The Day The Music Died
With an apology to Don Mclean... I was saddened to hear of the death of Luciano Pavarotti this morning. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, The music I listened to was Boston, The Eagles, Steely Dan, Van Halen and a host of other bands. Big guitars and loud drum solos. I'm a child of the rock and roll generation.
Opera... Opera! Yuk! That's not music that's the sound of cats fighting on the back fence. That changed New Years Eve 1992, it's a night my life changed. It's the night I discovered opera, more importantly the night I heard Luciano Pavarotti, Live!
It was in Memorial Coliseum, weather was typical late December cold and wet outside. Inside the Coliseum...to this day I don't think I've ever seen as many fur coats and diamonds on women and men wearing tie and tails in one place. Sandy & I had been given the tickets courtesy of a local radio station, they were in the nose bleed section.
Great I thought. I'm trying to impress my spouse on New Years Eve... I've got bad seats to concert with a bunch of snooty old people, what a way to bring in 1993!...The house lights go down and curtain comes up... It's hard to describe what happened to me over the next three hours. To this day 14 years later I still get chilIs. To put it mildly I became a devotee of Pavarotti, and Opera. Over the years our CD collection has come to include lots of Pavarotti, my personal favorite his live concert in London's Hyde Park.
Sandy & I went to Luciano's last concert here in Portland a few years ago. He was beginning to show his age, his health was starting to deteriorate. He was no longer " King Of The High C." Still it was a great concert, and I will always be glad we went.
Needless to say I did shed a tear on my way into work this morning when I heard of Pavarotti's death. Today when I go Home I plug My I-pod in and turn up Pavarotti on my drive home... It will be loud... After all I'm a child of the rock and roll generation.
I've included a U-Tube link for It's Luciano Pavarotti, singing Puccini's Nussen Dorma, Pavarotti's signature song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VATmgtmR5o4
