(Luciano Pavarotti:tenor, was born in 1935 in Modena,Italy and died on September 6, 2007 at his place of birth,he was 71 years old).
Synonymous to his perfect rendition of Puccini's Turandot...the maestro's singing in elation of Nessun Dorma (no one sleeps) is perfection. Honestly, no one dares to top such performance. All of his 71 years were lived fully and at his most passionate venue...singing. I have never seen an opera on stage. The first time I heard an opera song was watching the movie "The mirror has two faces" with Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges. The scene was; Jeff wanted to win Barbra back so he took a cab to Park Avenue (my first film to really appreciate Manhattan)and she (Streisand) realized how much she loves him, she decided to meet him with her pj's on, kissed Jeff in the middle of Park Avenue while a guy in the building ( who saw them smooching) started playing a vinyl record of...yep, Nessun dorma and I fell in love with the song right away. Of course it was a Pavarotti and this was ten years ago.
To this day songs from Turandot, La Boheme, Tosca, Carmen (none of these i have seen, but have listened to) creates not only ripples but an unaccountable number of pangs of desire, pain,compassion and joy rolled in to one. This is what an opera song can do to me. I can't wait until I attend my first opera, hopefully this spring of 2008.
The maestro taught me to linger through his songs which language I could not even understand. The son of a baker who dreamed only of one thing...to melt our hearts away through his ethereal voice.Luciano Pavarotti may sleep forever but his resounding music and expression of true art never dies.
