Fascinating ‘il divo’ hits

NOBODY has done more to broaden opera’s audience than Luciano Pavarotti. Ron Howard keeps the flame burning with this life-affirming documentary.

Using a combination of archive footage and talking heads, the Hollywood director explores the maestro’s childhood in Italy and charts his rise to global stardom with The Three Tenors in the late 80s.

Opera buffs will enjoy hearing Pavarotti credit Joan Crawford for his breathing technique and hearing him unleash his nine high Cs in La Fille Du Régiment.

For the non-connoisseur, Howard helpfully adds English subtitles to his performances and provides York Notes summaries of opera plots.

For non-Italian speakers, this will be the first time they’ve understood what the big man was singing about. This gives his performance of Cavaradossi’s aria in Tosca in 2004 a hair-prickling intensity. Pavarotti knew he was gravely ill and, like his character, he wasn’t ready to die.

But Howard is just as interested in the man as the music.We learn how that voice was forged by talent and hard graft. But you wonder whether his unflagging optimism and his childlike lust for life were the key factors in his success.

After a brief account of growing up in war-torn Italy, we hear