Luciano, R.I.P.

Today was the passing of Luciano Pavarotti, whose high C tenor makes us feel alright that he never went on to become a professional soccer player (his youthful ambition). I first heard him on a recording that a nearby customer was auditioning in a record store in Hollywood one night sometime in the 1970s, and I started paying more attention from then on, as I had not really listened to much opera since my college music history classes. My opera consciousness had been raised.

I found that my photography sidekick Bill had Maria Callas in his musical stash, so I listened to that in his studio. When the very popular compilation (still highly recommended) -- The Movies Go To The Opera -- was released around 1990, it soon became one of my favorites to help me get through the daily downtown Los Angeles-Westwood commute. Then I discovered that an Italian accountant I had known since the 60s was an opera buff, and was given to breaking into song after he retired and had shed some inhibitions. About that time, Peter Sellars (not the Brit actor), a theatre director who led the Los Angeles Festival, put together some quite wonderful Mozart operas in modern settings and ran them on L.A. TV. My collection (mostly of individual arias, especially Mozart, Verdi, Puccini) started growing, and today I have the luxury of being able to pull Cecilia Bartoli, Anne Sofie Van Otter, Kathleen Battle, Dawn Upshaw, Maria Callas and many more off the shelf and into my ears. And I have some really, really old Enrico Caruso (on 78 as well as 33 1/3 and CD). Drop in sometime for a listen.

In the meantime, I may try to find something in the public domain that I can post here.