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This blogger, Richard Gehr, is not an employee of AARP. The opinions expressed in the blog are not necessarily the opinions of AARP and AARP assumes no liability for the content posted by Mr. Gehr or any other participant

Richard Gehr | September 06, 2007

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A sad year for opera, following the deaths of Beverly Sills and Jerry Hadley, continues with the loss of Luciano Pavarotti to pancreatic cancer this morning. While many tributes to the "King of the High Cs" will undoubtedly be scheduled, YouTube is a font of Pavarotti videos, both solo and with frequent duet partner Joan Sutherland. And Opera Chic is on the case, of course, beginning with this tribute:

Whenever we mention a phenomenon such as Juan Diego Florez, and his sometimes uncanny ability to produce a sound that we consider similar to the Platonic ideal of a tenor voice -- such as Tito Schipa's was -- we sometimes forget that Pavarotti's voice will be remembered as another gold standard just like Schipa's, and Gigli's, and no other -- the clear-as-a-bell sound, the natural beauty of the timbro, the truly awesome power, let me repeat, the unmatched power, the perfect diction, the apparent effortlessness of that heavenly sound.
The Elvis of opera has left the building.

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