Speranza Ti Adoro

sadly, italian tenor, luciano pavarotti, died this week. during my final year of undergrad, when punk began to hit a little too close to home, i discovered pavarotti's ti adoro in a tiny used bookstore, and i bought the last copy right out of the store's CD player. the fact that the lyrics are essentially meaningless to me (having studied russian in college and a few words of spanish in high school) makes the album all-the-more enjoyable -- no sloppy words to interfere with his amazing voice.

also sadly, i received this news during my morning commute while listening to the howard stern show. (maybe not the most reliable news source, but the things worth noting always seem to earn comment on the show.) according to howard, during the first 6 years of pavarotti's training, he stunk. read: he performed poorly at small, unsuccessful shows in rinky-dink towns for 6 years. when he developed some problem with his vocal cords, he decided to give it up. however, after this point when there was no pressure to perform, or perform well, his problem completely went away and he became an opera superstar.

then robin claimed that the same is true for her -- she's a really awesome singer in the shower, but not in front of people. howard proved at least the second half of robin's story by playing an old karoake tape of her singing sheryl crow's if it makes you happy. then he launched into his own rendition of italian opera, which was very memorable. needless to say, the moment of awe -- that pavarotti, and the world, may have missed out on something amazing had he not failed and given up -- passed quickly. but it's a lesson i will keep in the back of my mind as i move on to something new.

RIP pavarotti.