Day 74: Cultured Culture
Yes, it’s true, my son is part Sicilian. It’s not his fault. He was born this way and we love him in spite of it.
One of the things he can look forward to is having at least a tenuous relationship to Pavarotti. While I’m sure life would be easier if he loved large-chested women, if he had to love opera, Pavarotti isn’t a bad way to do it.
Today, I played for him “Vesti la giubba” from Pagliacci.
Hands down it is my favorite aria. I don’t claim to be a huge opera fan. As a matter of fact I’m not one and as such, my enjoyment of opera is limited to arias that stand on their own. There are about 15 that I really enjoy listening to and I don’t want to be brow beaten for picking “Vesti la giubba” as my favorite, so fuck off if that’s your intent. Hostilities aside, to me it doesn’t get any better than when Pavarotti sings it. You can get into whether Caruso or Carreras or Lanza or Domingo is better technically, but one area where you Pavarotti kills it is expressiveness.
In hopes of teaching him early about having good taste, like Playboy over Hustler or Penthouse, I’ve been playing several Pavarotti sung arias to him to develop love for the right things in life.
Then again, Screw had an awesome Robert Crumb cartoon once.
