Pavarotti impressed with Chinese president

HONG KONG (AP) - Superstar tenor Luciano Pavarotti said Monday that Chinese President Jiang Zemin has the potential to become "a big star" in opera. "If this man can express himself with the soul and the willpower that he has, even in singing, he certainly will be a big star," Pavarotti said. Pavarotti said Jiang invited the Three Tenors - Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo - to lunch in Beijing on Sunday after their performance last week. "We began all suddenly to sing," he said. "The president made a duet with me of 'O Sole Mio.' I think it was very good. I would like to say it was romantic, absolutely, very difficult in 2001 to have something like that," Pavarotti said in his ebulliently fractured English. On Saturday, the Three Tenors performed before an audience of about 30,000 in the courtyard of the Meridian Gate in the ancient Forbidden City, the former imperial palace in Beijing. The $10 million gala concert was one of the biggest events publicizing China's bid for the 2008 Olympics.