Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - August 1, 2025

Celebrating Pavarotti

Chorus members were milling about the train station. By Welsh standards it was hot - somewhere around 80 degrees F. The "lads" soon doffed their black suit jackets. They'd be cooler, yet looked sharp in their black pants, white shirts, red vests, and black bowties. We kidded them that in Kansas a July day like this one would be considered downright comfy.

The choir had gathered at the Corwen station in Wales to "serenade" Nicoletta Mantovani, the widow of world-famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti. She was on her way to nearby Llangollen (thlan-GOTH-len) to celebrate some important milestones. This year is the 70th anniversary of her husband's first performance at the annual Llangollen International Musical Eistoddfod. He was a 19-year-old teacher-in-training then, and a member of his father's Modena, Italy choir. Pavarotti often mentioned that winning the 1955 competition was the spark that inspired his dream of pursuing a singing career.

This is also the 30th anniversary of his return in 1995. By then, he was widely seen as the world's premier tenor. It's hard to imagine he would have been 90 this coming October.

The Eisteddfod (eye-STETH-vod) grew out of a groundswell of feeling after World War II that something extraordinary should be done to promote world peace and cultural exchange. Held every year since 1947, it's principally a music and dancing competition held in the Welsh village of Llangollen. The 4,000 competitors from across the world double the population.

The Fron choir was formed to compete in the 1947 inaugural Eisteddfod, and it has since won numerous national and international awards. The group's acclaim was solidified with the release of its 2006 "Voices of the Valley" album, which became the fastest-selling classical album of all time, achieving gold status in just three days and selling more than half a million copies. Husband Art and I became "groupies" of the choir two years ago.

At a recent rehearsal, we were surprised to learn that Pavarotti and his fellow choristers were hosted by the families of the Froncysyllte (vron-kuh-sulth-teh) choir - or Fron for short. Member Dennis Williams, 94, who has been with the group since its inception, was quoted in "The Leader" - a local online source. He said in 1955, he and a couple of other Fron choristers gathered around a piano in the evening with Luciano "to have a sing-song." He added, "... marking the anniversary of Pavarotti's visit to Llangollen is a significant moment, and music is the best way to spread peace."

Mantovani married Pavarotti in 2003, just four years before his passing. With her husband being a larger-than-life personality, I wasn't sure what to expect from her.

She arrived at the station dressed in a black pantsuit with a colorful shirt. She smiled, almost shyly, and was visibly moved as the choir sang "Gwahoddiad" (Gwah-HOH-dee-yad) - known as "Calvary" in English, "Speed Your Journey," "Rise Again," and "When the Saints Go Marching In." They finished with "We'll Keep a Welcome in the Hillside," a piece member David Jones introduced by telling Mantovani it seemed to touch Pavarotti when they sang it for him in 1995.

She spent a few minutes chatting with choir members, including Allan Smith, who showed her newspaper clippings and photos from her husband's 1995 visit. She seemed down-to-earth, kind, and unassuming. Ian Robbins, another Fron member, had placed on a window ledge his framed ticket and autographed photo of Pavarotti from the 1995 celebration.

Art had found a corner of the train station depot where he could video the entire event. I had taken photos from the outer fringes, not wanting to interfere with TV crews that were moving here and there to capture the action.

A few members rode the train with Mantovani to Llangollen, where children performed folk tunes for her. Then a 100-foot-by-150-foot chalk mural of Pavarotti was unveiled on a hillside overlooking the Eisteddfod Pavilion.

During the days that followed, Mantovani presented two trophies. The first, renamed in her husband's honor, is for the winning choir - "The Choir of the World." As Saturday evening drew to a close, a New Zealand group was announced as the well-deserved winner. After, as the people left for home, I touched her on the shoulder and whispered in her ear that Art and I had thoroughly enjoyed seeing her husband in Wichita, Kansas in 2002. She smiled and placed her hand on her heart.

In a June 9, 2025 article on the Eisteddfod's website, Mantovani, who is founder and president of the Pavarotti Foundation, was quoted as saying, "Luciano had two dreams. The first was to bring opera to everyone and the second was to bring new people into the world of opera who could become the singers of the future ..." The second award, the Pendine Trophy, speaks to that wish and was presented as part of the closing ceremony Sunday evening.

On the day after the Eisteddfod ended, Art, friend Jan, and I decided to visit the now-quiet field looked over by the chalk mural of the great tenor. We were surprised to find Mike Green, one of the Fron basses, there. We chatted a bit as his drone took photos of the mural from above.

Art and I had been in Wales in July over the years, but had never attended the Eisteddfod, wanting to avoid the crowds. But as we were planning our trip this year, I told him I wanted to go. We not only saw wonderful performances by young talented musicians from around the world, we also witnessed a small Welsh village celebrate the beginning of the career of Luciano Pavarotti. It had been all I had hoped for - and then some.