You'd have to have a lot of Grinch in your blood to think any ill of Luciano Pavarotti's annual concert to benefit the international aid agency War Child.
And in offstage footage in "Pavarotti & Friends," a 90-minute film of the event airing tonight on KCET-TV (it's also available on video), the maestro's compassion is palpable as he discusses the plight of the children of war-torn Liberia with Spike Lee, whom he enlisted to direct the concert coverage.
But you'd need an uncommon tolerance for the frothiest mainstream pop and orchestral rock to be engaged by the music that transpired that June night in Pavarotti's hometown of Modena, Italy. His past benefits attracted the likes of Eric Clapton, Sting, Elton John and U2. In 1998 it's Celine Dion and the Spice Girls.
Yes, Pavarotti duets with both (as he does with all the singers, including Jon Bon Jovi, Natalie Cole and Trisha Yearwood). The Girls (uncharacteristically demure in pants and jackets) are victims of the show's most severe mismatch, as the tenor's passages annihilate their wispy harmonies on "Viva Forever." (Slipping into something less comfortable, they return alone later with a more typical dose of girl power.)
