Pavarotti lip-synced last aria

Luciano Pavarotti, in severe pain months before his cancer diagnosis, lip-synced his last performance, according to the maestro who conducted the aria at the opening ceremony of the Turin Olympics.

The late tenor’s manager said Monday the bitter cold made a live performance impossible at the 2006 Winter Games.

The conductor, Leone Magiera, reveals in a book that the rousing rendition of “Nessun Dorma” (“Let No One Sleep”) was prerecorded because “it would have been too dangerous for him to give a live performance in that physical condition.” Magiera said the tenor was suffering from sharp pains months before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Pavarotti died last September. He was 71.

“The orchestra pretended to play for the public, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing,” Magiera writes in “Pavarotti Visto Da Vicino” (Pavarotti Seen From Close Up), which was published last month. “It came off beautifully, no one was aware of the technical tricks.”

Pavarotti recorded the famed aria from Puccini’s “Turandot” in a studio in his hometown of Modena a few days before his February appearance in Turin, Magiera said. The orchestra recorded its part separately.