Luciano Pavarotti was born the 10th of December 1935 in Modena Italy, and his debut came on April 29, 1961 as Rodolfo in La boheme, at the opera house in Reggio Emilia. His American debut came in February 1965, in a Miami production of Lucia di Lammermoor. It wasn’t until February 17, 1972, that the Pavarotti phenomenon was born, in a production of La Fille du Regiment at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
One of classical music’s most bankable names, selling more than 100 million recordings world-wide on Thursday, September 6, 2007, Pavarotti passed away at his home in Modena, Italy.