Best performance of Nessun Dorma since Pavarotti …

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I thought I’d take a break from all the ugly politics and news media, which bring me absolutely no pleasure, only heartburn, and share something that gives me great pleasure. Hopefully, I won’t bore too many of you. During the summer between my senior year of high school and my freshmen year at UCONN, I heard Mario Lanza’s version of Che Chelida Manina from La Boheme and fell in love with opera, actually not so much opera as the operatic voice. My father’s love of and ability to sign opera had finally gotten to me. My father, in addition to his many other talents, studied opera in NYC and also auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera many decades ago. He didn’t win that first audition but he was asked back the following year, which he declined. Anyway, I have loved operatic singing for most of my life and had many idols starting with Mario Lanza, then Franco Corelli, Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes (my all-time favorite after my father), and Anthony Kearns and Ronan Tynan (Irish Tenors). To demonstrate that I’m not 100% boring, a few of my other favorites include Elvis (tied with Milnes), Freddie Mercury, John Denver, David Cook (American Idol) and k.d. lang. One of my father’s favorite arias was Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot, known even to non-opera fans as Pavarotti’s signature concert encore and also performed by many aspiring singers on shows like America’s Got Talent. It’s a magnificent aria and not many singers do it true justice. Pavarotti did and a few days ago I stumbled on another tenor, Gregory Kunde, who perhaps does it even better than Pavarotti. To borrow an old phrase, Kunde “knocked my socks off!” Where has Kunde been all my life? I used to follow opera fairly closely and knew when up and coming opera singers hit the scene. Since my father passed away several years ago, some of the joy I once had for opera turned to sadness and avoidance and I fell behind. Kunde has rekindled my old love. He is truly sensational. Please give him a listen. Image: Pixabay.com