Luciano Pavarotti is no more. Arguably one of the greatest tenors of all time the hefty superstar lost his battle with pancreatic cancer late yesterday.
Heralded as The King of the High C's his legendary excesses led some to speculate that C came to stand for cholesterol level and caloric intake.
As he gained more and more weight in his later years health became a primary concern. As recently as last spring a bad back forced him to cancel a world tour that would have brought him to Montreal where I was engaged to be part of the orchestra and would have made at least a thousand bucks. If only he'd gone a little easier on the prosciutto.
By the end doctors report that Pavarotti had gotten so huge as to exert a noticeable gravitational effect on miniscule dust particles that would actually fall into orbit around his body if he were to stay in one place for any length of time.
All fat jokes aside, in his prime he could blow an audience away or move them to tears and he will continue doing just that....take a look at the video clip.
4 comments:
You'd think after all these years he would have learned the words.......or was that the late night diner menu he was reading?
All kidding aside, he did have quite the set of pipes....the king is dead.
I saw an opera expert being interviewed today who said that Pavarotti even needed the words for O Sole Mio. He had an amazing memory for the melody though since he couldn't read music.
Hi Guys,
I believe that quote in the Gazette yesterday after his passing perpetuated the myth that the Pav couldn't read. He stated clearly in an interview that he could in fact read music, just not a whole score like his conductor friend, Domingo (who is a terrible in that capacity, I should probably add).
The article also states that because of this he had to memorise his roles. Well, what opera singer doesn't do that?
This is the second time I have had to defend the Pav in print.Long live L.P.- greatest tenor voice in the last 50 years, possibly ever!
Well defended P.B. It was actually a so-called "Pavarotti expert" being interviewed on TV who led me astray...what an anthole!!!
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