16 January 1889 is not considered reliable; the figure quoted from Birdsville is the next highest, so that record is considered as being official).
The lowest minimum temperature is −10.6 °C (13 °F) at Stanthorpe on 23 June 1961 and at The Hermitage on 12 July 1965.
A smaller proportion of Queensland's population lives in the capital city than any other mainland state. As of June 2004 the capital city represented 45.7% of the population; for the whole country, capital cities represented 63.8% of the total population.
YEAR | ! Urban | ! Rural | ! TOTAL |
1861 | 15,348 | 14,711 | |
1864 | 30,954| | 30,513 | 61,467 |
1868 | 40,306| | 59,595 | 99,901 |
1871 | 51,425| | 68,679 | 120,104 |
1876 | 95,775| | 77,508 | 173,283 |
1881 | 112,323| | 101,202 | 213,525 |
1886 | 116,056| | 206,797 | 322,853 |
1891 | 168,884| | 224,834 | 393,718 |
1901 | 204,871| | 293,258 | 498,129 |
1911 | n.a.| | n.a. | 605,813 |
1921 | 393,666| | 359,014 | 755,972 |
1933 | 498,892| | 444,589 | 947,534 |
1947 | 660,958| | 443,570 | 1,106,415 |
1954 | 962,400| | 352,888 | 1,318,259 |
1961 | 1,158,446| | 358,394 | 1,518,828 |
1966 | 1,282,332| | 398,297 | 1,682,688 |
1971 | 1,448,024| | 375,376 | 1,827,065 |
1976 | 1,633,141| | 401,754 | 2,037,194 |
1981 | 1,816,382| | 476,264 | 2,295,123 |
1986 | 2,041,542| | 542,944 | 2,587,315 |
1991 | 2,359,510| | 616,907 | 2,977,810 |
1996 | 2,721,115| | 647,735 | 3,368,850 |
2001 | 3,050,553| | 602,697 | 3,655,139 |
2006 | 3,456,104| | 588,945 | 4,046,875 |
Queensland's economy has enjoyed a boom in the tourism and mining industries over the past 20 years. A sizeable influx of interstate and overseas migrants, large amounts of federal government investment, increased mining of vast mineral deposits and an expanding aerospace sector have contributed to the state's economic growth. The 2008–09 saw the expansion slow to just 0.8% the state's worst performance in 18 years.
Between 1992 and 2002, the growth in the Gross State Product of Queensland outperformed that of all the other states and territories. In that period Queensland's GSP grew 5.0% each year, while growth in Australia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose on average 3.9% each year. Queensland's contribution to the Australian GDP increased by 10.4% in that period, one of only three states to do so.
In 2003 Brisbane had the lowest cost of living of all Australia's capital cities. In late 2005 Brisbane was the third most expensive capital for housing after Sydney and Canberra and just ahead of Melbourne by $15,000.
Primary industries include: bananas, pineapples, peanuts, a wide variety of other tropical and temperate fruit and vegetables, grain crops, wineries, cattle raising, cotton, sugar cane, wool and a mining industry including bauxite, coal, silver, lead, zinc, gold, and copper. Secondary industries are mostly further processing of the above-mentioned primary produce. For example, bauxite is shipped by sea from Weipa and converted to alumina at Gladstone. There is also copper refining and the refining of sugar cane to sugar at a number of mills along the eastern coastline. Major tertiary industries are the retail trade and tourism.
The main tourist destinations of Queensland include, Brisbane, Far North Queensland including Cairns, Port Douglas and the Daintree Rainforest, Gold Coast, the Great Barrier Reef, Hervey Bay and nearby Fraser Island, North Queensland including Townsville and Magnetic Island, North Stradbroke Island and South Stradbroke Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Whitsundays known for Airlie Beach, Whitehaven Beach, Hamilton Island and Daydream Island.
The Gold Coast of Queensland is also sometimes referred to as "Australia's Theme Park Capital", with five major amusement parks. These are Dreamworld, Movie World, Sea World, Wet 'n' Wild and WhiteWater World.
There are also wildlife parks in Queensland, including: :Gold Coast ::* Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary at Currumbin ::* David Fleay Wildlife Park at Burleigh Heads :Sunshine Coast ::* UnderWater World at Mooloolaba ::* Australia Zoo near Beerwah/Glass House Mountains, home of Steve Irwin until his death in 2006. :Brisbane ::* Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary at Fig Tree Pocket ::* Brisbane Forest Park at The Gap :North of Brisbane ::* Alma Park Zoo at Dakabin ::* Kumbartcho Wildlife Sanctuary (originally Bunya Park Wildlife Sanctuary)
Accommodation in Queensland caters for nearly 22% of the total expenditure, followed by restaurants/meals (15%), airfares (11%), fuel (11%) and shopping/gifts (11%).
Principal rail services are provided by Queensland Rail and Pacific National, predominantly along the coamajor ports including the Port of Brisbane and subsidiary ports at Gladstone and Townsville.
Jet Vehicle services are Provided by Greenhouse Energy, Queensland Transport, Department of Main Roads, Defence Force Reserve of Queensland, Brisbane Jet Taxi and Australian Jetlines, Predominatly along the Airports, including the Brisbane Airport, Gold Coast Airport and Cairns Airport.
Brisbane Airport is the main international and domestic gateway serving the state. Gold Coast Airport, Cairns International Airport and Townsville Airport are the next most prominent airports, all with scheduled international flights. Other regional airports, with scheduled domestic flights, include Great Barrier Reef Airport, Hervey Bay Airport, Mackay Airport, Mount Isa Airport, Proserpine / Whitsunday Coast Airport, Rockhampton Airport, and Sunshine Coast Airport.
South East Queensland is governed by an integrated public transport system, TransLink, which provides bus, rail and ferry services. Regional bus andlong-distance rail services are also provided throughout the State. Local bus services are also available in most regional centres.
Executive authority is vested in the Governor, who represents and is appointed by Elizabeth II on the advice of the Premier. The current governor is Ms. Penelope Wensley, AO. The head of government is the Premier, who is appointed by the Governor but must have the support of the Legislative Assembly. The current Premier is Anna Bligh, of the Australian Labor Party. Other ministers, forming the Executive Council, are appointed by the governor from among the members of the Legislative Assembly on the Premier's recommendation.
The Queensland Parliament or the Legislative Assembly, is unicameral. It is the only Australian state with a unicameral legislature. A bicameral system existed until 1922, when the Legislative Council was abolished by the Labor members' "suicide squad," so called because they were appointed for the purpose of voting to abolish their own offices. The Parliament is housed in the 19th century Parliament House and 20th century Parliamentary Annexe in Brisbane.
The judicial system of Queensland consists of the Supreme Court and the District Court, established by the Queensland Constitution, and various other courts and tribunals established by ordinary Acts of the Queensland Parliament.
In 2001 Queensland adopted a new codified constitution, repealing most of the assorted Acts of Parliament that had previously made up the constitution. The new constitution took effect on 6 June 2002, the anniversary of the formation of the colony of Queensland by the signing of Letters Patent by Queen Victoria in 1859.
Each area has a council which is responsible for providing a range of public services and utilities, and derives its income from both rates and charges on resident ratepayers, and grants and subsidies from the State and Commonwealth governments.
Swimming is also a popular sport in Queensland, with a majority of Australian team members and international medalists hailing from the state. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Queensland swimmers won all six of Australia's gold medals, all swimmers on Australia's three female (finals) relays teams were from Queensland, two of which won gold.
Major professional teams include:
Events include:
Lists:
Category:Former British colonies Category:States and territories of Australia Category:States and territories established in 1859
ace:Queensland af:Queensland ang:Cwēneland ar:كوينزلاند zh-min-nan:Queensland be:Штат Квінслэнд be-x-old:Квінслэнд br:Queensland bg:Куинсланд ca:Queensland cs:Queensland cy:Queensland da:Queensland de:Queensland et:Queensland el:Κουΐνσλαντ es:Queensland eo:Kvinslando eu:Queensland fa:کوئینزلند hif:Queensland fr:Queensland ga:Queensland gv:Queensland gd:Queensland gl:Queensland gag:Queensland gu:ક્વીન્સલેન્ડ ko:퀸즐랜드 주 hi:क्वीन्सलैण्ड hr:Queensland io:Queensland id:Queensland os:Квинсленд is:Queensland it:Queensland he:קווינסלנד jv:Queensland kn:ಕ್ವೀನ್ಸ್ಲ್ಯಾಂಡ್ pam:Queensland ka:კუინზლენდი la:Terra Reginae lv:Kvīnslenda lb:Queensland lt:Kvinslandas lij:Queensland hu:Queensland mk:Квинсленд mr:क्वीन्सलंड ms:Queensland mn:Квийнслэнд nl:Queensland ja:クイーンズランド州 pih:Kwiinsland no:Queensland nn:Queensland oc:Queensland pnb:کوینزلینڈ pl:Queensland pt:Queensland ro:Queensland rm:Queensland ru:Квинсленд sah:Квинсленд stq:Queensland simple:Queensland sk:Queensland sl:Queensland sr:Квинсленд sh:Queensland fi:Queensland sv:Queensland tl:Queensland ta:குயின்ஸ்லாந்து th:รัฐควีนส์แลนด์ tr:Queensland uk:Квінсленд ug:كۋېنسلاند vec:Queensland vi:Queensland war:Queensland wuu:昆士兰州 yo:Queensland zh-yue:昆士蘭 zea:Queensland zh:昆士蘭州This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Pavarotti began his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy. That same year, he made his first international appearance in La traviata in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He sang in opera houses in addition to Italy, in the Netherlands, Vienna, London, Ankara, Budapest and Barcelona. The young tenor earned valuable experience and recognition while touring Australia at the invitation of soprano Joan Sutherland in 1965. He made his United States debut in Miami soon afterwards, also on Sutherland's recommendation. His position as a leading lyric tenor was consolidated in the years between 1966 and 1972, during which time he first appeared at Milan's La Scala and other major European houses. In 1968, he debuted at New York City's Metropolitan Opera as Rudolfo in Puccini's La bohème. At the Met in 1972, in the role of Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment he earned the title "King of the high Cs" when he sang the aria "Ah mes amis ... pour mon âme". He gained worldwide fame for the brilliance and beauty of his tone, especially into the upper register. He was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The late 1970s and 1980s saw Pavarotti continue to make significant appearances in the world's foremost opera houses.
Celebrity beyond the world of opera came to Pavarotti at the 1990 World Cup in Italy with performances of Puccini's "Nessun dorma", from Turandot, and as one of "The Three Tenors" in their famed first concert held on the eve of the tournament's final match. He sang on that occasion with fellow star tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, bringing opera highlights to a wider audience. Appearances in advertisements and with pop icons in concerts furthered his international celebrity.
His final performance in an opera was at the Metropolitan Opera in March 2004. Later that year, the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) inducted him into its Italian American Hall of Fame in recognition of his lifetime of work. During a ceremony held at the Foundation's Anniversary Gala just four days after his 69th birthday, singer Faith Hill presented Pavarotti with a birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to the opera legend.
The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, saw Pavarotti on stage for the last time, where he performed "Nessun dorma", with the crowd serving as the aria's chorus, and he received a thunderous standing ovation.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.
After abandoning the dream of becoming a football goalkeeper, Pavarotti spent seven years in vocal training. Pavarotti's earliest musical influences were his father's recordings, most of them featuring the popular tenors of the day - Beniamino Gigli, Giovanni Martinelli, Tito Schipa and Enrico Caruso. Pavarotti's favourite tenor and idol was Giuseppe Di Stefano. He was also deeply influenced by Mario Lanza, saying, "In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror". At around the age of nine he began singing with his father in a small local church choir.
After what appears to have been a normal childhood with a typical interest in sports — in Pavarotti's case football above all, he graduated from the Scuola Magistrale and faced the dilemma of a career choice. He was interested in pursuing a career as a professional football goalkeeper, but his mother convinced him to train as a teacher. He subsequently taught in an elementary school for two years but finally allowed his interest in music to win out. Recognising the risk involved, his father gave his consent only reluctantly.
Pavarotti began the serious study of music in 1954 at the age of 19 with Arrigo Pola, a respected teacher and professional tenor in Modena who offered to teach him without remuneration. Not until he began these studies was Pavarotti aware that he had perfect pitch.
In 1955, he experienced his first singing success when he was a member of the Corale Rossini, a male voice choir from Modena that also included his father, which won first prize at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales. He later said that this was the most important experience of his life, and that it inspired him to become a professional singer. At about this time Pavarotti first met Adua Veroni. They married in 1961.
When his teacher Arrigo Pola moved to Japan, Pavarotti became a student of Ettore Campogalliani, who at that time was also teaching Pavarotti's childhood friend, Mirella Freni, whose mother worked with Luciano's mother in the cigar factory. Like Pavarotti, Freni was destined to operatic greatness; they were to share the stage many times and make memorable recordings together.
During his years of musical study, Pavarotti held part time jobs in order to sustain himself - first as an elementary school teacher and then as an insurance salesman. The first six years of study resulted in only a few recitals, all in small towns and without pay. When a nodule developed on his vocal cords, causing a "disastrous" concert in Ferrara, he decided to give up singing. Pavarotti attributed his immediate improvement to the psychological release connected with this decision. Whatever the reason, the nodule not only disappeared but, as he related in his autobiography, "Everything I had learned came together with my natural voice to make the sound I had been struggling so hard to achieve".
Very early in his career, on 23 February 1963, he debuted at the Vienna State Opera with the same role. In March and April 1963 Vienna saw Pavarotti again as Rodolfo and as Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto. The same year saw his Royal Opera House debut, where he replaced an indisposed Giuseppe di Stefano as Rodolfo.
While generally successful, Pavarotti's early roles did not immediately propel him into the stardom that he would later enjoy. An early coup involved his connection with Joan Sutherland (and her conductor husband, Richard Bonynge), who in 1963 had sought a young tenor taller than herself to take along on her tour to Australia. With his commanding physical presence, Pavarotti proved ideal. The two sang some forty performances over two months, and Pavarotti later credited Sutherland for the breathing technique that would sustain him over his career.
Pavarotti made his American début with the Greater Miami Opera in February 1965, singing in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor opposite Joan Sutherland on the stage of the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami. The tenor scheduled to perform that night became ill with no understudy. As Sutherland was traveling with him on tour, she recommended the young Pavarotti as he was well acquainted with the role.
Shortly after, on 28 April, Pavarotti made his La Scala debut in the revival of the famous Franco Zeffirelli production of La Bohème, with his childhood friend Mirella Freni singing Mimi and Herbert von Karajan conducting. Karajan had requested the singer's engagement. After an extended Australian tour, he returned to La Scala, where he added Tebaldo from I Capuleti e i Montecchi to his repertoire on 26 March 1966, with Giacomo Aragall as Romeo. His first appearance as Tonio in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 2 June of that year. It was his performances of this role that would earn him the title of "King of the High Cs".
He scored another major triumph in Rome on 20 November 1969 when he sang in I Lombardi opposite Renata Scotto. This was recorded on a private label and widely distributed, as were various recordings of his I Capuleti e i Montecchi, usually with Aragall. Early commercial recordings included a recital of Donizetti (the aria from Don Sebastiano was particularly highly regarded) and Verdi arias, as well as a complete L'Elisir d'Amore with Sutherland.
His major breakthrough in the United States came on 17 February 1972, in a production of La Fille du Régiment at New York's Metropolitan Opera, in which he drove the crowd into a frenzy with his nine effortless high Cs in the signature aria. He achieved a record seventeen curtain calls.
Pavarotti sang his international recital début at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, on 1 February 1973, as part of the college's Fine Arts Program, now known as the Harriman-Jewell Series. Perspiring due to nerves and a lingering cold, the tenor clutched a handkerchief throughout the début. The prop became a signature part of his solo performances.
He began to give frequent television performances, starting with his performances as Rodolfo (La Bohème) in the first Live from the Met telecast in March 1977, which attracted one of the largest audiences ever for a televised opera. He won many Grammy awards and platinum and gold discs for his performances. In addition to the previously listed titles, his La Favorita with Fiorenza Cossotto and his I Puritani (1975) with Sutherland stand out.
In 1976, Pavarotti debuted at the Salzburg Festival, appearing in a solo recital on 31 July, accompanied by pianist Leone Magiera. Pavarotti returned to the festival in 1978 with a recital and as the Italian singer in Der Rosenkavalier, in 1983 with Idomeneo, and both in 1985 and 1988 with solo recitals.
In 1979, he was profiled in a cover story in the weekly magazine Time. That same year saw Pavarotti's return to the Vienna State Opera after an absence of fourteen years. With Herbert von Karajan conducting, Pavarotti sang Manrico in Il Trovatore. In 1978, he appeared in a solo recital on Live from Lincoln Center.
In the mid-1980s, Pavarotti returned to two opera houses that had provided him with important breakthroughs, the Vienna State Opera and La Scala. Vienna saw Pavarotti as Rodolfo in La Bohème with Carlos Kleiber conducting and again Mirella Freni was Mimi; as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore; as Radames in Aïda conducted by Lorin Maazel; as Rodolfo in Luisa Miller; and as Gustavo in Un Ballo in Maschera conducted by Claudio Abbado. In 1996, Pavarotti appeared for the last time at the Staatsoper in Andrea Chenier.
In 1985, Pavarotti sang Radames at La Scala opposite Maria Chiara in a Luca Ronconi production conducted by Maazel, recorded on video. His performance of the aria "Celeste Aïda" received a two-minute ovation on the opening night. He was reunited with Mirella Freni for the San Francisco Opera production of La Bohème in 1988, also recorded on video. In 1992, La Scala saw Pavarotti in a new Zeffirelli production of Don Carlo, conducted by Riccardo Muti. Pavarotti's performance was heavily criticized by some observers and booed by parts of the audience.
Pavarotti became even better known throughout the world in 1990 when his rendition of Giacomo Puccini's aria, "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot was taken as the theme song of BBC's TV coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. The aria achieved pop status and remained his trademark song. This was followed by the hugely successful Three Tenors concert, held on the eve of the World Cup final at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome with fellow tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and conductor Zubin Mehta, which became the biggest selling classical record of all time. A highlight of the concert, in which Pavarotti hammed up a famous portion of di Capua's "O Sole Mio" and was mimicked by Domingo and Carreras to the delight of the audience, became one of the most memorable moments in contemporary operatic history. Throughout the 1990s, Pavarotti appeared in many well-attended outdoor concerts, including his televised concert in London's Hyde Park, which drew a record attendance of 150,000. In June 1993, more than 500,000 listeners gathered for his free performance on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park, while millions more around the world watched on television. The following September, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, he sang for an estimated crowd of 300,000. Following on from the original 1990 concert, the Three Tenors concerts were held during the Football World Cups: in Los Angeles in 1994, in Paris in 1998, and in Yokohama in 2002.
In 1995, Pavarotti's friends, the singer Lara Saint Paul (as Lara Cariaggi) and her husband showman Pier Quinto Cariaggi, who had produced and organised Pavarotti's 1990 FIFA World Cup Celebration Concert at the PalaTrussardi in Milan, produced and wrote the television documentary The Best is Yet to Come, an extensive biography about the life of Pavarotti. Lara Saint Paul was the interviewer for the documentary with Pavarotti, who spoke candidly about his life and career.
Pavarotti's rise to stardom was not without occasional difficulties, however. He earned a reputation as "The King of Cancellations" by frequently backing out of performances, and his unreliable nature led to poor relationships with some opera houses. This was brought into focus in 1989 when Ardis Krainik of the Lyric Opera of Chicago severed the house's 15-year relationship with the tenor. Over an eight-year period, Pavarotti had cancelled 26 out of 41 scheduled appearances at the Lyric, and the decisive move by Krainik to ban him for life was well-noted throughout the opera world, after the performer walked away from a season premiere less than two weeks before rehearsals began, saying pain from a sciatic nerve required two months of treatment.
On 12 December 1998, he became the first (and, to date, only) opera singer to perform on Saturday Night Live, singing alongside Vanessa L. Williams. He also sang with U2, in the band's 1995 song "Miss Sarajevo", and with Mercedes Sosa in a big concert at the Boca Juniors arena La Bombonera in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1999.
In 1998, Pavarotti was presented with the Grammy Legend Award. Given only on special occasions, as of 2007 it has only been awarded 15 times since its first presentation in 1990.
He received an enormous number of awards and honours, including Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He also holds two Guinness World Records: one for receiving the most curtain calls (165) and another for the best-selling classical album (In Concert by The Three Tenors). (The latter record is thus shared by fellow tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.)
In late 2003, he released his final compilation - and his first and only "crossover" album, Ti Adoro. Most of the 13 songs were written and produced by the Michele Centonze who had already helped produce the "Pavarotti and Friends" concerts between 1998 and 2000. The tenor described the album as a wedding gift to Nicoletta Mantovani.
Pavarotti began his farewell tour in 2004, at the age of 69, performing one last time in old and new locations, after more than four decades on the stage. Pavarotti gave his last performance in an opera at the New York Metropolitan Opera on 13 March 2004, for which he received a long standing ovation for his role as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. On 1 December 2004, he announced a 40-city farewell tour. Pavarotti and his manager, Terri Robson, commissioned impresario Harvey Goldsmith to produce the Worldwide Farewell Tour. His last full-scale performance was at the end of a two-month Australasian tour in Taiwan, in December 2005.
In March 2005, Pavarotti underwent neck surgery to repair two vertebrae. In early 2006, he underwent further back surgery and contracted an infection while in the hospital in New York, forcing cancellation of concerts in the U.S., Canada and the UK.
On 10 February 2006, Pavarotti sang "Nessun Dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy at his final performance. In the last act of the opening ceremony, his performance received the longest and loudest ovation of the night from the international crowd. Leone Magiera, who directed the performance, revealed in his 2008 memoirs, Pavarotti Visto da Vicino, that the performance was prerecorded weeks earlier. "The orchestra pretended to play for the audience, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. The effect was wonderful," he wrote. Pavarotti's manager, Terri Robson, said that the tenor had turned the Winter Olympic Committee's invitation down several times because it would have been impossible to sing late at night in the sub-zero conditions of Turin in February. The committee eventually persuaded him to take part by pre-recording the song.
He performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as the Spitak earthquake that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia in December 1988, and sang Gounod's Ave Maria with legendary French pop music star and ethnic Armenian Charles Aznavour.
He was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales. They raised money for the elimination of land mines worldwide. He was invited to sing at her funeral service, but declined to sing, as he felt he could not sing well "with his grief in his throat". Nonetheless, he attended the service.
In 1998, he was appointed the United Nations Messenger of Peace, using his fame to raise awareness of UN issues, including the Millennium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS, child rights, urban slums and poverty.
In 1999, Pavarotti performed a charity benefit concert in Beirut, to mark Lebanon's reemergence on the world stage after a brutal 15 year civil war. The largest concert held in Beirut since the end of the war, it was attended by 20,000 people who travelled from countries as distant as Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria.
In 2001, Pavarotti received the Nansen Medal from the UN High Commission for Refugees for his efforts raising money on behalf of refugees worldwide. Through benefit concerts and volunteer work, he has raised more than any other individual.
Other honours he received include the "Freedom of London Award" and The Red Cross "Award for Services to Humanity", for his work in raising money for that organization, and the 1998 "MusiCares Person of the Year", given to humanitarian heroes by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.
According to several reports, just before he died, the singer had received both the sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick from the Roman Catholic Church.
Pavarotti's funeral was held in Modena Cathedral. Romano Prodi and Kofi Annan attended. The Frecce Tricolori, the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force, flew overhead, leaving green-white-red smoke trails. After a funeral procession through the centre of Modena, Pavarotti's coffin was taken the final ten kilometres to Montale Rangone, a village part of Castelnuovo Rangone, and was Buried near his parents' grave. The funeral, in its entirety, was also telecast live on CNN. The Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival Hall flew black flags in mourning. Tributes were published by many opera houses, such as London's Royal Opera House. The Italian football giant Juventus F.C., of which Pavarotti was a lifelong fan, was represented at the funeral and posted a farewell message on its website which said: "Ciao Luciano, black-and-white heart" referring to the team's famous stripes when they play on their home ground.
Pavarotti's widow's lawyers Giorgio Bernini, Anna Maria Bernini, and manager Terri Robson announced on 30 June 2008 that his family amicably settled his estate – 300 million euros ($ 474.2 million, including $15 million in U.S. assets). Pavarotti drafted two wills before his death: one divided his assets by Italian law, giving half to his second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and half to his four daughters; the second gave his U.S. holdings to Mantovani. The judge confirmed the compromise by the end of July 2008. However, a Pesaro public prosecutor, Massimo di Patria, investigated allegations that Pavarotti was not of sound mind when he signed the will. Pavarotti's estate has been settled "fairly", a lawyer for Pavarotti's widow, Nicoletta Mantovani, said in statements after reports of a dispute between Ms. Mantovani and his three daughters from his first marriage.
Category:1935 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Cancer deaths in Italy Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Grammy Award winners Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Honorees Category:Italian opera singers Category:Italian Roman Catholics Category:Italian tenors Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Operatic tenors Category:People from Modena Category:Performing arts pages with videographic documentation
af:Luciano Pavarotti ar:لوتشانو بافاروتي az:Luçano Pavarotti be:Лучана Павароці be-x-old:Лючана Павароцьці bs:Luciano Pavarotti br:Luciano Pavarotti bg:Лучано Павароти ca:Luciano Pavarotti cs:Luciano Pavarotti cy:Luciano Pavarotti da:Luciano Pavarotti de:Luciano Pavarotti et:Luciano Pavarotti el:Λουτσιάνο Παβαρόττι es:Luciano Pavarotti eo:Luciano Pavarotti eu:Luciano Pavarotti fa:لوچیانو پاواروتی fo:Luciano Pavarotti fr:Luciano Pavarotti ga:Luciano Pavarotti gl:Luciano Pavarotti ko:루치아노 파바로티 hy:Լուչիանո Պավարոտի hr:Luciano Pavarotti io:Luciano Pavarotti id:Luciano Pavarotti is:Luciano Pavarotti it:Luciano Pavarotti he:לוצ'אנו פבארוטי ka:ლუჩანო პავაროტი ku:Luciano Pavarotti la:Lucianus Pavarotti lv:Lučāno Pavaroti lb:Luciano Pavarotti lt:Luciano Pavarotti li:Luciano Pavarotti hu:Luciano Pavarotti mk:Лучијано Павароти ms:Luciano Pavarotti mn:Лучиано Паваротти nah:Luciano Pavarotti na:Luciano Pavarotti nl:Luciano Pavarotti ja:ルチアーノ・パヴァロッティ no:Luciano Pavarotti nn:Luciano Pavarotti oc:Luciano Pavarotti uz:Luciano Pavarotti pms:Luciano Pavarotti pl:Luciano Pavarotti pt:Luciano Pavarotti ksh:Luciano Pavarotti ro:Luciano Pavarotti qu:Luciano Pavarotti ru:Паваротти, Лучано se:Luciano Pavarotti sq:Luciano Pavarotti scn:Lucianu Pavarotti simple:Luciano Pavarotti sk:Luciano Pavarotti sl:Luciano Pavarotti sr:Лучано Павароти sh:Luciano Pavarotti fi:Luciano Pavarotti sv:Luciano Pavarotti ta:லூசியானோ பாவ்ராட்டி th:ลูชาโน ปาวารอตตี tr:Luciano Pavarotti uk:Лучано Паваротті ur:لوچانو پاواروتی vi:Luciano Pavarotti zh-yue:巴伐洛堤 zh:卢奇亚诺·帕瓦罗蒂This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.