At age 71, Luciano Pavarotti died today at his home in Modena, Italy of pancreatic cancer. He was a brilliant performer whose immense talent and public persona rose above his profession to place him in the pantheon of popular culture. Pavarotti is the single reason that I love, that I am addicted, to opera.

From CNN

“I think his legacy was bringing opera to the masses,” says Marion J. Caffey, who was inspired by Pavarotti and his “Three Tenors” amigos José Carreras and Placido Domingo to create the “Three Mo’ Tenors.” “Hundreds of millions of people never heard an opera but for Pavarotti.”

I’m going to be updating here later today, but, right now, I’m bummed out enough that I don’t want to go to work.