Posted 8:03 AM by Gene

Luciano Pavarotti was unquestionably the greatest tenor since Caruso -- greater; he didn't record into a tin horn. Even the non-opera buff had to admire that certain inimitable strength and style that made his perhaps the most beautiful and distinctive voice of all time. Had Pavarotti died in 1980 instead of last night his reputation would be secure and untouchable, if only with the maniacs. But his ten-universe-sized ego prompted him to go where no tenor should have, belting long past his prime, ripping up his voice and earning boos, playing in a farce of a movie "career", participating in the Three Tenors kibitzing contests, lending himself out as an "ambassador to opera" largely to admire his ample reflection in the media mirror (as here in Philadelphia, where he "organized" a putative opera competition, which launched no big careers but did launch his face everywhere), wearing his caddishness on his sleeve. But the man perfectly exemplified what opera too often is not about anymore, a certain grandeur, naked emotionalism, and raw power. How sad that he died in the midst of an alleged opera "renaissance" full of up-to-the-minute tunelessness and prefab singers. Sadder too because he was one of the last superstars in all classical music, which now must fend for itself with nothing but recordings, and the memories of a dying clique.

And in a new and immortal demonstration of the depthless philistinism of the hack brigade the blithering-idiot TWXSTERS first reported the news thus:

Famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who appeared on stage with singers as varied as opera star Dame Joan Sutherland, U2's Bono and Liza Minnelli, died Thursday after suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Yes, he was a celebrity, but he may have been a little more than that. It does remind us, though, that when LORD McCartney or WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE or Mr. Depends goes we'll have the psychical equivalent of a mass bludgeoning.