Fame- the heroin that screws up artists

Picasso was famous long before he completely lost it. His greatest period was probably 1934-1939. His Crying Woman  a depiction of  the Spanish Civil War & Guernica are from this period & were a return to the vigour of  Nude in the Forest  in 1908. 1951 he produced Massacre in Korea, an awful rehash of his tropes particularly from the 1920s accompanied by metalised execution squad ala Doctor Who monsters.    The whole painting is a laughable parody of Goya's The Third of May (Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo) the execution of Spanish resistance against Napoleon during the Peninsula War.

Picasso's abilities had not deteriorated, he had lost the fire and the passion for art. Fame, privileges & money had brought comforts that made him lazy & apathetic. Now he churned out paintings, one an hour, either sloppily executed or tediously transgressive, such as Woman Pissing (1965), it's only transient interest is the subject which is as trivial as a student's posturing artwork- a plague which has infested one of my former universities at Goldsmiths, except they don't do it in art anymore, now it's just hot air in the name of post modern bollocks.

Pavarotti similarly fell into the stupor of the 'complacent artist'. He still maintained his daily exercise of refusing to speak until he had done a couple of hours of humming, but as a tenor  his  performances dropped drastically in the 1980s (many things deteriorated in the 80s). In the 60s when he was still largely unknown, he would run, unthinkable with his later bulk, from the school where he was teaching to perform at the local opera house. He didn't need to exert himself but his desire to get to the stage drove him on.

In the 1970s, now famous amougst opera fans  he still had the hunger, passion and excitement to perform. La Boheme & Rigoletto show his focus and intensity not only as a singer but as an operatic actor.  Then suddenly he started to lose it. International & public or plebeian fame resulted in a more relaxed attitude, the voice was still there in its strength and timbre, he was never the greatest living the  tenor by the way, but that acting skill he had in his performances evaporated. 

Pavarotti coasted assured by instant sell outs of his stage performances that an uncritical public would attend a production he was in. And those opera performances were reduced in favour for the far less demanding aria recitals; no acting required & often  less demanding vocal works.  

As for his ubiquituous Nessun Dorma, he made sure that 'none shall sleep' by bellowing out the whole aria, devoid of any of the emotional intensity  that is the fibre of the song. The tenor is singing  about their impending execution if they don't discover Turandot's name by sunrise which is fast approaching.