Posted by mahatma chani on 2007-09-10 07:05:50 +0000
My Dad's an opera connoisseur and has always felt Luciano cheapened the opera art form for some bucks. My uncle, another opera buff, has seasons tickets to the Met opera for the last I dunno how many seasons. I remember him commenting that Luciano's "singing"had reduced itself to drowning out the other singers/orchestra and his "acting" had reduced itself to wiping his brow with a massive handkerchief.
Okay, maybe he wasn't a team player. But he got people who weren't going to be talking about classical music to be talking about it (albeit five days after his death). That's an accomplishment in and of itself.
Posted by MF DU on 2007-09-10 07:32:26 +0000
"But he got people who weren't going to be talking about classical music to be talking about it"
Thats EXACTLY why I was in favor of Ken Burn's Jazz. Was I particulary excited to see Wynton and Stanly crouch pontificate about what they thought made great Jazz? No - but peeps (this is back when I was @ WUNH) at my radio station were digging in and learning more about Coltrane, Coleman, Davis, Armstrong etc. Its not long until they gateway drug into Art Ensemble or Sun Ra or Ayler, regardless of whether or not the show gave those artists 'fair' mention.
I don't know a lot about Opera,but if the current events of Pavorotti get people in general to want to go to the Met or check out Puccini, can it be a bad thing? I don't think so...
Posted by mr. mister on 2007-09-10 08:39:18 +0000
The guy had a killer voice. I watched a little documentary about him and he was a big happy guy who when he was 64 dumped his wife and started dating a 32 year old. Superstar