Pretty much everything that Donald Trump does these days is making headline. But here at Classicalite we are not so much concerned with what he says, but what he listens too. Turns out that Trump is a pretty big fan of Pavarotti performing Puccini's "Nessun Dorma", Adele's "Skyfall" theme, Elton John's hit "Rocket Man" and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s "Phantom of the Opera." These are four songs that are commonly played at Trump’s campaign rallies.
We've written about it before, but now there's an incentive--meaning the upcoming performance from renowned bass René Pape on September 28 at The Metropolitan Opera will be giving away a free glass of champagne with the price of a ticket.
Joining various other prominent competition winners, Benedetti, who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year title in 2004 and has often been the U.K.'s highest-selling classical musician, has told BBC Radio Four that she was pushed too hard, too fast in the aftermath. Having won at 16, she told Desert Island Discs: "By the age of 17 or 18, I was going through a very tough time."
They might have been on strike at Carnegie Hall, but across the pond in Blightly, the Classic Brit Awards still steamrolled ahead. A massive production--filmed for mainstream, primetime TV (the ITV1 channel)--it was a cast of dozens and a healthy clutch of big stars.
While quite how excited an artist can get about an award after their demise is debatable (at best), perhaps depending on one's religious views, the U.K.'s Classic Brits have announced that they will bestow a posthumous award on Luciano Pavarotti.
Essential recordings from the much-missed great Italian tenor, as Decca marks 50 years of his international career.
"Nessun Dorma" indeed--"none shall sleep"--in many opera-loving households this month, as Luciano Pavarotti's record company, Decca, marks 50 years since the late, great Italian tenor's international debut with a remarkable online contest.