TGIP! (Thank God It's Puccini)

Here it is, at last! Puccini!!

I'm about to get a little rhapsodic...

I love Puccini's compositions in general. But, I rate two of his operas in the top five of my "Sid Loves These Operas Most" list;
1. The Marriage of Figaro, W.A. Mozart.
2. La Boheme, G. Puccini
3. Madama Butterfly, G. Puccini
4. Carmen, G. Bizet
5. Don Giovanni, W.A. Mozart

There are a bunch of others I find groovy, as well. (Feel free to leave your top five in the comments section. Ya gotta love somethin, Baby!)

With La Boheme coming up, I want to encourage you to take a listen to any recording you can get your hands on of Pavarotti or Domingo singing an aria by Puccini. In our lifetimes, we have been blessed to have two of the all time great tenors living and competing for the same spotlight. Their rivalry created a sensation unparalleled in Opera history. There have certainly been other tenors who have "duked" it out through the centuries, but none had the modern media to use as cogs in their propaganda machines.

Both of them used Puccini arias as their weapon of choice. I learned to love opera by listening to Domingo sing "E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca and Pavarotti sing "Che gelida manina" from La Boheme again and again.

Listen to these two masterful singers sing these two masterfully crafted arias a few times, and soon you'll be joining Nancy and me in the greatness (not the snootiness) of Opera.

(And, of course, Nancy, nothing could keep me from going to the Opera with you!)

The Master

Pavarotti was famous for a reason. He was arguably the best tenor ever. Here is a clip from a 1979 La Scala production of La Bohème (with Ileana Cotrubas!).



P.S. This is the next production for the Met HD Broadcasts!