Saying Good-Bye to the Man

I was saddened to read today that Luciano Pavarotti died early this morning of pancreatic cancer. I do not remember a time that I did not know Pavarotti's name. When I was in high school, my voice teacher had a record of his that was autographed. I was always jealous of this and wished he would bequeath it to me. He was one of those singers whose music was so readily available that even though I grew up in a place that was not the culture capital of the world, I could still find his recordings at the Sound Warehouse. The first classical recording I bought was one of his. The first opera recording I bought was one of his. I remember just marveling at his high D's in La fille du regiment with Joan Sutherland. Absolutely amazing! His voice was so recognizable that there was no mistaking it. I remember riding through his hometown of Modena in 2001 and wondering if he was there. I remember how surprised I was to see my childhood voice instructor serving as the emcee for the Three Tenors concert in Paris now almost ten years ago--and so jealous that she had gotten to meet him. I wish that I had made a greater effort to go to the last concert he had in Dallas, but you never think the opportunity will pass forever. Although I had long become more interested in the French and German art song repertory , I will never forget the one who introduced opera and classical vocal music to me. Thanks Luciano, I will miss you.

In other personal music news: I am enjoying teaching my music appreciation class at the community college. It is fun to be with college students again. I have also started teaching six voice students and that is fun too. It is nice to be able to advise students again and help them along their musical way. I have also been asked to give a short seminar on worship at another church in the area in a couple of weeks. This should be fun, especially since they will pay me for my time.

Nothing else has really got me all in an uproar this week, so no blogs to speak of. I read a great article on Barrack Obama this week. I just wonder if someone with that name can win the general election. He is very professorial and I wonder how that will translate to the everyman voter. Do you think he is someone that a majority of voters could get behind?

Peace.