As if it wasn't bad enough losing Frankie Laine 
last winter...
The great Luciano Pavarotti died the other day. He'd been ill for a few years and hadn't performed well in the years prior. But Pavarotti was a lovable guy and had a killer voice. Tenors can burn out early due to stresses on the voice, but Pavarotti was spot on for 40 years.
I like opera. But I'll qualify that by pointing out I do only by a process of elimination. I've listened to lots of recordings and have seen a fair number of live performances. The result is an appreciation for Wagner only when live, and French opera only on disc. I'll stand in the rain to hear Puccini and Mozart, but I'll ignore Verdi even if the ticket's free. It's what I hear that determines what I like, and I like Pavarotti.
Anyway, Pavarotti was one of those artists who hit the note where it was supposed to be hit. If there was an absolute dead-center of a note, he’d nail it. That puts him in exclusive company to my ears, along with Louis Armstrong on trumpet, and of course, the perfect-est of the perfect, Ella Fitzgerald . Pavarotti's voice is just so clear, and he had great abilities with the subtleties of drama. He made the Italian part of the music, too.
Luciano Pavarotti was the dude, one of opera's few "pop" stars who get non-opera people to listen to a note or two. Even in a less-than-flattering obituary in the New York Times, Bernard Holland writes, "(Pavarotti) made a strong case for what his fame could do for opera itself."
To that point, Holland cites a 1998 interview with the tenor, who noted:
“I was lucky enough to make the first ’Live From the Met’ telecast. And the day after, people stopped me on the street. So I realized the importance of bringing opera to the masses. I think there were people who didn’t know what opera was before.”
The very worst part is that the standard for tenors is now Andrea Bocelli. In any case, Pavarotti went on to say:
“I think an important quality that I have is that if you turn on the radio and hear somebody sing, you know it’s me. You don’t confuse my voice with another voice.”
Here's a fine discography to start you off with his singular voice. And you can turn it up, too. Nobody laughs at Pavarotti making the windows buzz, because everybody likes it.
I'm with you. It's easy to write Pavarotti off as the product of a publicity machine, but his stake that he brought to the game was that he was as good as his hype. His personality made him known outside the opera world, but without his brilliant level of performance, he would never have been known at all.
Leo Durocher said that a superstar is not just a really good performer; he has to be someone who makes the people around him better. Did you ever notice how much John Denver's voice improved after he recorded some duets with L.P.? It was amazing. Suddenly the most irritating voice this side of Tiny Tim was round and resonant and downright pleasant to hear.