Salute Petra: A Tribute to Luciano Pavarotti

It seems that opera is very much like physical exercise. Most people know very little about it, tend to avoid it as best they can, mock those who do take pleasure in its multifarious delights, yet nevertheless claim at any available social opportunity, so as not to appear slobbish and unsophisticated, that they truly relish the occasional gym session/trip to the Royal Opera House. Most people swear they’d ‘love to do it more often’, but sadly, ‘work has been so busy recently’.

Like all good exercise however, opera engenders a sense of wellbeing and makes us healthier human beings. Unfortunately like all good gyms, opera houses can leave us, though much richer in the soul, substantially poorer in the pocket.

The deal struck by The Royal Opera House, City Screen, Opus Arte and Arts Alliance Media to screen ‘world renowned opera’ at Vue cinemas nationwide therefore ought to be seen as an honourable attempt to inspire our inner slob to get off the sofa of puerile pop culture and onto the estimable treadmill of ballet and opera.

To this end, Monday’s matinee screening of Salute Petra: A Tribute to Luciano Pavarotti at Vue Islington was the perfect warm up session; a light jog around the operatic block to loosen the stiff joints of one’s higher, artistic spirit.

Filmed in October 2008 on the first anniversary of the tenor’s death, and held at the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra in Jordan, the concert features a host of Pavarotti’s family, friends and colleagues. Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo are obvious choices to open the show whilst Andrea Bocelli, Angela Gheorghiu and American soprano Cynthia Lawrence are possibly the highlight. Inevitably however the show moves too quickly into more digestible pop music as wave after wave of awful Italian popstars attempt to hit a ‘high C’ that is frankly so far beyond them it might as well be a high W.

The ever-ubiquitous Sting pops up and performs quite admirably; the thankfully un-ubiquitous Zucchero (remember him?) pops up and performs an act of what can only be described as artistic genocide. In truth, it is only on such occasions that the technical gulf between pop singers and opera singers is revealed so tellingly.

The show finishes on more familiar territory with a moving recording of Pavarotti’s signature Nessun Dorma from Turandot. Predictably, this most famous aria left not a dry eye in the house – I was, by this point, the only person in the cinema, and Puccini always gets me – and offered a stirring reminder, if one were needed, of the hole left in the operatic world by the great man’s passing.

The show itself is adequate. The screening of it for just £10 is however a triumph. It is questionable how many Londoners, opera fans or not, have the opportunity to visit the cinema at 2pm on a Monday afternoon (currently the only weekly screening), but for those that do it is surely a worthwhile investment into one’s spiritual and cultural health.

Forthcoming screenings include the ballet Manon (February 9), Verdi’s Aida (February 23) and Rossini’s La Cenerentola (March 9). Pretty heavyweight stuff for the uninitiated. Londoners better get warmed up.

Opera and ballet screenings are available at the following Vue cinemas:

Islington
Finchley Road
Fulham Broadway
Harrow

Available also at other selected cinemas – check website for details: www.myvue.com