Who will succeed Pavarotti?
The curtain is about to rise on opera's next act.
The death of acclaimed tenor Luciano Pavarotti is a huge loss to opera fans -- and in the classical music industry, it's also sparking a frenzy over how best to replace him. Tenors who have labored in Pavarotti's shadow are jockeying to take his place atop the opera pyramid.
Pavarotti died Thursday at age 71 in his hometown of Modena, Italy. Now the music industry is striving to strike a balance between showing respect to a cherished star and moving strategically to fill a major void. Pavarotti was one of classical music's most bankable names, selling more than 100 million recordings world-wide. Decca, his record label for 43 years, estimates he has generated more than $1 billion for the company.
In 1990, Pavarotti and tenors Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo formed the "Three Tenors" group and their debut recording, "Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti: The Three Tenors in Concert," remains the best-selling classical record in history.
The drama now is the race to succeed Pavarotti as the opera world's most in-demand tenor. Contenders -- several of whom have been positioning themselves to appeal both to hard-core opera fans and mainstream listeners -- include Italy's Salvatore Licitra, 38, Mexico's Rolando Villazon, 35, and Italy's "popera" star Andrea Bocelli, 48. France's Roberto Alagna, 44, was considered a front-runner until he stormed off the stage at La Scala in December after being booed.
Bruce Zemsky, of Zemsky/Green Artists Management, represents four of the singers whose names have been floated as possible successors to Pavarotti's legacy -- Villazon, Mexico's Ramon Vargas, 46, Argentina's Marcelo Alvarez, 45, and Germany's Jonas Kaufmann, 37. Zemsky says he has booked all four tenors for at least three performances a week through 2014.
The title of top tenor is, of course, an unofficial one, but will likely be judged by members of the industry on the basis of leading roles in new productions mounted on the stage of major opera houses. The Metropolitan Opera in New York has Kaufmann, Licitra, and Alagna booked for appearances this season.
Decca currently has contracts with a number of tenors including Kaufmann and Bocelli. But according to Decca spokesman Liam Toner, Decca is placing its biggest bet on Kaufmann. He performed last year at London's Royal Opera and was "a sensation," Toner says.
Costa Pilavachi, president of EMI Classics, is backing England's Ian Bostridge, 42, whose new album comes out this fall in the U.S. "He is the top tenor of his type in the world," said Pilavachi. "There is nobody better in the English language."
Pilavachi says he has been looking for new talent in places like Bulgaria and Russia. "We are very attentive to rumors of new singers these days," he says. "And they can come from anywhere now, not just from Spain or Italy or the U.S."
Zemsky, who represents 36 tenors with his partner, says he has acquired a dozen new singers in the past two years alone, and he receives between five and seven resumes and calls a week from hopeful tenors.
Recently, he got up at 6 a.m. to audition one such hopeful at the Rome airport, where the singer worked as a security guard. "That's how badly we are looking for new people," he says.