Reactionary

I was listening to some podcast about Apple’s new iPods and flipping through my RSS reader when I saw the headline, brief, short, mincing no words, “Luciano Pavarotti, Italian Tenor, is Dead at 71“. I actually gasped outloud. I had heard a few days ago he’d gotten out the of the hospital but just in passing and didn’t think any of it.

I grew up listening to opera. Pavarotti along with Domingo (who my sister and I called Peaceful Sunday in childish dumbness) were my mother’s favorite tenors. I appreciate opera and I recently bought a recording of Tosca sung by Pavarotti on my first visit to a CD store in two years. It’s always sad when art dies in any way and though he wasn’t a musician or a writer or composer, there is no replacing that voice. I haven’t heard of any younger, new tenors of the same quality. Someone needs to step up. There’s such a crater in the world of high opera now and all admirers can just stand in the darkness and wait until a new light rises.

Posted on September 6th, 2007 under News •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback