Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71

Luciano was a singer with beautiful voice. But was he a great singer? I don't know. He was a lousy actor, that is what I know. His tenor was quite light (he probably was a lyric tenor) and was best suited for roles like Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme", Riccardo in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" and Nemorino in Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore. He intitially didn't want to sing Otello, but eventually made an Otello recording with Georg Solti. Frankly I don't think the voice is well suited for such a dramatic role as Otello. He was not the most disciplined of the singers: he was often singing out of time. It's as if he was only following his own intuition instead of the conductor's baton.

Chris

I know many hard core Opera buffs dont think too highly of him, never heard a peep out of my dad, he owns thousands of Opera's.

One of the giants in music. While devoted to opera, was one of the few that crossed over into other genres quite nicely, while retaining his outright gift.

The world has lost a magnificent human being, with a voice to match.

He will be missed by all who love music. I know of no one on the horizon, that can fill his shoes. He was an icon to say the least.