Nicoletta Mantovani talked about her late husband, Luciano Pavarotti, to "Io Donna" (Corriere della Sera's ~lady~ magazine) in an article from last month, leaving us with some really interesting quotes.
In the article, "Cerco Luciano Anche Con I Medium" (I Look for Luciano also with a Medium) (a condensed teaser is online here), Mantovani reveals a few things:
Read what she had to say after the jump!
*--* On creating a Luciano Pavarotti museum: Mantovani says that she's currently looking for funders to help turn the sprawling villa outside of Modena where Pavarotti lived into a museum. She ideally wants it to be ready in Spring 2011 to coincide with the opening of Enzo Ferrari's "Casa Natale Enzo Ferrari a Modena" (a huge Ferrari museum that's currently being built in Modena) so that it can "unify and create an axis of two men who made Modena great". Her main reason for the museum? The villa in Mantova is where the Maestro most enjoyed his free time -- painting, cooking, playing cards, entertaining -- and she says, "This house, where he lived and died, was entirely created by him, and there are still big projects and plans".
*--* On contacting Pavarotti's ghost: Mantovani reveals that she's had communication with Pavarotti. When asked if she's ever tried to make contact with Luciano after his death, she answers: "In every way. I also tried with a medium. I wasn't able to accept the severing of our bonds. In my deep loss i felt the obsessive need to communicate with him. I had to talk to him, and he still had to tell me lots of things. He left me without guidance." When asked if she's ever received any signals from Big Pav she says yes, but remains vague. She says that she realizes she's in mourning and looking for signs that might not be there: "When there's darkness, one tries to find the light". She says she's trying everything to shake her depression: reading the letters of philosophers and spiritual texts, meditation and yoga, and she's reading the Bible.
Then she talks about how she met Pavarotti (she believes in destiny and fate) and her multiple sclerosis (diagnosed when she was 24).
Then the interviewer challenges: "It was said at the end that Luciano asked only two things of you: to quit smoking (which you recently did) and to not enter politics. In 2009, you became the Councilor of Culture for the city of Bologna. Why did you do that?" Nicoletta answered: "I believed in a dream. I wanted to do something for my city not like a politician but more like a technician."
Then she says to stay tuned for a huge international event this October 12. The date would have been the Maestro's 75th birthday.