Pavarotti and Friends. Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Brian May, Bob Geldof and others (Decca).
ALL-STAR charity concerts, usually recorded and video-taped for eventual multi-format release, have become commonplace over the past few years and the performances are seldom inspiring. Having said that, Pavarotti and Friends is a little different for several reasons. One is that the cast of characters and the choice of material is less predictable than usual. Another is that it is surprisingly good.
Pavarotti has already made an impact on the pop charts with Nessun Dorma but he hasn't performed pop tunes with pop singers. The concert on this disc, recorded in Modena in September last year, pre-dates his troubles hitting those high notes, his lip-synching row with the BBC, and last month's operation on his knee. It teams him with Sting, Italian popsters Zucchero and Lucio Dalla, and former Queen guitarist Brian May.
The title is slightly misleading, and not merely because of doubts that Pavarotti's social connections with a motley crew that includes Bob Geldof, Mike Oldfield and Suzanne Vega can have pre-dated rehearsals for long. Large Luciano himself only appears on four of the 14 tracks.
He's good when he's on though. The concert opens strictly on Pavarotti's turf with Cesar Franck's Panis Angelicus which he performs as a duet with Sting. That the latter agreed to attempt this was perhaps more foolhardy than brave, although he goes on to redeem himself with a fine brooding performance of It's Probably Me later in the show.
Zucchero is up next and duets more impressively, first with Pavarotti on an operatic-sounding piece called Miserere apparently co-written with U2 singer Bono and then with Sting on their joint composition Muoio Per Te, before Pavarotti and Lucio Dalla take the stage with their tribute to Caruso.