danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

A sad year for opera lovers rolls on. Today, Luciano Pavarotti died.

In his younger years Pavarotti was absolutely stellar, and through his entire career he was blessed with a voice that was unmistakable. You could not hear it for a second and be unsure who it was. Anthony Tommasini writes more about that in today’s New York Times.

While Pavarotti was not my favorite tenor–and the circus that was his later years was unfortunate–many records that feature him in a lead role are my favorites, including his first complete Rigoletto, as well as his Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, I Puritani and L’esir d’amore.

And what stands out to me most of all about Pavarotti’s voice was how, even during his highest notes–and they were very high–it retained its beauty. There are a lot of faceless tenors who sound indistinguishable from one another in Bel Canto repertoire, and whose high notes leave something to be desired. But listen to him as Tonio in the first act of La fille du régiment and you will hear seemingly effortless singing with a timbre other tenors just couldn’t match.

I know that lovers of serious music would be worse off without Luciano Pavarotti.

Filed under: Current Events, Music, WAYLTL on September 6th, 2007