Ron Howard on His New Film, “Pavarotti”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: What drew you to Pavarotti? Why a documentary on Luciano Pavarotti?

RON HOWARD: Pavarotti became, to me, quite obvious. And because he’s so charismatic, his life’s journey is something that we don’t know very much about, although, you know, his is a household name, and even opera. Of course, there are those that love it, understand it passionately and are fans, but there are so many other people who — you know, they’ve heard it, they appreciate it, they don’t really know. I felt that as a filmmaker, that the subject of this man, this great artist, his life would provide an incredible opportunity to actually use opera to help tell his story. He’s so brilliant in these — in his performances, these arias. I’m a director. I’m watching this close-up footage that had been captured of him over the years, and it’s riveting, it’s powerful, and for him, it rings true. And I felt we could use those arias in a way to help tell his story, say something about opera, create a great sound experience for audiences. So, I really hope a lot of people see it in the theater. And tell a story that would really surprise people in an emotional way because his was a very emotional journey.

AMANPOUR: I was stunned, and you’ve just talked about the sound and the music and the arias. How actually it was described how a tenor has to construct that sound. It’s not a sound that comes out naturally out of somebody’s body.

HOWARD: You know what, it’s almost, you know, it’s almost an Olympic level athletic feat to create those sounds and yet, it’s a form of expression and a powerful one. I really decided to make the movie as somebody who always admired opera and certainly knew something of Pavarotti and knew he was a genius. But when I watched those performances that I was talking about and I understood — began to understand what it took to make those sounds, and then I had the lyrics translated and I realized that opera is for the people. That was always Pavarotti’s cause, his case, the argument that he would make. It’s not an elite art form. It’s populist. And it’s for people to love and I felt that understanding what he was singing about at various times in his life when I felt he was coming very close to singing about himself and his own rather operatic yet very relatable personal journey.