Pavarotti: My World

Miami Beach officials reroute air traffic to keep noise from interfering with a Pavarotti outdoor concert; in London, the Prince and Princess of Wales, John Major and scores of others endure a downpour without umbrellas (which are kept furled so as not to block anybody's view of the stage) at a Pavarotti park performance. That's his world. Yet the tenor, again writing with Wright, his coauthor on Pavarotti: My Story, attempts in these pages to project the image of a simple man who disdains being set apart. And he pulls it off. He further disarms us by not dodging the scandals of recent years: his lip-synching rock concert; being booed at La Scala. The book lets us catch up on Pavarotti's doings of the last 15 years, for example, the international vocal competition he holds in Philadelphia, the horse show he inaugurated in Italy, his tours, family, health. An unexpected mean streak surfaces on occasion when Pavarotti relates embarrassing episodes concerning friends who have displeased him. If much of what is covered here is of little moment, readers will find that Pavarotti's exuberance more than compensates for the banal stretches. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)