The peculiar thing about the dread Three Tenors project, is that it is both the most profitable and the most shameful chapter in the careers of three wonderful artists, who will thankfully be remembered by music lovers for scores of great non-3-tenors-related performances.
And Spanish tenor José Carreras yesterday received a well-deserved honorary degree of the University of Pecs, Hungary. When asked about his ailing friend Pavarotti, Carreras, a cancer survivor himself, said that "Luciano cannot be replaced by anyone else" in the lineup of The Three Tenors.
Mercifully so. But we get the intent of JC's words, and we appreciate it -- OC was recently listening to a vintage Pavarotti singing Nemorino (Pavarotti's Duca di Mantova is another fave), and really, the beauty of that sound, the clarity of that incredibly powerful voice, the effortless precision of the diction make Opera Chic think that the likes of him, we may never see again.