MUSIC

Responding to the Chicago Lyric Opera’s announcement that he would not be invited to sing there ever again, tenor Luciano Pavarotti had his own thoughts on the matter: Perhaps he and the Chicago company were bad luck for each other. The dispute arose after Pavarotti canceled out of singing six performances of “Tosca,” starting with opening night on Sept. 16. The reason, said his manager, was “persistent inflammation of the sciatic nerve, which prevents him from moving extensively on stage.” Opera officials noted that he had canceled 26 of 41 scheduled performances from 1981 to 1989, and said that was enough. Pavarotti, in a statement issued by his manager, said he understood their disappointment, “which is the same disappointment I have. . . . If I am not good luck to the Lyric Opera, then perhaps the Lyric Opera is not good luck to me. So I totally agree that there should be no future collaboration.” However, added the tenor, he fully intends to go back to the Windy City in 1991 to sing with the Chicago Symphony as well as at the Ravinia Festival.