Pavarotti sings for UN causes in globe-circling farewell tour

Luciano Pavarotti, one of the most celebrated opera singers, will promote United Nations causes during his worldwide farewell tour of more than 40 concerts this year and next, taking the world body’s humanitarian message to the four corners of the earth.

Since his appointment in 1998 as a UN Messenger of Peace, Mr. Pavarotti has used his fame to raise funds for UN projects. His latest campaign will contribute greatly to raising awareness of UN issues such the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to curb a host of social and economic ills by 2015, HIV/AIDS, child rights, urban slums and poverty.

“I am very proud both to be associated with the United Nations and to have been appointed a Messenger of Peace for this valuable and vital organization and will do whatever I can to help its work,” he commented earlier this week during his visit to Johannesburg for his farewell concert in South Africa.

During the concert, television spots featuring the work of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and promoting the Year of Microcredit, which seeks to provide loans for small-scale entrepreneurs in fighting poverty, were screened before an audience of 20,000.

Mr. Pavarotti will be taking the UN message, along with his voice, to major cities throughout Europe, North, South and Central America, South Africa, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia.