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golubaptaxan – :
Two or more years ago, I ordered a vintage .16 oz bottle from eBay seller based in Bulgaria. I fell inlove with this chypre and never expected to find another bottle, ever. Ebay is now flooded with 3.4 oz. EDT bottles. The reviews below must be for bottles with strong oak moss note most likely produced in the nineties. Today’s formulation pales in comparison. I smell marigold and sandalwood mostly after an hour and with my chemistry and it’s beginning to fade. It is a lovely fragrance, but IMO, behaves like cologne strength of Donna.
fmq217elipseskism – :
Opening with pungent floral powdery notes, then getting milder and softer within an hour. At this step, Pavarotti Donna has same impression with Madonna Truth or Dare, but less sweet and more woody. But the drydown, is the thing that I didn’t expect yet what I like most from this perfume…it has Mitsouko aura, woody chypre but paler and softer. I am glad I took this beauty as my birthday gift.
seron88 – :
Maybe too much peach/nectarine vibe for me in the beginning. Kinda put me off a little. I do not find this a chypre at all…IMO. The scent does need to develop on the skin…and the dry-down brings out more elements that make it better….but…I think I should of “passed” on buying this one…sigh…sigh…
Taigr – :
Donna
Luciano Pavarotti
Year
1995
Fruity Floral Paradise Perfume
The price may be cheap but the fragrance is not. I got my hands on the glass bottle Eau de Toilette spray from Amazon.com. I’m not a zealous fruity floral fragrance fan but it’s summer time and I crave summery fruity perfume. This scratches my itch. Oh where do I start? The moment I sprayed it on both wrists and rubbed them together I was thoroughly enchanted. It’s definitely a 90’s scent, comparable but not 100 % similar to 80’s-90’s go big or go home perfumes like Ysatis by Givenchy, Roma Laura Biagiotti Jil Sander No 4, Volupte by Oscar de la Renta, Champagne Yvresse by Yves Saint Laurent and to some degree Femme Rochas. It’s a fruit cocktail, rum punch, delicious, summery, feminine, somewhat balsamic and woodsy, powdery, and such an amazingly retro fruity floral unlike anything out there today.
Opens with straight up peach. I normally don’t care for peach but this is a boozy peach (hell yeah! Love my booze) alcoholic like a peach bellini, sweetened up with what could pass for a sugar cane in perfume form, powdery (I suppose that’s the iris or the orris root note acting up) something like honey, amber, balsam. The orangey golden hued color of the liquid is an amber that embraces fruit notes and a marigold that takes over the entire floral arrangement. Marigolds are orange and HUGE and this is exactly what a marigold made into a perfume would actually smell like. The florals are not intrusive nor headache inducers. They have a soft shampoo like quality. There’s rose, violet, lily of the valley, gardenia and ylang ylang. No one flower overpowers the other and they appear to be mixed up together like dabs of yellow and gold colors in a post Impressionist painting. Gaugin and his Tahiti paintings come to mind.
Very summery honeyed flowers. Tropical, exotic, and quite womanly in a mature and very classy but laidback and leisurely manner. The images that come to mind are Josephine Baker in a tropical skirt floral print a short sleeved top with a cool gossamer fabric as she sips a fruity cocktail on an island somewhere – the Virgin Islands, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Martinique. Her own song “Chiquita Madame” comes to mind. What a lovely perfume! Bright and cheerful.
As the flowers become vague, a mishmash of roses, violets, gardenias, orange blossoms, ylang ylang and that ever present marigold, dipped in honey, the styrax and amber and wood notes emerge. There’s definitely a vanilla which goes well with the cedar and sandalwood. I do detect the sandalwood quite easily, and the amber. Gradually the whole thing turns into a pleasant powder with musk, warm and somewhat resinous and spicy. I would peg this as a musk as well when it’s nearly finished, but not a typical musk as it is so concentrated and so mish-mashed with all the other base notes on here – patchouli, woods, musk, vanilla, amber, that it is a very pleasant perfectly summery aroma for a woman who loves being a woman. Nothing about it is unisex or masculine. Smells like a woman.
And this thing lasts and lasts. I can’t count how many hours it was on me. It was still on me the next day after I wore it for a whole day. I had to scrub some of it off and wash my clothes because the liquid spilled onto my blouse. I didn’t mind smelling my collar but one day into the next was too long. So for those of you who love perfumes with extreme staying power, this thing has staying power! It’s got supreme longevity. It also has sillage. It can be detected easily by others in a room. I got looks from people around me when I wore it for a whole day to work and to a party for the 4th but I don’t care whether they like it or not. I like it. Donna is an extravagant fruity floral, charming, sweet, dark fruit, delicious, and female. Female on the Beach. Watch out.
Again available on Amazon.com where it is still selling and has not been discontinued.
digiman87 – :
During my student days, I was in London when this fragrance launched. The scent wafted throughout the entire first floor of Selfridges. My first impression was honey and roses, so elegant. Many years passed and today I finally got my hands on one vintage 100ml unopened bottle. It’s a classic, worth the wait.
Sektor2101 – :
I wore this yesterday to lunch with a girlfriend and was so overwhelmed! So was she! I’m at fault for spraying liberally but I couldn’t help myself.
I like to be positive so even when something doesn’t impress me right away I give it some time to see how it might change and this perfume certainly turns my head!
The first notes that greet my nose are fruit scents.
True to what others smell:
Apricot & Peach
Nectarine & Yuzu
I didn’t get any citruses but that African Orange Flower might as well be an orange but it’s faint and in the background. The ylang ylang embraces this orange blossom scent and it turns into a cloying, extremely sweet mélange of fruit and flowers, and there is still more fruit to it than flowers.
I was hoping it would be more floral but I do like fruity perfumes and this was alright. It matches up with some of my Suave affordable shampoos and body washes that smell of fruit.
This has a heightened femininity to it and couldn’t pass for unisex or a man’s cologne like Opium by YSL or Coco Eau de Parfum or the newest in my Oriental collection Krizia Teatro.
No this is for WOMEN, big hair, red nails, red lipstick, lots of jewelry, bracelets, bright colored dresses, halter top minis. I picture Sophia Loren or some 1980’s diva like Madonna.
Totally a throw back to the super charged fruity florals of the 80’s and 90’s. No wonder the reviewers have aptly compared it to such fragrances as Tresor by Lancôme, Volupte by Oscar de La Renta or to a degree even Femme by Rochas. This is a floral chypre or rather a fruity floral chypre.
Sweet, too sweet, too much if you put too much of it on. My girlfriend wasn’t offended but she was rather taken aback by it. It smells of summer time and picnics, peaches, apricots and nectarines in a basket, or as some other very clever Fragrantica reviewer stated – an open air bazaar market place in Morocco. In other words it smells of a fruit stand!
The floral notes that come through for me are the violet, the lily, the rose, the ylang and the orange flower. The marigold too. So yes it is floral but it takes time to get there. It has that loud fruity burst before it quiets down into a soft powdery floral.
The dry down is woodsy with Virginia Cedar and with sandalwood. It has a soft woodsy edge to it and one can even detect it in the middle stages when the flowers appear. It is definitely a chypre with woodsy undertones.
The woods are not strong nor masculine and for me the dry down has a good soapy amber liquid.
Definitely amber is holding this thing together. There’s also quite a bit of styrax and something oily, possibly patchouli oil not so much patchouli leaf.
Echoing other reviews, a casual elegant day time fragrance for the afternoon or high noon when you are dressed in pretty clothes and going out for lunch.
Yes it’s old fashioned but loveable.
geeborg – :
01.november 2016
I have been wanting to own this perfume forever and i almost got it, but since nowdays i try to buy and swap blindly i prefer to try things out before i decide whether to get it or not. And Pavarotti Donna almost made my have list but it didnt in the end.
I really like the opening, im a sucker for marigold and lily. I really like the opening very much and based on that only i would go for it, even mix of marigold and pineapple is very interesting. But THEN there is a very strong lily and nectarine notes that start to dominate the whole composition, and while i like lily note here it is too much in combination with other notes. I prefer “cold” lily note, but here it is a “hot”, not even “warm” lily note, mainly because of the combination of other notes with it. Then there is a violet, quite strong…. At some point the whole composition becomes so much fruity that it even becomes sickenly sweet. I can understand comparisions with Tresor, but it is not close to Tresor much,just overall vibe might be similar. I kept thinking that i have already something similar in my collection, i havent figured out what exactly yet.
Anyway, i never smelled the oakmosswhich i would probably prefer more in thise fragrance and less fruit and less gardenia for sure.
I agree with user Gigi: this is a very “daywear” or by nowdays standards “eveningwear” but not a formal perfume. I do like complexity in perfume, but sometimes it is too much of everything. We could never be a perfect couple with each other sadly.
Compliments for great sillage and more than average lasting power!
Belik-vmure – :
Being a lover of Tresor, and owning a cross cut of pre-reformulation and current bottles
I do not see much similarity with Pavarotti Donna at all. They both are from the carefree, opulent era that the 90s were, and that is about it. Pavarotti is more restrained in its fruitiness, more floral, with very prominent rose reminds me more of the Van Cleef and Arpels releases from the same decade. Anyway today I became a proud owner of a 50 ml Donna bottle, cannot believe I found it in a brick and mortar store, and paid only 10 GBP. Mr Pavarotti has made my day.
Николай170 – :
I met Pavarotti in Milan Italy when he performed in Pagliacci. I was thrilled to hear that he launched a perfume for women. My husband wore the men’s cologne version and I’ll write a review about that one soon enough. My husband is long gone but his scent lives on. As for Donna, this is a gorgeous intoxicating fruit juice. It smells like the most delicious concentrated fruit drink. It’s juicy, pulpy, sweet, and has a festive air. It’s something to wear to a party. The opening notes include peach, apricot, pineapple and yuzu. Smells tropical and inviting. If you fancy fruit flavored fragrances a la Casmir by Chopard or Champagne by Yves Saint Laurent, this is very similar to this fragrances. It’s also similar to Volupte by Oscar de La Renta. Mingling with fruit notes are floral notes of rose, violet, ylang, marigold and jasmine. Sophisticated and perfumy. A touch of spice courtesy of the cloves and styrax, not to mention patchouli leaf and a warm resinous golden amber. Mature I suppose but we all have to grow up sometime. I grew up a long time ago and have so many fond memories of perfumes I’ve worn over the years. This is one of them. This takes me back to the mid 90’s when I was such a devotee of the 3 Tenors. I went to their concerts and met Pavarotti in person. Charming man. The scent lasts an incredibly long time so I would advise the person who wants to wear this to start early first thing in the morning out in public and it will be on you all day long. The dry down is moss, woods and vanilla. This is lovely. If you like fruity florals and moreover vintage fruity florals I highly recommend Donna.
Katian – :
This fragrance is reminiscent of Tresor and Volupte so if you like those fragrances you’ll love this one. On me Donna is a rose fragrance. It doesn’t start off with rose. It opens with nectarine and peach. The kind of fruitiness in this fragrance is like fruit jam, literally like someone poured jam on your skin. Smells so good. The aroma is bold, succulent, sweet but not cloying. I would say that it’s a bit too mature for my tastes but once in a while I like to wear fragrances like this one because it makes me feel very grown up lady like elegant and sophisticated. I can detect sandalwood at the end and some woodsy notes. This fragrance immediately took me back to 1996 in South Carolina where my mother’s friends wore something very similar to this during Church. I so remember smelling this on Church ladies. It could have been Tresor which was hugely popular in the 90’s. This is a gorgeous fruity floral to wear on cool breezy spring days. The scent leaves a trail wherever you walk and it wafts up into the air very nicely. I wore this at a party last weekend. Everyone loved it on me. This is so beautiful and a real perfume.
Meijd643Negeltzex – :
This fragrance reminds me of when you first enter a Moroccan Perfume Bazaar. A dark shadowy cave of delights.
Spices, powders, dried fruits, resin, oils, soaps, tea, Persian rugs, sand and the ever present heat. Enough to make you swoon.
There are so many different notes mixing together and it just seems to work.
Strong, heady and very exotic.
tymantyman – :
A Summer Villa In Italy
The Making of this Perfume:
Donna by Pavarotti was launched by the fragrance line of Italian tenor super star Luciano Pavarotti in 1995, following the success of his men’s cologne (simply called Pavarotti for men) in 1994. His nose was David Apel and it was distributed in Europe by the Italian company Eurocosmesi. French designer Pierre Dinand designed the bottle. He is a veteran at this and has designed so many attractive perfume flacons over the years: the first Giorgio Armani fragrance, the first Hanae Mori, Eternity for Men by Calvin Klein, the diamond-style Gianfranco Ferre, Madame Rochas and Ysatis by Givenchy. Pavarotti was a celebrity in the 1990’s and as the public face for this fragrance, he sold very well but it was mainly in Europe: his native Italy. In the US, his fragrance was only mildly successful. To many blase perfume lovers, this was just another strongly concentrated floral fruity fragrance for women.
I beg to differ.
When I opened the box, my nose, which instantly picks up on the base notes, found the sandalwood. This has been called a chypre, but it most certainly is not. For it to be a chypre it would have to be more “green” and there would be stronger screaming base notes. The sandalwood is light as i the Virginia Cedar Wood. There is more amber and musk to the base notes, giving it a very deep foundation. The head notes consist of African Orange Flower, Yuzu, Peach, Pineapple, Marigold, and Nectarine. This is all I get. It’s a fruit punch, a fruit cocktail. It must have been Pavarotti’s own idea to evoke the image of a beautiful young woman, dressed in a beautiful semi casual semi formal halter top gown, elegant but very sexy, busty, Italian, big dark haired, red lipstick, high heels, and smelling of this fragrance. It matches her enviroment. She could be Pavarotti’s wife or mistress. She is in Pavarotti’s own villa in Pesaro Italy overlooking the Mediterrenean. This is such a Roman perfume. It contains styrax as well and it was a tropical tree with fragrant flowers that grow in the Greek islands and in Capri Italy. There is no doubt about it. This is a summer fragrance. You get too much fruit. Even the middle notes of the flowers are not strong enough to be detected, except for a fragrant deep red rose. The rose dominates the heart notes in my opinion. The other flowers are jasmine ylangylang lily of the valley and violet. The violet is clearly blending in with the rose rather nicely. But even as such, it’s the top fruit notes and their support by the woods and amber that make up this perfume’s aroma. And what a beautiful aroma it is.
The amber in this as well as the combination of nectarine marigold peach and ylang ylang (orange-yellow-gold colors) give the liquid a golden look. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at. I could stare at the bottle all day. It’s a luxurious looking gorgeously decorative glass bottle. It has a round black stopper that is magnetic and easy to remove. The spray is easy to use and use it either lightly or heavily but you get the same aroma. I really do love the look of the bottle in the eau de toilette, which is actually too strong for ordinary eau de toilette. The formula in this perfume is so complex in it’s arrangement of notes that it really smells like pure perfume or strong eau de parfum, not toilette.
I was looking for a perfume that would be more of a formal, classy, elegant luxurious warm floral aldehyde or floral amber that would suit a beautiful evening gown to wear to the Opera, something more like Arpege by Lanvin. This is still very rich smelling and gives off the aura of luxury and glamour but its casual. Perhaps Pavarotti believed his “casual classy” perfume would sell big time and that he would not have done as well had the fragrance been made as an evening perfume for formal black tie galas or opera performances. Very few would wear it to the opera and he would not make much money. And then there are people who just don’t want to smell perfume at the opera – the boors! This is such a casual fragrance. It really is. It’s a day time fragrance to wear when you’re going out to eat at a nice restaurant for lunch. It’s also suited to going to a cocktail bar. Your girlfriends who wear the cheap common slutty fragrances of Chanel No. 5 and Chanel Mademoiselle or any other “casual” fragrance in the market today would never be able to guess what perfume you’re wearing. This is straight out of another era, the era of stronger women’s perfumes with heavier floral fruity notes. This is very 90’s but in a good way. An impressive way. It’s a delicious fruit drink of a perfume. It’s also very sexy, very sensual. I feel very feminine and seductive wearing this fragrance. Too bad I can’t wear it in the evening to the Opera. This is for a MATINEE followed by lunch and cocktails.
warmax – :
This is classic oriental floral, in style of Boucheron, not a chypre. Nice, traditional, nothing crazy there.
kobra1986 – :
it is lovely. I don’t think it’s like tresor which I use very often. It deserves more positive votes and reviews
cxvxgdfhdf – :
I really like this perfume.. I have first noticed it in 1998 and tried just because of its name 🙂 I was too young for the kind but I have purchased one… Since then I always kept a bottle of it on my shelf.. I think it is unique, classy, feminine and romantic.. it has got very nice longevity..
I like this parfume because it reminds me old school fragrances, not like popular softish, candy/fruit or just flowery smells of today.. very sophisticated with harmony of several notes
Everwest1990 – :
Actually it smell exactly like TRESOR de Lancome with some powder notes. Not a cheap Perfume. Very 80’s
gupermaequada – :
As my user name suggests, I am a lover of opera music, and so I decided to add this scent (pdt) to my last order, just for fun. I’m generally not interested in celebrity scents, but this one had good reviews and it was very cheap, so I thought why not?
Well. The opening reminds me very much of Amarige and its burnt rubber-y tuberose, even if tuberose is not listed here. Then there’s a fruity explosion, in the vein of Sophia Grojsman’s rose-scented peach creations – somewhere between Yvresse, Tresor and Volupte. Actually I’d say mostly Volupte, even if that one has melons and Pavarotti does not. Very typical of the fruity scents that came out around 1990. They are not really my favourites, and neither is this one, although it does get warmer and deeper after 30-45 minutes. I can agree with the first reviewer that there is also a tobacco-like note in there.
I will have to try it again before I can decide what to do with this perfume. But I think that if I am to really enjoy Pavarotti, I should probably rather get my 1971 recording of “L’Elisir d’Amore” and listen to young Luciano in the role of poor, love-struck Nemorino – a wonderful role that apparently was perfect for him.
tnm955speagoessenda – :
From my first sampling of an already opened edt splash bottle, I immediately considered this a true 80s classic. How did I miss it all this time?! It is indeed a Floral Chypre with fruit, and technically in the same class as Balenciaga’s Talisman, Oleg Cassini original, and V’E by Versace- however, the fruit here is dripping, dark, and almost over-ripe. More of a marmalade. All the top notes listed are evident and bright, despite the certain oxidation of my bottle. The heart is heavy on Jasmine, Ylang-Ylang (compare to l’Arte d’Gucci), and a rose that is most definitely Damascene. The lily serves to boost the other florals, except the violet, which is completely obscured. The base is marvelous, smoke and moss. Like another reader, I also get tobacco flower. Simply divine, this is a steal at $20 online.
If you like the animal of La Nuit, smoke of Versace original, or the moss of Deneuve, you will love this drydown. It persists for hours.
To note, this is as strong in EDT as most other EDPs.
utyio – :
THis is really refined and classy.It doesnt deserve such a low rate and negative vote.It is complex and a real perfume ,not like todays fruty candy waters which i am sick of.It is very creamy,kinda reminds me of Amarige because of the white flowers i smell in it,but here they are not so sharp and in your nose like in Amarige ,but times better.I smell something like suede also.The perfume is georgeous -velvet white flowers.I will wear it with confidense and pleasure!Bravo Pavarotti!
edit .Oh my God I love it.I cant stop smelling my wrist.I inhale deeply like a drug addict
konel – :
This is a very smooth, balmy fragrance. I detect mostly the marigold and fruit, which is natural, not overly sweet and contrived. The rose dances in and out throughout the wearing, sometimes I catch whiffs of it and it’s very soft and light.
What I love about this is that the florals and sweetness are balanced so well with the green qualities of the marigold and light touches of oakmoss that it never falls too heavily into either territory.
I agree with I.I – this is quite unique, I can’t really compare it with anything. And the parfum de toilette can be had for very little online, which just baffles me considering its well-structured composition and quality.
Peryshko – :
Oh I LOVE this perfume! I love it love it!
It’s very retro and so ladylike.
It’s a mature scent with medium sillage and very good longevity. Not suitable for younger women of our time. It’s not a sweet perfume and it’s not heavy.
It’s really very very unusual and doesn’t match anything I have ever smelled.
This perfume brings to my mind a romantic, sensitivly fatale, young enough woman dressed up with flaired sleeved dress and pearls or smoked silver jewels, long hair (straight or not).
To me this perfume SMELLS mostly like MARIGOLD and TOBACCO. I’d swear there is a dried, TOBACCO LEAFE note in it.
See,I live in a city which was always famous for its tobacco production, I’m passing from tobacco-storage buildings to go to my work every day.
No way could I be mistaken in this, but it may as well be a combination of different elements that creat this tobacco feeling.
Then, there isn’t a strong oakmoss note FOR SURE. Oakmoss is what I HATE in perfumes (Chane 19 f.ex), I would know it right away, it brings me naucia. In fact, I don’t smell a slight oakmoss note either (like I smell it in Jontue f.ex).
From another perfume I have, I would say that styrax is also quite distinguishable during the dry down.
A 90’s perfume which bears the ‘signs’ of its era. JUST LOVELY! It surely worths giving it a chance!