Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71

[truehobbit]

Luciano Pavarotti died yesterday in his house in Modena.

I think he'll undoubtedly be remembered as one of the greatest tenors of our times.

[WampusCat]

I discovered his music in the late '70s. I would drive the streets of Macon, Georgia, with "Nessun Dorma" full blast on the car stereo and tears running down my cheeks.

This was not considered normal behavior in Macon, Georgia.

I didn't care.

I am truly grateful that we live in the age of recording. To think that such a voice would be lost forever -- as such voices were for most of human history -- is unbearable.

[vison]

Meltingly lovely voice. Made your bones shiver.

Ah, well. Maybe he and Caruso are sizing each other up, right now.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

Pavarotti had a fabulous career, and was one of the world's best known singers in any genre. I heard that he died of pancreatic cancer. My wife asked if I was sad, and I have to admit that I wasn't. To be honest, it's amazing to me that someone of his girth lived as long as he did.

My university voice teacher was not a fan of Pavarotti's. When I performed "Pour mon ame" from Donizetti's of the The Daughter of the Regiment she recalled seeing him sing it in San Francisco. She said that with no pretense of acting he walked out to front center stage and knocked out those 9 high C's. I recall her saying thought he should have stuck with the more lyric roles. Obviously, that would have been far less lucrative for him. While I prefer Domingo for Verdi, I definitely prefer Pavarotti for Puccini.

Pavarotti did have some technique flaws, and fell into some bad vocal habits. His French pronunciation was pretty bad. He had a glorious voice, though, and as WampusCat mentioned, his performances of "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot were fantastic. He undoubtedly made a lot of opera fans that would never have been otherwise.

[Jnyusa]

He undoubtedly made a lot of opera fans that would never have been otherwise.

Yes, exactly so. He was 'the' opera man for our times - classical music for people who hate classical music. Like Beverly Sills in that respect. That was a double loss to our musical culture in a very short period of time.

I too prefer Domingo for Verdi. The only time I saw Pavoratti sing live was a performance of Tosca, and his voice was so lyrical it did seem to kind of float on top of the music, which is not really where you want a Verdi voice to be. Interestingly, I always felt the same way about Sills. We saw her in La Traviata and she was just too ... joyous ... for that role! Technically it was beautiful, of course, but certain singers seem born for certain composers.

Jn

[Crucifer]

certain singers seem born for certain composers.

Too true.
Ideally, the singer who the piece was intended to be sung by originally is good, but very few people have that luxury.
(I do though. )