Nicoletta Mantovani, Pavarotti's second wife, reveals the truth about their marriage | Daily Mail Online comments Nicoletta Mantovani was studying natural sciences at university in her home city of Bologna when she first met operatic titan Luciano Pavarotti. She was 23. He was 58. To earn some money in the holidays, she’d applied for a job at an international equestrian competition. A keen horseman, Pavarotti happened to be in the offices that day in 1993 and fell into conversation with Nicoletta. Over the ensuing weeks, he’d turn up on numerous occasions. ‘And I didn’t understand why at the time,’ she says now. When he finally asked her to accompany him on tour around the world, she declined. He was more than twice her age and besotted with her. But by the time he died it was said he hated her. Now Nicoletta Mantovani, Pavarotti's second wife, reveals the truth... ‘Then he asked if I’d at least come to the airport to wave him off. When I got there, I somehow couldn’t resist going with him.

I said it could only be for two or three weeks. But I never came back because, of course, we’d fallen in love by then.’ So what made him special? ‘His charm, his voice, his charisma but, most of all, his gift for happiness. Everyone remembers his smile. He was such a positive man, so full of joy, so happy to be in this world. And it was contagious.’ The fact that he was well over twice Nicoletta’s age was of no concern, she says. ‘The soul has no age. Anyway, Luciano always said he was much younger than me. And he was right. You cannot be a great artist unless you’re a child inside.’ RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share There was, however, the small matter of Pavarotti already having a wife, Adua, and three daughters, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana, all of them older than Nicoletta. She smiles. ‘He had not lived as a family man for some time,’ she says. ‘You can’t fall in love if you’re already in love, can you?’ Six months after they met, Nicoletta was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

For weeks at a time, she would lose the vision in her right eye or have little or no feeling below her waist. ‘I was 24 and it felt like the end of the world. I told Luciano I would have to leave him.’ He wouldn’t hear of it. ‘He said, “Up until this point, I loved you. Now I adore you.” This sickness, he said, wasn’t bad luck; it was a great thing for me. It would help me to sort out what really mattered in life. I could properly appreciate the sunset now and so on.’ A keen horseman, Pavarotti happened to be in the offices that day in 1993 and fell into conversation with Nicoletta. Over the ensuing weeks, he'D turn up on numerous occasions Then in 2003, Nicoletta gave birth at 31 weeks to twins. Daughter Alice struggled to survive but is now ten and the apple of her mother’s eye, as she was of her father’s. Sadly, her brother Riccardo died in infancy as a result of the complications of his premature birth. ‘Such a mix of emotions,’ she says now. ‘Both a miracle and a tragedy.

But it forged an even stronger bond between me and Luciano.’ The couple married in December 2003, but in September 2007 Pavarotti succumbed to pancreatic cancer. He was 71. Just days later, a highly coloured interview appeared in the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Written by its respected opera critic Alberto Mattioli, it quoted conductor Leone Magiera and his wife, Lidia, who claimed that Nicoletta had made her husband’s life a misery, that Pavarotti had wanted the world to know this after his death and that, if he survived his illness, he was purported to have said, ‘I will shoot myself or we will separate.’ Nicoletta, now 43, turns not one hair when reminded of this. ‘There are always wild stories,’ she says, ‘when a man like that dies. And they said these things when he was no longer alive and couldn’t reply for himself. He didn’t deserve that. But I know the truth. And certainly, I have a good relationship with Luciano’s elder daughters. We’re a united family.’ Yet there was the thorny question of dividing up Pavarotti’s fortune on his death.

Valued at £250 million, it included properties in New York, Monte Carlo and his home city of Modena. Under Italian law, 25 per cent of his estate went to Nicoletta with a further 50 per cent divided equally among his four daughters. But the remaining quarter of his wealth – if you believe the Italian press – became a battleground fought over by those who survived him. How the matter was finally resolved has never been made public and nor does Nicoletta feel obliged to clarify the outcome today. She’s on a fleeting visit to London ahead of accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award for her late husband at this year’s Classic Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall; the highlights will be shown on ITV tomorrow. ‘It’s a great honour which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the start of his career.’ In 1963 Pavarotti made his first appearance on British TV, introduced to an audience of over 15 million by Bruce Forsyth on Sunday Night At The London Palladium. One month later, in September, he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to huge acclaim.

Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti looks at his bride Nicoletta Mantovani and their one-year-old daughter Alice after their wedding at Modena's Teatro Comunale, northern Italy IN 2003 He also signed a contract with Decca who, half a century later, have issued a new CD, Pavarotti: The 50 Greatest Tracks, which has already sailed to the top of the classical charts. The way Nicoletta sees it, this latest success is merely proof that ‘the love is still circling’. After he died Nicoletta began an archive of all his recordings. One day, at the back of a drawer, she found an old cassette recording of him singing Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen from La Bohème made in April 1961. ‘I try not to make plans. Life has taught me that you never know what’s round the next corner. I’m happy but I don’t want to say I’m very happy because I don’t want to tempt fate. Someone up there,’ she says, giggling, ‘may be listening’ He was 26 and considering abandoning his musical career and returning to his job working for an insurance company.

But he sang the Puccini aria and won a competition. The rest, as they say, was history. Now he has gone. ‘But one important thing Luciano taught me was that you shouldn’t live in the past. Life goes on.’ For three years now Nicoletta, who lives with Alice in Bologna, has been in a relationship with Italian theatre director Filippo Vernassa, 39. ‘I know Luciano would approve, and Alice adores him, which would have pleased him too.’ And the future? ‘I try not to make plans. Life has taught me that you never know what’s round the next corner. I’m happy but I don’t want to say I’m very happy because I don’t want to tempt fate. Someone up there,’ she says, giggling, ‘may be listening.’ Classic Brit Awards, tomorrow, 10.20pm, ITV. Pavarotti: The 50 Greatest Tracks is available now on Decca.

Pavarotti's widow Nicoletta Mantovani learns a harsh lesson about New York real estate | Daily Mail Online Share this article Share Two of the three tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, still frequent the address, according to Sotheby's agent Robin Rothman, who says the two men can often be heard singing through the hallways of the building. Despite the operatic pedigree, Ms Mantovani's one bedroom apartment failed to sell for $1.75 million and she had to reduce it to a meager $1.15 million. History: Two of the three tenors, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, still frequent the address, and the two men can often be heard singing through the hallways of the building She is also trying to sell a second one bedroom for the same price. Mr Pavarotti used the two apartments for his staff and guests, while he lived in a two bedroom on the same floor. She will reside in the two bedroom, according to the Journal. But across the city, Ms Mantovani has fared similarly, losing money as she liquidates her real estate assets.

The Wall Street Journal reported that she bought two apartments in 2008 as investments, but failed to turn a profit. Fire Sale? Despite the operatic pedigree, Ms Mantovani's one bedroom apartment failed to sell for $1.75 million and she had to reduce it to a meager $1.15 million She bought a one-bedroom unit at 220 West End Ave for $993,000 but sold it for $925,000, according to real estate records. Her studio at 88 Greenwich St was bought for $606,000 and sold for just $461,500. The unlucky streak appears to have been at the behest of her brokers, who advised her to sell 'to avoid a further decline of the value,' her spokesman said. Perhaps she'll fare better in non-real estate endeavors. Ms Mantovani is trying to launch an American branch of the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation in memory of the singer. The foundation will provide scholarships for opera students and establish a garden in honor of the singer in Central Park.

Read more: Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 19 June 2001 19 June 2001 Kidman And Cruise To Launch Custody Battle? Hollywood's former dream couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise are reportedly about to launch into a fierce battle over the custody of their two children. Kidman, 33, wants to move back to her native Australia, and she is determined to raise their children there. This would be a disaster for Cruise, who would still be living in Los Angeles - 7,500 miles and a 12 hour flight away. Since their split in February, they have been sharing custody of their adopted children Isabella, 8, and Connor, 6. Kidman informed an Australian magazine of her plan, how she was "willing to give up everything to keep the children," adding: "I want to have two kids who grow up and say, 'I'm happy, I'm healthy, and I love you, Mum.'" When they have stayed with their father, the children have usually been looked after by a nanny while Cruise was away on acting work or business.

Kidman is also likely to object to the children's religious upbringing, fearing they will be raised in Cruise's belief, the Church of Scientology, which despite its controversial theology has enticed other Hollywood stars such as John Travolta and Kirstie Alley . Friends say that Kidman wants them brought up as Catholics. Cruise surprised Kidman by filing for divorce two days after the couple announced their separation. Zeta-Jones Goes Yank Variety reports British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones will be joining husband Michael Douglas in a very un-British activity next month. The duo have been lined up by producer Norman Lear to take part in a dramatic reading of The Declaration Of Independence in a July 4th special for ABC. Other stars lined up to participate in the reading include Mel Gibson (who, despite coming to fame in Australia, was born in the U.S.), Morgan Freeman , Kevin Spacey , Whoopi Goldberg and Edward Norton . (This story was compiled by IMDb staff) Pavarotti's Bitter Divorce The world's greatest tenor Luciano Pavarotti has been stunned by his wife's latest demand - a $120 million divorce settlement. Adua, his wife of more than 30 years, wants half her husband's net worth.

But the tenor thinks his original offer of $40 million is more than enough. The couple are now locked in a fierce battle, much to the dismay of Pavarotti's young lover Nicoletta Mantovani. She wants him to just pay up and get it over with because she badly wants to start a family with the big man, but won't have children out of wedlock. Adua, on the other hand, has all the time in the world. She's only 60-something and could reasonably expect to outlive her husband and eventually collect all his fortune. Luciano was supposed to be in Hong Kong for a concert but cancelled, pleading that his best friend and the man who put him on the world stage, Tibor Rudas, has an ear infection and couldn't travel with him. I think that was just a cover-up," says one friend of the maestro. "I'm hearing that the talks with Adua and their lawyers are at the crucial point.

If they can just agree on a figure somewhere between his offer and her demand, he'll be a single guy within a matter of weeks." Cliff And Norm Settle Over Robots Reuters reports George Wendt and John Ratzenberger have finally come to a settlement in their lawsuit over a couple of robots named Hank and Bob. The duo sued back in 1993 after Paramount, owner of the TV series Cheers , had licensed Cheers theme bars for airports that included animatronic robots based on their characters. Claiming that this violated a California law giving them the right to control the use of their likeness for profit, the duo stuck by their guns through 8 years of legal wrangling until bar operator Host International affirmed that a settlement had been reached last week, though details were not provided. A lawyer for the actors said a joint statement will be released soon. (This story was compiled by IMDb staff) Pythons Fail To Amuse Monty Python stars Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam are haunted by memories of the first showing of Monty Python And The Holy Grail - because no-one laughed.

The two funnymen and members of the cult British comedy team enjoyed every minute spent promoting the re-release of the hit 1975 movie this past weekend, but had rather less pleasant experiences the first time round. Recalling the debut showing of the release to investors, Jones shudders, "Oh, they laughed right at the beginning, then they stopped. ... From then on, nothing. Nobody laughed the whole way through." And preview screenings in England went so badly that, before showing the film at a Los Angeles film festival, the team actually considered editing out a scene in which a character asks the audience whether they were enjoying themselves. Jones says the members of the group thought they were "just asking for trouble" with that scene. Nevertheless, he adds, that scene "got the biggest laugh of the evening" - and the movie eventually sent the investors laughing all the way to the bank. Andy Dick To Direct Feature Film One-time bad boy comic Andy Dick will make his big screen directorial debut with a script he's written called Taylor Made. Dick, who proudly reports he's now two years sober from his dangerous drug habit, will also star in the movie.

He says, "I'll play Andrew Taylor, the fashion designer character I did for VH-1's Fashion Awards. The film follows Taylor through a whole year, from one fashion show, which is a dismal failure, to the next fashion show. In between he tries to direct music videos, get a fragrance off the ground and falls on and off the wagon. It's going to be pretty raunchy. I describe it as Waiting For Guffman meets Kids , but not as creepy as Kids." Dick expects to start work on Taylor Made in August, after he wraps seven more episodes of his MTV series The Andy Dick Show . And directing the TV show is what gave him the confidence to tackle a big-screen project. He explains, "I advanced a lot. We shoot so much on the series under such gruelling conditions in so little time, it's amazing." Shocking Time For Jolie's Guests Visitors to Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton 's new home are set for a shock - they have an electric chair in the dining room. The screen siren says she was inspired by her character Lara Croft in blockbuster movie Tomb Raider to buy wacky furniture.

She says, "In the film, Lara has an electric chair in her bedroom, which is my own personal little thing I thought she should have. Billy did a film where he played a barber and was electrocuted. So there's probably going to be a barber's chair at one end of the dining room and an electric chair at the other." Articles Copyright World Entertainment News Network All Rights Reserved. The Internet Movie Database takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the articles above. Studio Briefing is edited by Lew Irwin and articles are the copyright of StudioBriefing . The Celebrity News articles are licensed from WENN (World Entertainment News Network) and published for the entertainment of our users only. The WENN items do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that WENN's reporting is completely factual. Please address any complaints regarding the content of WENN to imdb@wenn.com . IMDb Everywhere Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! The Goliath of opera has fallen | Express Yourself | Comment | Daily Express The Goliath of opera has fallen LUCIANO Pavarotti was a giant performer in every sense.

00:00, Fri, Sep 7, 2007 GOOD TIMES: Pavarotti and family He was almost solely responsible for bringing opera down from the ivory towers of the intellectual elite and on to the wide plains of popularity. When he sang the world listened and marvelled. Now the great voice is silent, the Goliath of opera has fallen. His death at his home in Modena at 71 from pancreatic cancer has robbed us of one of music’s greatest exponents. It was clear that Pavarotti had cracked open the shell of classical elitism when Essex cab drivers played his records while crawling towards Heathrow after a nation had become enthralled by his extraordinary voice that heralded the anthem for the 1990 World Cup held in Italy. The secret behind Pavarotti’s appeal was that he didn’t just sound like an opera singer – he looked like one. He was a big man with a big talent, a big appetite and a big heart. Among the many friendships he made throughout his life, his close bond with Diana, Princess of Wales proved instrumental in bringing two potent popular forces together for charity work in the cause of children.

he sang to 150,000 people who stayed despite torrential rain. When he performed Pavarotti In The Park in 1991, the first classical music concert ever in Hyde Park, he sang to 150,000 people who stayed despite torrential rain. In the front row were Princess Diana and the Prince of Wales. “It was one of the happiest days of my life,” he said later. When Diana died Pavarotti was invited to sing at her funeral. He declined, saying he could not sing well “with grief in my throat”. If Diana was the People’s Prin­cess, he was the People’s Tenor. Like Diana, he had an adroit way with the media. He appeared on TV as often as possible, increasing his reputation and providing a hedge against criticisms from purists or those with whom he had dealt harshly. He was a Falstaffian figure and used his size and his props – especially the voluminous white hand­kerchief – to memorable effect. Among the tributes that have poured in from across the world, those of his operatic colleagues, even rivals, resonate the most.

“I have always admired the God-given glory of his voice,” said Placido Domingo. “That unmistakeable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range. I also loved his wonderful sense of humour and on several occasions of our concerts with Jose Carreras – the so-called Three Tenors concerts – we had trouble remembering that we were giving a concert before a paying audience because we had so much fun between ourselves.” Welsh opera singer Bryn Terfel called Pavarotti “a truly inspirational and awe-inspiring artist with a voice of pure gold. His Premiership voice put us all into the Second Division”. Despite criticism that he compromised his talent by crossing over into the world of pop music and television, Pavarotti was adamant that his “God-given” talent should be available to as many people as possible. U2’s Bono declared he “was a great volcano of a man who sang fire but spilled over with a love of life in all its complexity”. Like all great artists, Pavarotti was a complex, imperfect human being. He had a huge appetite for music, women, publicity, food and life – appetites he was wont to indulge perhaps a little too often.

Yet there was a simplicity about him as well. He once stated that he had the mind of a 15-year- old. “Everybody who is less than 15 is younger than me,” he told an interviewer in 2004. “But from 15 on, I feel they are the same age. I feel I am 15. My view of the world is like a 15-year-old’s.” Former agent and publi­city manager Herbert Breslin, who wrote a warts and all account of his time with Pavarotti, claimed it was the “story of a very beautiful, simple, lovely guy who turned into a very determined, aggressive and somewhat unhappy superstar”. Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Northern Italy, on October 12 1935, the only child of baker Fernando and Adele, a tobacco factory worker. Fernando was a talented amateur tenor and brought his son along to sing in Modena’s Corale Rossi. In 1954, aged 19, Pavarotti travelled with his local chorus to the Inter­national Eisteddfod in Llan­gollen, North Wales, where they won first prize.

Shortly afterwards he began musical studies in earnest when Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in Modena, offered him free lessons. At 12, Pavarotti had come close to death when he was in a coma for 15 days with septicaemia. The first penicillin that came to Italy in 1947 saved his life. As a boy, soccer was his favourite pastime and he was a member of the town team. He also studied to become a primary school teacher and was later an insurance salesman. But then he chose to be a professional tenor. He made his Italian debut in April 1961 as Rodolfo in La Boheme in Reggio Emilia, and his London debut in 1963. His US debut came in 1965 in Miami with a production of Lucia di Lammer­moor, which marked the beginning of a long partnership with Joan Sutherland. But it was in 1972 that the Pavarotti phenomenon erupted like a “volcano”. During a production of La Fille du Regiment at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, he sang nine high Cs effortlessly, inciting an ecstatic ovation.

His stature as an opera singer grew and his app­earance in the debut Live From The Met performance in March 1977 attracted one of the largest audiences ever for a televised event. He received the first of five Grammys in 1978 and shifted gear into popular songs with his 1980 LP O Sole Mio – Favourite Neapolitan Songs, his first American hit record. He became a household name well beyond the world of opera with his World Cup rendition of the aria Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s Turandot, first aired in 1990 at Rome’s Caracalla Baths. In June 2001 the Three Tenors performed in Beijing’s Forbidden City as part of the Chinese capital’s bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Pavarotti performed an impromptu duet of O Sole Mio with Chinese president Jiang Zemin after the concert. His public profile was battered in the late Nineties when he was photo­graphed kissing his secretary Nicoletta Mantovani, 35 years his junior, on a Caribbean beach.

She had been 23 when they met and the exposure of the relationship led to a bitter divorce with Adua Veroni, the mother of his three daughters Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana. Pavarotti married Adua in 1961 after an eight-year engagement and she became his manager as his fortune grew. She demanded a settlement of £75million. He offered £20million. It was alleged that in return she tipped off the tax authorities, saying her husband’s claim that his main residence was a small flat in Monte Carlo, which let him avoid tax in Italy, was a fiction. He was acquitted on charges of tax evasion but had to pay £8.3million in back taxes and his reputation was damaged. His ex-wife was granted £40million and he married Nicoletta in Dec­ember 2003. Star guests at the cere­mony included Donatella Versace, Sting, Bono and Andrea Bocelli sang Ave Maria. Having become a grandfather in 2002, Pavarotti became a father for the fourth time when Nicoletta gave birth prematurely to Alice in January 2003. Her male twin was born dead following complications.

It is generally agreed that Pavarotti suffered from the Sinatra Effect in his later years; that his great voice was beginning to let him down. He was booed off the stage of La Scala, Milan, in 1993 and in 2001 Donald Trump was so disgusted by Pavarotti’s concert before 5,000 people at his Atlantic City casino that he demanded half the £1million fee back. It became increasingly clear that Pavarotti’s weight, which hovered around 25 stone, affected his breath control and ability to hit high notes. But his legacy is extraordinary and not just in the recordings he has left us. His charity work for the world’s children will continue through his foundations. The barriers he broke down between classical and popular music will never be rebuilt. Among his other gifts, he was a natural teacher and continued to inspire young singers and musicians right up to the end. His British friends and colleagues included impresario Harvey Gold­smith, who shared Pavarotti’s passion for bringing opera to the widest possible public. “I’m pretty gutted about it, actually,” Goldsmith says of his death. “My wife and I were in­vited to go and see him next week.

He was an extraordinary person and he was teaching students right up until he got ill.” Apart from masterminding Pavarotti In The Park, Goldsmith was the architect of Pavarotti’s Farewell Tour in which he had hoped to return to every city he had ever played in one last grand gesture. Sadly, it was never to be. GOLDSMITH says of his friend: “He didn’t different­iate between rock and pop. He regarded those great operatic arias as pop songs. As a result he was recognised everywhere in the world. He was loved across the board. He was an amazing communicator and made a conscious effort to meet people after the show.” Yesterday, Vienna’s opera house flew a black flag to mourn his passing. People were openly weeping in the streets of Venice. And when The Guards band at Buck­ingham Palace played a rendition of Nessun Dorma in his memory during the changing of the Guard, the gathered tourists responded with a round of applause. How Luciano Pavarotti would have loved that.

Opera Chic Opera Chic Gonna Write Me A Little Toscanini Cruising down Corso Magenta, one of our favorite streets in downtown Milan, we always make a point to linger infront of the very elegant E. E. Ercolessi windows , a pen collector's wet dream [ed: not the window in the picture posted above, btw]. Even better are the free, well-designed merchandise catalogs they leave out front...in a city where almost nothing is offered gratis. In addition to the windows of E. E. Ercolessi, many of the high-end pen-slingers are advertising the newest addition to Mont Blanc's Donation pens series: Following with the 1996 Leonard Bernstein, the 2000 Yehudi Menuhin, the 2001 Johann Bach, 2003's von Karajan and Solti, comes the 2007 Arturo Toscanini pen .

Available as a fountain pen (stilografica), which will set you back €490 ($710 USD) and ballpoint pen (penna a sfera) for a bargain €290 ($420 USD) -- both being priced reasonably within Mont Blanc's standards. The Toscanini pen boasts an 18k gold nib, a cap engraved with the Maestro's signature, and, "sculpted clip shaped like strings and string holder of a violoncello". If the Toscanini pen doesn't get your nib wet, another musically-inspired pen on the market for Winter 2007 is the Montegrappa limited edition tribute to Antonio Stradivari . The body of pen has been crafted in Stradivari-inspired wood, and comes in a really nifty box [see below]. The series also boasts a 18k white gold nib, engraved with a violin and the Stradivari seal.

Released will be 2,000 fountain pens @ €700 ($1,000 USD); 3,000 rollerball pens @ €530 ($770 USD); and 5,000 ballpoint pens @ €370 ($540 USD). The last pentender for the 2007 Holiday season is Delta's limited editions of both Enrico Caruso and Giacomo Puccini tribute pens. Both pens rely on a (frankly annoying) numerology scene to lay out the series. Since Caruso was born in 1873, 873 fountain pens (with a lever) will be released, along with 1873 cartridge pens. In addition, a precious 48 fountain pens will be available with white gold or rose gold accents. Caruso will fetch €720 ($1,000 USD). The Puccini pens will be distributed in the same fashion, with 1858 the reliant number, offering lever and cartridge pens in multiples of 858 and 1858. Puccini will fetch a top price of €590 ($850 USD).

Ugh. This is beginning to sound like a freaking Eco novel. yaes, i sign my checks with a $1,000 18k gold Caruso pen while i'm over here with my 5-figure salary, buying not 1 but THREE xbox games a week. im one of those 'upper crusts' that you've read about in teh newspaper and seen on the tv, what of it??? Chiara Muti Doesn't Get a Funny Title b/c Frankly I'm Tired The November 3 io Donna (il feminile del Corriere della Sera) has a photo spread with the young, mainly Italian, semi-notables that flocked to the Cinema Rome Film Fest from October 18-27, 2007. The American contingent showed-up as well to make things a bit cooler, with glimpses of Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, and Halle Berry (wearing my very same Calypso hand-loomed cashmere cardigan that has become an OC wardrobe staple on the red carpet!), and our favorite puppeteer, Julie Taymor.

Among the Italian glamour, the 34-years-old daughter of Maestro Riccardo Muti, Chiara , showed-up in a forest green Alberta Ferretti empire-waist dress and black satin pumps [pictured above, left, and below, 4th from left]. Too bad her bangin brothers, Francesco and Domenico , didn’t make a photo op. (Chiara Muti, daughter of Maestro Muti, wearing green silk Alberta Ferretti, fourth from left.) Così fan poopy Last night the blackjack went ringu-ringu and a friend offered-up a ticket to Mozart’s Così fan tutte at La Scala . OC wasn’t terribly interested, as this production was being given as a general, yet public, rehearsal for the rising stars of La Scala’s latest crop, and therefore offered slightly discounted ticket prices. But with all Milan’s hot-spots closed this weekend, and most friends out of town for the end-of-October ponte dei santi vacation days, Saturday night plans were v. limited.

So OC -- in Rock & Republic Berlin black str8-legged jeans, Chloé loafer black platform pumps, giant Miu Miu gray wool sweater belted with a large black leather YSL buckle belt, and a navy Miu Miu wool babydoll jacket -- headed down to La Scala to get really, really sweaty (a wise word to visitors: the theater runs like super hot almost 95% of the time, winter, spring, summer & fall). What ensued last night was one of the worst deliveries of Così fan tutte OC has laid her exotic eyes on. Amazingly, the misguided conducting and direction managed to turn the opera into something straight from standard Rossini repertoire -- not that there's anything wrong with Rossini. But now I understand why some lament this Mozart masterpiece as garbage -- having exited the most boring Così, reduced it to banal recitative banter and insufferably cranked arias, whole-fartedly lame.

And as if the production wasn’t bad enough, there was some loud mystery squeaking of a high-pitched fan belt backstage that echoed throughout the theater from the overture until Soave sia il vento, faded-out, and then returned so obnoxiously during Un'aura amorosa, that it was a wonder how the strings played over it. The direction of this Cosi was so depressingly unfunny, stoic and distanced. And Poor Despina. HAY LIGHTEN U PHAVE A FEW DRINKS. Joo Ye Won as Despina exuded a mechanical stiffness that was frustrating because her voice was a-ok. Natalia Gavrilan's Dorabella and Eleni Ioanidou's Fiordiligi were hardly captivating (aside from their cleavage-baring bustiers), and Guido Loconsolo's Guglielmo and Arthur Espiritu's Ferrando were lost. Nothing & no one gelled. The tempi were unflattering and rushed in parts, with a boringly predictable crescendo during the Act I finale. Ah, guarda, sorella was a bore, Come scoglio was a bore. And Mr.

Conductor Ottavio Dantone somehow managed to make the overture sound like the opening scene from The Goonies. Dont ask me how! I DO not know! Me ne vado! OC and company jetted for drinks after la prima pausa, almost an hour and a half into the belabored evening to drink the memory away. Next time i'll prolly go to the theater wasted. i cant take it ne moar!*~ Fabrizio Ferri's Stellina Corriere Della Sera's Style magazine for November 2007 shared a glimpse into the world of Marta Ferri, the 23-year-old daughter of photographer Fabrizio Ferri, who is legaly bound to retired, famous ballerina Alessandra Ferri , by second marriage. However, Marta is Fabrizio's daughter from his first marriage to Barbara De Angeli-Frua. High points of the interview: Marta was three years old when her parents divorced, but her separated parents exist without any bitterness, fighting, or drama. She lives in NYC in a 1400 euro-a-month "micro apartment", and has a 25-year-old fiancé.

She admits to having been a huge pot-head in the past, but quit, and admitted that she is too timid to ever consider stripping. Random much? Of course, we’re all curious about her relationship with her step-mom, the world famous (retired) ballerina, Alessandra Ferri, former principal with NYC's ABT and prima with La Scala. In one question, Marta address the issue: E [il rapporto] con Alessandra Ferri? “Bellissimo. E' stata dura quando e' nata Matilde, la loro prima figlia. A 13 anni ho realizzato che papa' aveva un'altra famiglia. Poi lui mi ha spiegato che il bene aggiunge invece di dividere. Oggi anche Matilde ed Emma, l'altra figlia di papa', e Alessandra. Vivono a New York. Per me sono sorelle.” “It’s awesome. It was hard when Matilde, their first daughter, was born. When I was 13-years-old, I realized that my dad had another family. Then he explained to me that it’s better to add rather than to divide.

Today there is Matilde and also Emma, my dad's other daughter, and Alessandra. They live in New York. They are sisters to me.” (^^^^^ above: candid shots of Marta with her dad, left, and her mother, right.) Bolle is My Beezy: Part Two Let's just be frank: i don't like Bolle. i LOVE HIM! Once again, Corriere della Sera has wrapped Bolle between their matte pages, this time in the November 2007 Style magazine. And he looks teh hawt. The article is on -- wait for it –- DEEP SEA DIVING. This stuff writes itself. I'm not even gonna go there, because then OC will have to tell you all sorts of naughty things! Bolle is volleyed a dozen questions such as "When was your first time?" [omg heh] and "What is your preferred companion like?" [ahahaha ha]. In all honestly, there's nothing terribly exciting in the Q&A except that his favorite place to deep sea dive is Pantelleria, which we told you about in August as Italy's latest *it destination* (screw u, Cinque Terre & Positano).

Full page --clicky-click 4 bigger ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Bolle is my Beezy: Part One We at the OC blog will fully admit that our Roberto Bolle obsession is full-on fierce, but honestly, there are much shabbier guyz that we could fixate on out there, and are quite proud of our selection. As fickle feeds our wandering eyes, last week's edition of Corriere della Sera's supplement, io Donna, fortuitously steps-in to offer alternatives, showcasing the even younger & finer batch of ballet hard bodies that we would want to imagine between our Trussardi sheets. The new school of sweaty leggings all hail from Italy: Fabrizio Coppo, Gabriele Corrado, and Alessandro Riga, all @ 21; Carlo de Martino and Luca Giaccio @ 18; and Vito Mazzeo @ 20. However, the article goes on to needlessly pull quotes from that gushing June 13, 2007 New York Times article by Roslyn Sulcas , on the event of Bolle's NYC premiere, again with those paraphrases comparing Bolle to a "Greek God" with "feline grace". Meeee-ow.

Ew. Now that I really think about it... @ 32, Bolle is like a tired, washed-up shadow of his former glory...a strip of chewed-up, spat-out beefy-jerky. Time for retirement, old man. *pats head* I’ll go get your walker and denture paste and macaroni & cheese and then it's nap time for you. Ha ha just playin, *~*OC*~* doesn’t have real standards. I’m not even fluent in social. Just email. Cavalli As Lagerfeld...Totally Meta I know, I know, "meta" is one of those "it" words that gets murmured @ meetings and everybody kinda just pretends to get it because they don't want to look stupid in front of everybody else or the boss, so it ends up never really meaning anything at all. But this is totally meta: Above is Roberto Cavalli (and Eve) @ his joint Halloween bash with Giuseppe Cipriani at Cipriani's restaurant in Manhattan from Wednesday night. Cavalli took it upon himself to go in costume as fashion colleague Karl Lagerfeld -- hilarity ensued .

[...]the entrance of the night at Roberto Cavalli's Halloween Ball at Cipriani [...] belonged to the designer himself. Flanked by six models in feathered headdresses, he arrived on the scene dressed as his famous colleague Karl Lagerfeld. "At the last moment, I thought, 'What am I to do?' " said Cavalli. "I wanted to dress like somebody from my world and my planet. And who is the best? Karl Lagerfeld." We <3 that silly little byotch. Here's Cavalli in his normal (well, botoxed, restylaned) face: ...and here was his 4 real Lagerfeld inspiration: And again, below, is the Cavalli-Lagerfeld synthesis (with Petra Nemcova as Cleopatra). It's like if Villazón threw a party and dressed up as Alagna. Saturday Night Fever With Muti Italy's sattelite channel classica (canale 728) is an OC favorite, a beacon of classical-music culture awash in the sea of otherwise crappy programming, and the month of November is no exception. Every Saturday evening this month is dedicated to Maestro Muti's favorite career performances.

Starting tomorrow @ 9pm with his 2000 Scala Il Trovatore with Frittoli & Nucci, and then following at the same time on Nov. 10 with his Scala 1998 Manon Lescaut with Guleghina & Cura; on Nov. 17 with his 1996 Vienna Cosi fan tutte with Frittoli & Kirchschlager; and ending on Nov. 24 with his 2001 Scala Un ballo in maschera with Licitra & Guleghina. We love u Muti...but not enough to cancel all our Saturday night plans for the next month. We're sooo running out and picking-up a DVR instead. buon compleanno a me! whare were u 1 year ago? OC was publishing her very first blog entry, " Mozart + women in pants + bewbs = good times ," and the course of online opera blogging was skewed 4evah!

In the course of one full year, we saw the marginally more talented half of the Angelagna Gheorto couple go bananies ( as we had predicted ) and we saw him get slapped around by all, disappear, and try a hairy comeback. We saw Angela quit Rome and then later Chicago quit her ! We've shared our love for the great forgotten maestri (Toscanin's 50th year of passing), and we have shared our sadness for the passing of the great ones like Menotti, Pavarotti, Rostropovich, and Sills. Elaine Supernova: La Alvarez Takes Washington, DC We're happy to report the unstoppable state of unholy domination that has been rapidly reached by Elaine Alvarez , the young soprano who came, saw, and won La Bohéme at Chicago Lyric Opera after a General Manager not to be messed with had rightly fired Angela Gheorghiu's capricious a$$ : less than a month after her Chicago triumph, La Alvarez will replace this coming Tuesday, at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, ailing Anne Schwanewilms in a recital.

La Alvarez will lay down teh ownage on songs by Stenhammar, Sibelius, Liszt, Strauss and Bo Linde. Thomas Bagwell will rawk the piano keys. Recap for our Eastern Seaboard readers: Vocal Arts Society Recital Series at the Kennedy Center Tuesday October 30th, 2007 at 7:30pm Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center Gustavo In The Candy Store When he came home from school at lunchtime, he would arrange his Fisher-Price toy figures as if they were an orchestra, making a little box for the conductor, and put a record on the phonograph; he would ask her not to break up the orchestra while he was in music class so that he could resume directing the musicians on his return. One time his grandmother took him to see his father perform in a classical concert in Barquisimeto. “He was very small, I thought he was going to fall asleep,” she told me. “And he was completely attentive to details of the instruments.

He said, ‘Grandmother, I like this music.’ ” Nicoletta Mantovani With Fabio Fazio: "My Yoko Ono Letter" After one hour into Rai Tre's Che Tempo Che Fa, Nicoletta Mantovani-Pavarotti spoke . First of all, let's keep it in mind that host Fabio Fazio is a close family friend of Pavarotti, which was mentioned at the start of the interview. Nicoletta Mantovani conservatively appeared on Che Tempo Che Fa in black slacks, a black v-neck sweater, black stilettos, with her hair perfectly quaffed in a soft, soft orangey-blond mane. Totaling a little less than thirty minutes, Fazio & Mantovani spoke about not terribly interesting things, and certainly not about the controversial Pavarotti estate. They spoke about remembrance of Big Luciano, and the things we already knew about his hobbies, leisure, and personality. They spoke about her 4-year-old daughter Alice, about her Multiple Sclerosis. Of interest, Mantovani said that Yoko Ono had sent her a letter of condolence when Pavarotti passed away, which is pretty cool.

Also of note, she stated that she has no disagreement with Pavarotti’s three oldest daughters Lorenza, Cristina, and Giuliana. Lastly, she hopes that this is the end of the Pavarotti estate debates as far as her involvement is concerned.

Question: Nicoletta Mantovani hit the headlines through her relationship with which big figure in the entertainment world?
Answer: Luciano Pavarotti