Who will be the next Pavarotti?

For many fledgling singers younger than 30, an invitation from Simon Cowell would be an offer one couldn't refuse. But when the American Idol judge and music-biz mogul tapped Vittorio Grigolo to join a quartet of classically trained singers he was forming a few years ago, the Italian tenor decided Il Divo would not be the best home for "Il Pavarattino."

Grigolo acquired the nickname, which translates to "Little Pavarotti," as a preteen prodigy after accompanying Luciano Pavarotti during a performance of Verdi's Tosca in Rome. "He told me that if I studied and did all the things I needed to do, I would be the best one day," says Grigolo, 29.

Pavarotti has endorsed a number of rising young tenors and seen several posited as potential heirs. But the question of his succession has grown more pressing in recent months. The man who has been opera's most famous face and voice for more than a quarter century turned 71 in October and is waging a battle with pancreatic cancer, diagnosed last summer. In July, the singer was forced to postpone dates on his farewell tour, which began in 2005. The concerts will resume next year if his health allows.

Fans and colleagues clearly hope he can return for a last hurrah. "I'm sure that Luciano would say, 'I'm not going anywhere,'" says Chris Roberts, head of the Universal Classics Group, which includes Pavarotti on its roster.

Still, with the King of the high C's nearing the end of his professional journey, many are wondering who, if anyone, could replace him. With his limpid voice and larger-than-life personality, he captured the public's fascination even more than Three Tenors cohorts Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras -- perhaps more than any male opera singer since Enrico Caruso or Hollywood tenor Mario Lanza.

"I'd be glad to be the next Pavarotti, because he gave opera a great gift in getting everyone to learn more about it," says Salvatore Licitra, touted as a possible successor after subbing for Pavarotti during what would have been the latter's Met finale in 2002.

Other contenders cited have included Marcelo Alvarez, Roberto Alagna and, prominently of late, Mexico's Rolando Villazon and Peru's Juan Diego Florez. The latter two, who respectively have somewhat deeper and lighter voices than Pavarotti, are seen as having considerable populist potential. Still, Gilbert Hetherwick, president of Sony BMG Masterworks, suggests they'll have their work cut out for them: "In order to cross over into a bigger market, an artist must have great charm and warmth."

In recent decades, the classical crossover market has grown more prominent and, for purists, more problematic than it was in Caruso's or Lanza's day. The popera group Il Divo is the latest exponent of a movement that has included tenors such as Andrea Bocelli and Russell Watson, who forged careers not by singing unamplified in opera houses, but through elaborately produced recordings and concerts.

In the wake of the movement, which Pavarotti himself helped spearhead as one of the Three Tenors and with his numerous collaborations with pop stars, the challenges faced by fledgling opera stars are different, and the rules are not always as sharply defined.

Exposure not so easy

"With these pop tenors now, it is more difficult for an opera singer to rise to the level of a Pavarotti," says Florez. "Besides having maybe the most beautiful voice of the past century, Pavarotti came along at a time when opera singers could be on the cover of Time or make an ad for American Express. Nowadays it is much more difficult to get exposure in mass media."

During the 1970s and '80s, "there was more willingness to put classical music and classical musicians in the spotlight," agrees Alex Ross, who covers the genre for The New Yorker. "It's amazing to think that Beverly Sills was a guest host on The Tonight Show. Pavarotti had the same kind of appeal; it was only later in his career, when his voice went into decline, that he made crossover recordings."

Today's telegenic singers can, in contrast, face tempting and diverting options. Though Grigolo turned Il Divo down, he is best known for Vittorio, a collection of originals and pop classics that premiered this fall at No. 2 on the classical crossover chart, right behind Bocelli. Nicole Scherzinger, a member of the top-40 girl group Pussycat Dolls, appears on one track.

Grigolo argues, "What I do takes its energy and life from my training and my work in real opera, and I want to keep respect for that while also making a connection to the pop world."

Certainly, Pavarotti's ability and willingness to reach beyond traditional classical outlets played a key role in his evolution from brilliant artist to mainstream icon.

"Anyone who wants to have an enormous career must make that sort of connection to the public," Roberts says. "He must have the personality to match the talent."

Roberts needn't worry about selling Villazon on this point. "I think opera singers could learn a lot from pop singers," the Mexican tenor says. "I love to listen to Shakira or Juanes before I go on stage. There's a special energy these stars have, and it opens up something primitive and wild inside you."

Opera does have sex appeal

Opera stars also have traded on their sensuality, as evidenced by divas from Maria Callas to Cecilia Bartoli to Anna Netrebko, the luscious Russian soprano who was paired with Villazon on a 2005 recording of La Traviata.

And recent years have seen an increased emphasis on the sex appeal of male singers. Villazon, Florez, fellow tenors Alagna and Piotr Beczala and baritone Nathan Gunn earn attention for their relative youth and leading-man glamour.

However formidable his presence or voice, a fledgling opera icon now is often encouraged to take advantage of certain enhancements. The use of microphones, though still shunned within opera houses, is embraced more outside them, under the right circumstances. At this year's World Cup final, for instance, Villazon had to fill an enormous outdoor venue.

"I sang there with Anna Netrebko and Maestro Domingo with microphones, and it was a fantastic experience," he says. "I felt like a child going out to play in a football field."

'Always a kind of magic'

Licitra, though, remains wary of the device. "A lot of people don't get to know the difference between that and the natural voice. There is always a kind of magic at the opera, something that can only happen live and in the moment." Ross says that magic is more accessible than many realize. "There's a huge number of opera houses across the country. You can even get a ticket to the Met for as little as $15."

The Met's new general manager, Peter Gelb, who headed Sony's classical division for a decade, has instituted other initiatives to draw more fans, among them a program that broadcasts performances in movie theaters and on Sirius Satellite Radio. Gelb also is recruiting hip directors and performers to help combat the perception of opera as a staid, elitist form.

"Some were concerned, because I had been working in the record business, that I was going to populate the Met with crossover artists," Gelb says. "But the fact is that there's a whole wonderful generation of young opera stars who can act as well as sing beautifully, and we want to cater to their abilities."

Still, Martin Goldsmith, director of classical programming at XM Satellite Radio, concedes anyone hoping for success on Pavarotti's scale has his work cut out for him.

"The demise of classical music has been predicted for a long time now and is almost always overplayed," Goldsmith says. "But it always will be a minority taste."

Yet if today's younger tenors don't assume they can fill Pavarotti's shoes, they're clearly eager to follow in his footsteps.

"Pavarotti became this sort of trademark for tenors, but I don't think that was his goal," Villazon says. "The audience and the applause is something we need; otherwise I would just be singing in the shower. But the goal is an artistic one, to create characters and tell stories. And, of course, to have fun."

To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com

© Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.