Luciano Pavarotti is Retiring

[KvHagedorn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3508258.stm

I suppose it's best.. age is catching up to the great tenor.

[KvHagedorn]

btw, this is by far my favorite thing on rathergood.

http://www.rathergood.com/elephants/

Viking kittens are a somewhat distant second.

[az]

Elephants yeah! Yes, it's great I really like the independant woman kitten, though.

AZ

[Lizzard[MPE]]

thats a shame i was listening to him earlier when cleaning my room...great doesnt even begin to reflect him

[Jammrock]

He's getting too old, and big, to tour anymore. His voice is still superb, but his love of food is putting him into an early retirement. A shame too, it'll be a while before a voice like his will reappear.

[Lizzard[MPE]]

i hear cher is retiring too

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by Jammrock
He's getting too old, and big, to tour anymore. His voice is still superb, but his love of food is putting him into an early retirement. A shame too, it'll be a while before a voice like his will reappear.

Hardly an early retirement. Bloody hell, the man is nearly 70 and he is the oldest opera/concert singer of all time still singing. He announced he would be retiring at 70 over 5 years ago.

Caruso was dead at 48, Sutherland retired at about 50, Callas died at 54, Bjorling died at 49, Gigli died at 57, having retired 2 years earlier, Ferrier died at 41, Pons retired at 52, Chaliapin was one of the oldest, retiring at 63.

I've quite a collection of Caruso pre-electric and electric recordings (and other operatic singers). Purely as a listener (I have no singing skills), I find Caruso was a more precise singer, but Pavarotti perhaps put more into the soul of what he was singing with, of course, a more eclectic range of songs from bel canto to Neapolitan folk, via pop.

I know I'll be shot down for this, but I consider one of the finest 20th century singers of Neapolitan folk music was Mario Lanza, although he didn't make the grade for bel canto, as much as he tried to emulate Caruso.

[KvHagedorn]

He just had a kid too.. twins (one died though). Pretty amazing for an old fat guy.

I agree about the feeling Pavarotti puts into his music.. being as opera is drama, I'm not so sure that doesn't make him a better singer of opera than Caruso.

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
He just had a kid too.. twins (one died though). Pretty amazing for an old fat guy.

I agree about the feeling Pavarotti puts into his music.. being as opera is drama, I'm not so sure that doesn't make him a better singer of opera than Caruso.

I agree (not often that happens ). When I was a kid, opera was not acted, it was sung, albeit in costume on a good stage set. I think the dramatic art slowly crept in as from the 1950s. I would make one exception: the D'Oyly Carte crowd used acting as part of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, right from the start in the 19th c. I think this was why they were (and are) so successful.

[SpiralDragon]

Pavaroity was good when he was young..the he started to turn sour.. he should have retiered a LONG time ago.....

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Lizzard[MPE]
i hear cher is retiring too

YEAH!!!! Cher is retiring at long, long last!!! Party at Lizzie's house!!!

[High_Jumbllama]

She must have run out of plastic surgery options.