Reno gives Pavarotti a sporting chance

It's hard to imagine Luciano Pavarotti as a gym instructor. Gleaning some background from his Web page for my first experience with opera, I learned the maestro had to choose between a career as a gym instructor or a professional tenor.

Watching him walk onto the stage at Lawlor Events Center Sunday night, his massive frame supported on the conductor's shoulder, one could not help but think he made the right choice.

The concert opened instrumentally with that rolling, symphonic classic used in Rolls-Royce scenes from 1980s movies like "Caddyshack" and "The Money Pit." Later, after a careful reading of the program, I learned it was Mozart's "Overture to le Nozze Di Figaro."

The events center -- seeming to echo with the ghosts of basketball players and fans -- was not too dark and almost totally packed.

But the lights went out before the grinning tenor emerged into the spotlight to fervent applause. He braced himself against a custom-built, padded support -- while I braced myself for my first-ever, real-live opera.

I expected spine tingles and euphoria when Pavarotti uttered his first tones; instead, an irreverent image popped in my mind: Adam Sandler. He was there in a black wig with that high-school-prankster-just-about-to-crack-up look, doing his "Opera Man" act. The maestro sounded so much like Sandler doing Opera Man that my respect for Sandler's imitation increased dramatically.

While the 60 or so members of Pavarotti's orchestral accompaniment group wandered through Disney-movie harp and marching tambourine, Pavorotti careened through dramatic vocal plummets and tiptoed into tender Italian and German arias.

He wrapped up his first two songs with a hilarious final salute -- both arms thrown up, flashing about a white handkerchief. Eyes wide, I laughed out loud and erupted into enthusiastic cheers with the other 6,909 fans.

I wonder if the crowd wasn't too enthusiastic, however. After the cheering died down once, an unruly youth in the cheap seats ($42) hollered "Go, Pavarotti!" A more restrained fan behind me replied under his breath, "Shut up -- it ain't no football game, ya twit!"

Later, an excited fan hooted like he was at a rodeo, drawing a murmur of laughter. A drunken-sounding mimic high on the opposite side of the arena garnered no such support.

But if the spirited clamoring angered the tenor from Modena, he didn't show it. When a particularly young fan shouted "Bellissimo, senor, bellissimo!" after Puccini's "O Soave Franciulla" from "La Boheme" (the maestro's debut performance), Pavarotti said, "I did that one before you were born."

With blue Wolf Pack scoreboards dark on either side of the stage and the massive four-way scoreboard looming over the floor seating, the maestro performed with soprano Cynthia Lawrence, drawing a standing ovation with several songs.

In the same gym where state high school basketball playoffs are held, the tenor gave opera fans from all over the West a real thrill.

While Pavarotti has gone from a potential gym instructor to the embodiment of opera, I think Reno should be proud to have offered him a venue where he could also exercise his talents as a gym instructor.

Call Karl Horeis at 881-1219.