Thursday, September 6, 2007

In memoriam: Luciano Pavarotti

It's a truly sad morning as the sun rises here this morning as I write these words, with the news that Luciano Pavarotti has died. Even those in rap and hip-hop have surely heard of the greatest tenor since Enrico Caruso.

Pavarotti had what Caruso didn't, radio and television -- and it was those media, as well as his numerous performances at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala, among others, that brought the man to superstardom.

Those of us in the younger generations will, of course, remember him as part of the Three Tenors supergroup -- the others being José Carerras and Plácido Domingo. Domingo said last night that the three often forgot they were performing before a paying audience because they had so much fun.

That pretty much hits the point. Those guys, all of them, made opera fun again and certainly more accessible -- no less than Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the late Beverly Sills did on the female side.

So, I bow my head in respect this morning. Arrivederci.

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