- Luciano Pavarotti: I was very lucky to have my father singing in the church. Even for a little boy, by imitation, you always *do* what your father is doing. So, he was my teacher.
- Andrea Griminelli: We went up to the Amazon in the jungle. Thankfully, I had my video camera. There was this theatre in the middle of nowhere. And I realized this was a pilgrimage. And Luciano said, "I want to sing on the stage where Caruso sang 100 years ago." You know, we had nothing organized. We arrive in front of the theatre and it was completely locked up. Nobody was there. We found somebody to open it. And somebody came up and said, "Who is it?" And he said, "I am Luciano Pavarotti!"
- Luciano Pavarotti: [on stage singing "A Vucchella"] From the Amazon with love.
- Luciano Pavarotti: I was a teacher for an elementary school. My father says, "Listen, now you study, you go to the city, and you become Professor." Because, my father did not succeed as a tenor. He knows how difficult it is, even with the beautiful voice. And, I say, "Okay, if you say so. I will do that." My mother says, "No, I think when I hear my son sing, I have something in my heart." I say, "Mama, you say that because you are my mother. Come on." "No, no, no. No, because I don't say that when I hear your father." She made me do exactly what I want and I think for what I was born to do.
- Madelyn Renée Monti: Luciano always said, "There are no great teachers or no great students, its the meeting of the two, together."
- Luciano Pavarotti: I'd like to be remembered as a man who took opera to the people. I'd like for people to say that I sang Favorita to Otello, that I have an incredibly wide repertoire. I'd like for people to say that I never pursued doing new opera just for the sake of doing it. These are all positive things for a singer.
- Luciano Pavarotti: I was born during the war, so, I am carrying that. Always. But, I was a very lucky boy; because, I was raised in the most beautiful place. My father was a baker and a tenor.
- Luciano Pavarotti: The opera is love, hate, death. It is very important. With a little makeup you can become another person. The opera is something fake, that, little by little, on stage, it become true.
- Angela Gheorghiu: It's very important to make people to understand that a soprano and a baritone, they are the most natural voices. Men, they are naturally baritones. But, to become a tenor, that's another thing. Its more unnatural.
- Plácido Domingo: It's how you coordinate everything with feelings, with expression, you know, with temperament, with joy. The public, they don't know what are you doing. But, they feel it.
- Joseph Volpe: He was a nervous wreck before every performance. He would always say, "I go to die."
- Luciano Pavarotti: [archival footage] We go to die.
- Joseph Volpe: And he would always go on living after the performance.
- Madelyn Renée Monti: It's about breathing. Controlling your diaphragm. Taking your air in and you're the one that decides where your air goes, how it goes out, how long your phrase is. As Luciano used to say: you measure your breath.
- Angela Gheorghiu: If you want to become Luciano Pavarotti, you must have the high C. That's the most important thing. You can have a beautiful, nice life as a tenor; but, if you don't have a high C, no big tenor.
- Angela Gheorghiu: When studying our profession, Italian opera is the base for opera... First we have the words, the composer has the words and then he put the notes, the composers, they are based on the meaning of the words. It's the most important, to understand how to share that emotion from that particular word with the public.
- Madelyn Renée Monti: I was accompanying him on all his tours all over the place. I remember he had 28 suitcases. You know, Luciano never packed a suitcase in his life. He was very demanding. God forbid his handkerchiefs weren't where they were supposed to be. You know, I mean it was difficult at times. I had to take care of his schedule, who he was supposed to meet, when his rehearsals were, and I was singing with him. The relationship was so all encompassing; because, I was the friend, the student, the secretary. He was my mentor, my teacher, my - my love. I never thought that I would end up in a relationship with Luciano. But, it was hard to see where to draw a line.
- Joseph Volpe: Not being home, not being with his family, he lead a lonely life. And that's why I think he had the big entourage all the time and after performances all the people going to dinner.
- Luciano Pavarotti: How can you sing in front of an audience and say something if you don't believe in it. There is no bluff in this profession. It is not a poker game. It is a chess game. And if you lose, you don't have any excuse.
- Plácido Domingo: We end the program and we don't have more music. And we don't know what to do. And I say to Luciano, why we don't do the "Nessun Dorma" the three together? And we did this version, which is something that was - very special
- José Carreras: [singing] And my kiss shall break the silence, Which makes you mine
- Plácido Domingo: Depart, oh. night! Fade away, you stars! Fade away, you stars!
- José Carreras: At dawn I will win!
- Luciano Pavarotti: I will win!
- Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras: I will win!
- Adua Veroni: He got used to having everything. If he had asked for chicken's milk, they would have probably milked a chicken!
- Plácido Domingo: In those days, the three of us used to live in the same building - in Central Park South. And we have a common friend, he came to Luciano and me and said what would you feel of doing a concert with Jose?
- Luciano Pavarotti: [archival footage from stage at the Hyde Park Concert, July 30, 1991] The next aria is from the same opera I have sung now, "Manon". The title of the aria is "Donna non vidi mai". It mean, I have never seen a woman like that. And with your permission, I would like to dedicate to Lady Diana.
- [singing]
- Luciano Pavarotti: I have never seen a woman, Such as this one! To tell her, "I love you", My soul awakens to a new life...
- José Carreras: It was fantastic in the artistic side; but, in the personal side, believe me, it was even better.
- José Carreras: Luciano called me in my hospital in Seattle. "Cico" - he called me always Cico - "Cico, how are you doing? Get well soon. I don't have competition otherwise." After that, I had the idea, maybe we could do a concert that puts me back on stage.
- Láng Lang: I was a little kid and here comes this wonderful Italian guy, a pretty big guy, but, with the most beautiful smile. I would say Pavarotti, while he smiles with this white handkerchief, the whole world opens for him.
- Luciano Pavarotti: Everything was really very difficult. But, I still have to go on the stage to act for the night, for the public. I am putting the white make-up of the clown on the face. I watch myself on the mirror and I say, "It is the life. You have to go out, you have to laugh, even if you have dead in your heart. You have to try to enjoy the people like every night.
- [singing]
- Luciano Pavarotti: Change into laughs, the spasms of pain, Into a grimace the tears of pain, Laugh clown, for your love is broken, Laugh about the pain, That poisons your heart.
- Dickon Stainer: It's kind of hard to overstate what an impact that had. It was like a tidal wave. The There Tenors transformed three guys into the biggest band in the world. All of the sudden, Classical departments were the hottest departments in the record business.
- Bono: [singing] Is there a time for keeping your distance, A time to turn your eyes away, Is there a time for keeping your head down, For getting on with your day, Here she comes, Heads turn around, Here she comes, To take her crown...
- Bono: My father put a love of opera in me, for sure. So, I just imagined it was my father Bob singing in the shower. And Edge came in, his father being a tenor also. And he said, "Ya, but he'll want the higher note to hit." After we wrote the song and recorded the song, we thought it would be the end of all this. You know, just to give him the song. Oh, no. Just the start.
- Bono: [archival footage - interview] It's true that the maestro here has been haunting me and he has like a spirit been in this building long before he arrived here in person. And we made a piece called "Miss Sarajevo". We hope to - we will perform this song in Modena. On what is the date?
- Luciano Pavarotti: [patting the back of Bono's head] The twelfth of September.
- Bono: You have Luciano Pavarotti, the greatest singer on earth, maybe who ever existed, calling you at home trying to get us to write a song.
- Nicoletta Mantovani: He called Bono for ages. He became friend of the housekeeper of Bono, because, she was Italian.
- Bono: Our housekeeper, Theresa, he just got to know her. He'd ring and say, "Is God at home?" The technique was one of humility, which is, of course, a very mischievous trick. He had turned our housekeeper into his Consigliere. Because at breakfast, dinner and tea, she was like, "Have you got that song done for him?"
- Nicoletta Mantovani: Bono said, "I don't have a song. I have no idea." And Luciano said, "God will inspire you."
- Bono: I remember this Easter coming up and he said, "Ah, God will sing him something." And, I woke up with the melody. And it really did happen - like that.
- Bono: He was crushed by injustice and the war deeply offended him. He just had the sense in him that he better use this other currency and try to do something with it.
- Luciano Pavarotti: I hope that you are always in love with me and if you don't love me today, there is always tomorrow.
- Adua Veroni: He was a friendly, human, generous person, especially being a great singer, as everybody knows. I think that he was a level above.
- Bono: I remember somebody saying to me, "Oh no, I saw him in the great days. It was a whole different thing." And I think, "You don't know anything do you. You don't know anything about singing." The reason why he is great, is because he has *lived* those songs and you can hear them in every crack of his voice. He used to break your heart again and again and again singing those songs. It really pisses me off when people miss that. Because, these are well known songs. What can you bring to them? The *only* thing you can bring to them, is your entire life. A life that's been lived. The mistakes you've made. The hopes. The desires. That's all that stuff comes crashing into the performance.
- Giuliana Pavarotti: My father had a lot of fun singing "L'elisir d"Amore", partly, because it was one of the few operas where he didn't die. So therefore, this made his soul a little lighter. And partly because it was also a very joyful and naive character. And he perceived himself to be naive in some way too.
- Nicoletta Mantovani: He wanted to go to Bosnia to help the children - to give them hope for the future. Because, Luciano was one of those children.
- Plácido Domingo: I was conducting "Tosca" and I will never forget Luciano singing as a noble character... At the end of the opera, Cavaradossi, he knows that he's going to die.
- Luciano Pavarotti: [singing] Gone forever is my dream of love, Time has fled, and I die in despair! I die in despair, But never have I loved life so much, Loved life so much.
- Bono: The grandiosity of the voice completely disguised the fact that he could be extremely humble. And that was a shock to me. And we ended up becoming great friends.
- Giuliana Pavarotti: My father didn't like listening to himself singing, he was quite scared to hear his recorded voice. When he was sick and he could no longer sing, Christina and I listened with him to a recording of a concert with John Wustman... He listened and said, "But, I was good." "Yes, Papa, You sound amazed? Yes, you were good Papa." "But, I sang well." He was truly amazed.