Pavarotti remembered city’s beautiful women

IT has been interesting to read the many tributes to the late, great Luciano Pavarotti.

No mention has been made of the fact that he sang in the Corale G Rossini di Modena Choir at the Cork Choral Festival in 1965, some years prior to his performance in Dublin.

The choir was chaired and conducted by Pavarotti’s father, Fernando, and they were received by the then Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, the late Gus and Rita Healy, in the Lord Mayor’s Room in the City Hall.

I quote from Rita Healy’s letter to the Cork Examiner of July 13, 1989, when “Pavarotti senior proudly introduced his son, saying ‘my son who is making quite a name for himself in opera’. Pavarotti junior rejoined the choir for the trip to Cork, no doubt to boost the tenor line.

When the great man was asked years later about Cork, his reply was that he remembered it well because of all the beautiful girls and the hills.

The choir gave the Healys a statuette of Our Lady of Modena with the choir’s name and date of visit on a brass plate.

Alison Walsh

Windy Heights

Tivoli

Cork