By Peter Pophamin Modena
Modena bade a loud and long farewell to its most famous sonyesterday. The bells rang out, "Nessun Dorma" echoed across thepiazzas, the local choir gave it their all and Luciano Pavarottitook his leave of Italy and the world under a carpet of sunflowersand carnations.
The world's greatest contemporary tenor was a Catholic, ofcourse, but he was also a divorcee. Late in the day controversyerupted around the Archbishop of Modena's decision to allow him tolie in state in the heart of the city's cathedral. "This is theconsummation of the profanation of the temple," said Fr GiorgioBellei, a priest in the city, in Corriere della Sera yesterday.
It proved the sort of storm in a teacup without which no Italianceremony would be complete, and his fellow-citizens turned out instrength to say goodbye. The piazzas on either side of the cathedralwere packed and a queue of thousands snaked towards it to pay theirrespects. By the time the line closed 100,000 had filed past thesinger's open coffin.
But Pavarotti had banned gloom from his funeral. Italian popsinger Zucchero said after his death, "I hope that God welcomes himto heaven with a bottle of Lambrusco".
Fittingly, the mass itself was a richly musical occasion, withsoprano Raina Kabaivanska and Pavarotti's close friend, the blindtenor Andrea Bocelli. But its highlight was the finale: in arecording from the 1990s, Pavarotti father and son together in arendering of "Panis Angelicus".
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