The great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, has died at his home in Modena, Italy. One of the reasons I wanted to be a famous composer was so that he would invite me to his home, where he loved to cook meals for his guests. He'd show me his horses, critique my music, give me tip on writing for tenors, we'd consume a couple of bottles of chianti, and I'd leave with his recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese.Pavarotti's talent will be missed. A humane and generous man, we will be the poorer for having lost him. Still, the world is richer for having had him at all...
I worry about the future of opera. Between the loss of Pavarotti and the recent death of Beverly Sills, I'm forced to face the fact that the greats of an older generation are beginning to leave us. Who will take their place? It takes years to know if a singer is going to go the distance or not, and let's face it. Pavarotti was a superstar.
I remember thinking in the 1980s that Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade were "Greats". But where are they now? They may be singing recitals, giving their time to the arts or teaching (all worthy dedications to be sure), but are they appearing in operatic roles? If I'm wrong about this, please let me know. A voice like Battle's will not come around for another one-hundred years. Part of the problem is the new youth-worship that deems a female singer to be over-the-hill by the age of 30. Pa-tewie! These three sopranos have experienced that which gives fullness to any role: Life.
Will someone be able to take Pavarotti's place on stage? Someday, perhaps, when we're gone. Will someone be able to take Pavarotti's place in the world of music? Never.
Farewell, friend of music, golden-throated giant of a man!
His voice transcended simple music and travelled completely through the body and into the soul. One is swept away from any earthly reality and the memory of listening to be taken into the music as if, like the bits of electricity that form a television picture, the voice, the music and the listener are broken up and scrambled into a vortex of sound to come back together as a whole.
ReplyDeleteWhat a loss to the community of music and music lovers! A part of his legacy is that his dynamic personality awakened opera to a lot of people who previously had scoffed at it.
ReplyDeleteGod has a new tenor in his choir.
"Una Furtiva lagrima" for the last day of Luciano Pavarotti.
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