Thursday, September 06, 2007

PAVAROTTI, CARUSO, MY DAD AND ME!





I was saddened to hear that Luciano Pavarotti had finally succumbed to his pancreatic cancer; he was 71.

I am a fan of the tenor voice especially in operatic arias. I became a fan because of my father. He was in the Italian campaign (Monte Cassino) during WWII. He loved Italy and totally fell in love with opera.

My father was a tenor and sang all the time. I grew up listening to records by Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gili and of course Mario Lanza. I too had a tenor voice and sang in high school choirs and shows.

I still remember our favorite popular Italian song called “Return to Sorrento” which my father sang in Polish many, many times and which Pavarotti sang very, very well in Italian.

I remember my father-in-law, who worked for Ford buying tickets for me and my wife to attend a Ford sponsored evening featuring Luciano Pavarotti. Tickets were ~ $500 and that was and is a lot! We also had to dress up in evening wear; what a night!

I am not really a fan of opera per se just the arias but when a favorite aria is sung right – I get Goosebumps. Have you heard “Nessum Dorma”? If you have, you know what I mean.

They say that the first great tenor was Enrico Caruso and the last was Pavarotti. Really no one has come close to matching their natural vocal talents and may never.

I guess I associate opera and opera arias with my father and it brings happy memories of him when he was alive and I will always think of my dad whenever I hear an aria sang by a great tenor.






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