The Death of a Salesman

You know him better as a tenor, but, earlier in life Luciano Pavarotti did sell insurance. While I enjoy pop/rock music far more than opera, a couple of Pavarotti CDs have been in my collection for quite some time.

Why?

Because he has, without question, the best tenor voice I have ever heard. Those of us who are cursed with high voices don’t usually fit in, but Pavarotti showed how to turn that high voice into being a superstar. People who have never been in an opera house, and who simply do not like opera music knew who Pavarotti was, and had to admit he was the rarest of talents. Simply put, he had the greatest tenor voice since Enrico Caruso.

In later years, Pavarotti became more of an ambassador for music in general, appearing on stage with everyone from The Three Tenors to U2. Pavarotti died early this morning of cancer, but, due to the wonderful world of technology, his music will live on.

And this high-voiced choir boy is thankful.

Below are two videos. The first is of The Three Tenors singing one of their signature songs, “Nessun Dorma,” which was also one of Pavarotti’s favorite solo songs.

For his career, though, this video contains the song that made him a superstar in the operatic world, “Pour Mon Ame Fille.” Pavarotti was one of the only tenors who did not transpose the song down to avoid singing high Cs. The first can be heard about 1:01 into the video, and the entire song contains nine.