Rest in peace, Pavarotti
I don't know if there will ever be another sound on Earth that can dig as deep into one's soul as Pavarotti singing "Nessum Dorma" from "Turandot." It's as if Puccini, who began working on the opera 15 years before Luciano Pavarotti was even born, wrote the aria just for Pavarotti. After hearing the news just now, I popped in the CD, and tears literally came to my eyes. The world has lost a master.
I heard him at the Bowl a couple of times, and that voice really seemed to lift us all into the stars -- magical.
On a personal note, he was criticized in conservative (but hypocritical -- Italian men often effect an "Italian divorce" where they live in the same house but do as they want) Catholic Italy for getting divorced and remarried within the last 5 years, even though he fell ill soon afterwards, giving him a few years of genuine personal happiness. Good for him, to seize those years to be happy. How sad it is to pass away without the benefit of being around people you really love and vice versa.
I'd like to see his life as "permission" to live life to the fullest, as the voice within wills it. And boy, did he have a powerful voice on many levels.
LA VOCE, is gone. The smiling big boy with the white hanky is gone, leaving a legacy of sound that (we hope) it will be remember for a long time. Let us also remember Adua, his first wife, whom he married in 1961, a few months after his debut in La Boheme. For many years she gave him the stability and support he needed. Let us remember Joan Sutherland, who took Luciano, a young and talented beginner on an Australian tour giving him the opportunity and musical exposure every beginner is looking for and most of all, Herbert Breslin. Breslin, the American agent who guided step by step Luciano's career, first in the USA (with one mistake "Yes, Giorgio") and then around the world, turning Luciano Pavarotti into LUCIANO PAVAROTTI an immense (and very rich) musical Icon.