"Children are the innocent result of stupidity by old people" It's sad. But what can ya' do?

Yes sad but expected as he has been sick for a long time. His great voice will of course always be remembered and admired and he is all over the news in Sweden today.

Same here.

I have never understood what exactly was the big deal about Pavarotti's voice. I always found it rather grating and unpleasant, in a sort of cheapish Neapolitan 'heldentenor' way. His fellow tenors Domingo and Carreras heva beter voices, if not perhaps as flamboyant. But it can't be denied that he meant a great deal for the development and appreciation of opera.

I think it was that he took the opera out to the people which partly made his fame.

I think his fame was primarily due to the fact that he had a cool Italian name.

Don't all Italians? Bisotti is a nice name. Ferrari, Machiavelli, Mussolini.....

macaroni, rigatoni, cannelloni... (sorry, couldn't resist)

Don't all Italians? Bisotti is a nice name. Ferrari, Machiavelli, Mussolini.....

Bisotti, Ferrari, Pavarotti and Mussolini (sad for this last) are names from Emilia-Romagna, Machiavelli from Toscana.
At least at the same level of Machiavelli, Petrarca, Dante, Boccaccio ... I find very important for the human culture another italian, the poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi (lived in the first middle of XIX century).
Friederich Holderlin, Giacomo Leopardi and Aleksandr Blok are my favourite poets.
About Pavarotti: I'm not a fan of melodramma, but his voice in his golden years ('60 and '70)
have a wonderful tone. Difficult to find other tenors at his level of strongness and timbrical beauty
in certain repertory (Bellini for example; tell me of Carreras or Domingo or others in "Puritani".
Better than Pavarotti?).

All best,
Sandro.