Luciano Pavarotti has died from pancreatic cancer in Modena. Besides being one of the few opera singers to have had a genuine operatic chart hit, with the Three Tenors' Nessun Dorma (which, in English, means "the theme from World Cup Match Of The Day"), Pavarotti also made a genuine rock record. He recorded Miss Sarajevo as part of the U2-pretending-to-not-be-U2 Eno collaboration Passengers.
In addition, through collaborations with Elton John and Zucchero, he managed to clock up six top forty hits of varying degrees of desperation; the stuttering struggle to get You'll Never Walk Alone higher than 35, however, seemed to remove most of the fun from the projects and - whether the pop-opera crossovers were intended as pension funds or genuine attempts to try and engage with a new audience - they dried up.
Nevertheless, Pavarotti created a niche for himself as "what the rock world thinks of when they think of opera", down in part, we suspect, to looking the part as much as sounding it.
That's a shame. I had him down to play Cut-Throat Jake in the live action version of Captain Pugwash I was planning.
ReplyDeleteSo, Farewell then
ReplyDeleteLuciano Pavarotti
Big boned Italian
And proud beard wearer
You had cross generational
Appeal
For example, Keith's mum liked
The Three Tenors
While Keith rated your
'Passengers' collaboration with
U2 quite highly
'Non shall sleep'
That was one of your catchphrases
And it turned out to be true
Because you aren't asleep
You are dead
EJ Thribb 17½
My granny always preferred Placido Domingo. Pavarotti was "too hairy", she said.
ReplyDelete