His Father Was a Baker Who Was Too Nervous to Sing for a Living. Then Luciano Pavarotti Stood Beside Him in the Cathedral

Long before the world knew his name, Luciano Pavarotti was a little boy in Modena, Italy, listening to his father’s records.

His father, Fernando, was a baker. He was also a tenor with a fine voice, but he never tried to sing for a living. According to Luciano, he was simply too nervous.

So Fernando sang where he felt at home: in church and in the local choir. When Luciano was about nine, he started singing right beside him.

In 1955, father and son were both in the Corale Rossini, a men’s choir from Modena that won first prize at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales. Luciano later called it the most important experience of his life.

When Luciano decided to become a singer, Fernando worried. He agreed only on one condition: if it hadn’t worked out by the time Luciano was 30, he had to find a “real job.”

It worked out. Luciano became one of the most famous tenors who ever lived.

But in the late 1970s, the superstar went home and stood next to his father in Modena’s old cathedral. Together they sang César Franck’s hymn “Panis Angelicus,” the “Bread of Angels.”

One witness described it as “a weaving of two tenors,” with one picking up the melody after the other.

Luciano always said his father had a voice “perhaps more beautiful than mine.”

In September 2007, at Luciano’s funeral in that same cathedral, the recording of their duet was played. When it ended, the mourners rose to their feet and applauded for several minutes. It was Pavarotti’s last standing ovation.

Did your father or grandfather have a song he loved to sing? Tell us about it in the comments.