RIP Luciano Pavarotti

I bid farewell to the great Luciano Pavarotti, who died at 71 today. Yes, some of his collaborations with pop stars may have trivialized his enormous talent, and his involvement in the Three Tenors may have brought classical music to the level of pop - just the idea of a classical supergroup in the vein of rock bands like Blind Faith may have made opera purists cringe - but Pavarotti was a tremendous tenor with an incredible record of accomplishment, and he will be missed.

Especially by all the die-hard opera fans he created by crossing over.