He has been accused of lip-syncing. He's canceled recent appearances on doctors' orders. Now, he's accused of copying art - mistakes and all - from a how-to-draw book and offering it for sale.
Luciano Pavarotti has been hitting sour notes on and off stage.The operatic superstar's most recent problem was reported Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times. Mary Hicks told the newspaper that Pavarotti had copied three pictures from "My Adventures in Europe," her instructional book for would-be artists, and included them among 22 of his paintings reproduced for sale as silkscreen prints.
Elliot Hoffman, the 57-year-old Italian tenor's attorney, said Pavarotti always made it clear his artworks were copied from Hicks' 1972 book.
One painting Pavarotti did shows two nuns on a bridge, with the railing behind them instead of in front, just as Hicks erroneously depicted the scene.
"He has posed in European newspapers holding up the book and thanking Mrs. Hicks," Hoffman said Wednesday from his New York office. "The implication that he has been hiding that fact is unfair.
"Mrs. Hicks herself was quoted in European newspapers as appreciating what Mr. Pavarotti has done."
Yet Hicks told the newspaper, "I resent it when he says that these are his original paintings. I resent that he is making money from them, too."
Herbert Breslin, Pavarotti's New York-based manager, told The Associated Press the singer was unavailable for comment, though the singer announced Thursday in Milan he will sing June 26 in New York's Central Park, rain or shine.
Skip Garrett, a New York parks spokesman, said the concert was still tentative. If takes place it will be free, he said.
The critics, perhaps surprisingly, are somewhat understanding.
"Tenors are a special breed," said Harold Schonberg, critic emeritus of The New York Times.
Moreover, he said, "all superstars are spoiled rotten. Pavarotti is the biggest superstar of all. He's correspondingly more spoiled than anybody else. They think they can get away with anything."
"Thanks to the glory of his voice, he probably can."
But Byron Belt, music critic for Newhouse newspapers, said, "A person who has done the most to popularize opera since Caruso should be going out in better style than this."
The paintings flap is only the latest.
Last week, Pavarotti postponed upcoming performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and canceled engagements with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, saying his doctor put him on a diet for February and March.
Neither Hoffman nor Breslin could say how much the singer weighs, though some say he weighs more than 300 pounds.
In announcing his Central Park concert, Pavarotti said he needed to lose about 80 pounds.
"Of course, I will lose weight gradually, in about six months," he said.
In December, after Pavarotti bowed out of a Met production of "Lucia di Lammermoor" so he could sing at opening night at La Scala in Milan, members of the Italian audience whistled - the European version of booing - when he cracked a high note.
And last September, Pavarotti lip-synced to a recording of his voice when he appeared at a concert in Modena, Italy, his hometown.
Critics and lovers of serious music can thank Pavarotti for making opera more popular in this country.
Yet Pavarotti is at the age when tenors reach the last stage of their operatic glory days and critics are taking note.